Zydeco Meadery makes four meads, and each one tells a story

From bostonglobe.com

Eric Depradine is serious about his mead.

During a thoughtful conversation recently, Depradine weaved together information about his family history, Afro-Latino culture, honey production in Louisiana and Mississippi, and prohibitive licensing laws into the story of how he and his wife, DeAundra, started to make mead.

Their company, Zydeco Meadery, is named for the Zydeco style of music native to rural Louisiana. Eric and DeAundra became interested in mead after their honeymoon to the Puget Sound region of Washington State, where DeAundra fell in love with wines made from Riesling and Gewürztraminer grapes. When he quickly realized those grapes wouldn’t grow in his then-home of Louisiana, Eric got to work trying to coax the same flavors out of his own mead, or honey wine.

“You can’t grow European style grapes in Louisiana because of the climate. It’s too hot and there are some pest issues,” says Depradine. “But then I discovered mead.”

Eric, who has both a chemistry and history background, is honest about his trials and errors with initial batches of mead. Taking viticulture classes made Eric more confident. Eventually, to accommodate full-time jobs in other fields, the Depradines moved their business up to Massachusetts, where Eric grew up.

Zydeco makes four meads, and each one tells a story. Yankee Heritage Cyser is inspired by New England colonial times and made with fermented bittersweet apples and raisins. Bayou Soleil is a co-fermentation of grape juice and wildflower honey and most closely resembles in flavour the wines sampled on the Depradines’s honeymoon.

                                                         Eric Depradine is serious about his mead

I recently opened a bottle of another Zydeco mead, Atlantic Creole, made from knotweed honey collected from the rural areas of Massachusetts. In the glass, the wine smelled floral, but once I sipped a pleasant, nutty honey flavor was most prominent. There was a nice viscosity to the drink also, though not so much as to coat your throat.

The story behind Carnival Rose, a hibiscus mead made with honey and ginger, is the most personal.

“Hibiscus based drinks are really popular among Afro Latinos,” says Depradine. “The Mexican community, especially on the Gulf Coast, and also West Indians and West Africans — because it all came from the Atlantic coast of West Africa during the transatlantic slave trade — people from those regions, from Senegal to Angola, when you had a party, you usually made a red based drink, either out of the cola nut or the hibiscus plant.”

Eric’s grandmother, who lives in a nursing home in Dorchester, would always make a red drink for important occasions, and it stuck with him. Dialing in the recipe, he says, was not easy.

“Oh my goodness, old people don’t believe in measuring anything,” Depradine says with a laugh. “Man, it took me a long, long time and a lot of phone calls to my grandmother.”

Asked why he puts so much time and effort exploring the origin of his meads, Depradine says, “I had some really good teachers at Boston Latin Academy.”

Zydeco Meadery is a family affair, with the Depradines’s teenage son and daughter giving up their Saturdays to help produce the product. Those interested in purchasing any of the Zydeco meads can email Eric directly at info@zydecomeadery.net, or search the product on vinoshipper.com.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/03/18/lifestyle/zydeco-meadery-meads-bottles-honey-wine/