Chicago meadery introduces new generation to ancient elixir

From fordcountychronicle.com

CHICAGO — Wild Blossom Meadery & Winery works to bring back an ancient elixir, testing out new and unique flavours all while paying ode to the bees that make this buzzworthy beverage possible.

Once known as the “nectar of the gods,” mead was a celebrated part of ancient cultures around the world, prized by Greek philosophers, Viking warriors, Egyptian priests and Chinese nobility alike. The fermented honey drink reigned supreme for thousands of years. But, with wine and beer emerging as simpler, less-expensive options, mead became a luxury lost to time. Aside from the occasional Renaissance fair, mead has not been part of modern life.

However, interest in this honey of a drink has grown in recent decades. Once a sign of status and privilege, today, mead can be found at wineries, craft breweries and retail stores everywhere. According to the American Mead Makers Association, the number of commercial meaderies in the U.S. grew from approximately 60 in 2003 to an estimated 650 in 2022 – and one of the first began right here in Illinois.

Everything Old is New Again

Clearly, mead is making a comeback, thanks to skilled meadmakers like Greg Fischer, owner of Wild Blossom Meadery & Winery in Beverly on the South Side of Chicago.

“We were Illinois’ first meadery,” Fischer says. “We started at this location in 2001, built up a good following and expanded into a world-class tasting room and winery.”

For a time, Fischer worked as a beekeeper, transporting bees around the country to pollinate crops. Conveniently, honey is one of the main ingredients in mead, so his beekeeping roots came in handy.

“My family grew apples in upstate New York, and we needed honeybees for pollination,” says Fischer, who first became enamoured with bees as a child. “That’s how I got so attached to bees.”

As a pioneer in Illinois’ mead industry, Greg Fischer believes the Midwest is poised to become one of the mead capitals of the world. Photo by Nathan Lambrecht/©Journal Communications

Today, he channels his love for bees into making buzzy beverages. Nestled against the Dan Ryan Woods, Wild Blossom Meadery’s location is both picture-perfect and productive.

“Instead of raising grapes, we raise honeybees,” Fischer says. “Instead of vineyards, we have forests and fields and meadows that we farm.”

He also maintains hives on the Marriott hotel rooftop and other locations in downtown Chicago, a surprisingly bee-friendly place.

“Chicago’s lakefront is just teeming with flowers,” he says. “Cities with parks and flowering trees often have more nectar sources than rural locations. Bees are one agricultural endeavour that can work pretty well in an urban environment.”

In the winter, Fischer’s bees become snowbirds. To protect them from Illinois’ increasingly volatile weather fluctuations, he transports his hives to Florida, where they make honey that hints of local botanicals like palmetto and orange blossom. In the springtime, Fischer’s bees help Michigan farmers boost blueberry production by as much as 40%.

The Art of Mead Making

After those busy bees do their job, it’s Fischer’s turn to roll up his sleeves. A relatively simple process, mead making takes approximately two weeks and three ingredients: honey, water and yeast.

During the first, or primary, fermentation, the yeast converts the honey to alcohol, creating a basic dry mead. During an optional secondary fermentation, the mead maker can add honey back into the batch to sweeten it up as well as flavors ranging from cranberry to chocolate.

By varying the amount of honey added to the water, the mead maker can adjust the alcohol content from very light to as much as 20%. Many people mistakenly assume all meads are sweet, but the varieties are endless.

“Mead can be dry, sweet, spicy – whatever you want it to be,” Fischer says. “It’s the ultimate craft beverage.”

Wild Blossom produces very dry meads comparable to pinot grigio as well as sweet varieties similar to port. None is more sought after than the Blueberry Nectar mead.

“After primary fermentation, we pump the mead over beds of blueberries, and it will ferment on that fruit again, which builds flavor and complexity,” Fischer says. “In the end, we get a really beautiful blueberry flavor with honey in the background. It’s better than eating blueberries.”

One can only wonder what the earliest mead drinkers would have thought of Wild Blossom’s more adventurous offerings. Fischer’s signature creations include the award-winning Chocolate Cherry Honey Buzz and PB&J, made by pumping mead over fresh-roasted peanuts, then co-fermenting it with Concord grapes.

“People are just dumbfounded by it,” Fischer says. “They say it’s like drinking a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”

A Mecca for Mead

As a pioneer in Illinois’ mead industry, Fischer believes the Midwest is poised to become one of the mead capitals of the world.

“We’re the Prairie State, and we produce some of the best honeys in the world right here,” he says. “Our meads really do wow people.”

Meanwhile, Fischer stands in awe of his honeybees. They fly as many as 15,000 miles and pollinate up to 2 million new flowers to produce the honey needed for just one bottle of mead.

“Bees are just so amazing,” says Fischer, noting the concern of serious threats bees face, such as mites and the changing climate. “When they’re pollinating, they’re either producing more food or more seeds. That’s why mead is the most sustainable wine on earth.”

So, the next time you’re in the mood for merrymaking, grab a glass and rediscover what our earliest ancestors knew: Mead is something to celebrate, along with the hard work of pollinators.

“Mead production supports honeybees, so you can feel as good about drinking mead as you feel when you’re done drinking mead,” he says.

https://www.fordcountychronicle.com/articles/state/chicago-meadery-introduces-new-generation-to-ancient-elixir/ 

What Is Mead And How Do You Drink It?

From msn.com

Mead's popularity has surged in recent years, making it seem like a new addition to the category of undistilled alcohol. Benefiting from the global craft beverage movement, mead has slowly joined the ranks of other alcoholic beverages such as beer, wine, and cider on bar menus. Some might even credit books like "Harry Potter" and shows like "The Witcher" for reviving the drink that many had not heard of before — mead was popular among witches, wizards, and the general populace of both fictional worlds.

However, this amber-coloured liquid is no new invention. On the contrary, it's believed to be the oldest alcoholic beverage in existence — the first potent tipple that humans ever sipped on. Named after the Old English words medu or meodu, which mean "fermented honey drink," mead is just that: an alcoholic beverage made from a base of honey, water, and fermented using either yeast or bacterial cultures.

From there, the golden drink can be flavoured with all kinds of herbs, fruits, spices, flowers, roots, and grains. Depending on how it is made and what it contains, mead's alcohol content can range anywhere between 5% to 20%, with some versions containing as little as 3.5%. As such, meads can be consumed much the same way as beer or wine.

Mead Is An Ancient Drink Steeped In History

                                                  ©A. Aleksandravicius/Shutterstock

Mead is a drink so ancient that it's unclear who invented the drink or how it came to be. Tracing the timeline of its existence is even more convoluted because the golden elixir is mentioned in texts across several civilizations during different periods. But the earliest evidence of mead dates back to 7000 B.C. in China. The discovery of pottery jars in the northern part of the country indicates the existence of a drink made from honey, rice, and wild grapes nine millennia ago.

However, some historians claim that mead is even older, and was a staple among African tribes living 20,000 to 40,000 years ago. Regardless, the general consensus is that the amber liquid was discovered entirely by accident, after ancient settlers sipped on honey produced from beehives that were likely fermented by yeast-filled rainwater.

No matter how mead came to be, it's clear that it was a wildly popular drink across borders. Mead was a staple in early Greek and Egyptian civilizations, and the Vikings, too, were known to have a penchant for it — the honeyed liquid was an important part of religious rituals, celebrations, and an indicator of one's status in the community. Mentions of soma (an ancestor of mead) exist in the "Rig Veda," an ancient Indian text; mead has been referenced in Norse mythology; the works of Aristotle and the Welsh poet Taliesin feature the drink; and it's also mentioned in the Old English poem, "Beowulf."

Mead Was Treated As A Healing Elixir And An Aphrodisiac

                                                                ©Bhofack2/Getty Images

Far from just another alcoholic beverage, mead held great value in ancient cultures. Bees were considered messengers of the gods in European mythology, so the honey they produced — and subsequently the mead — was immensely important. The ancient Greeks thought that mead was drops of dew sent by the gods from heaven.

As humans began to drink mead, they also believed it had aphrodisiac properties. During medieval times, newlyweds would be gifted enough mead (or honey wine, as they called it) to last a full moon cycle, ensuring a prolific marriage in the months to come. This ritual of drinking honey wine for the first month of marriage gave birth to the term "honeymoon!"

Many cultures also drank mead as a medicinal potion for its purported health benefits. Greek warriors used it as a healing elixir, and fermented honey blended with leaves and herbs is mentioned as a treatment for skin conditions and leprosy in ancient Ayurvedic texts. England also has a history of infusing herbs and spices to make a mead tonic labelled as metheglin. Named after the Welsh word for physician, the concoction was used to soothe hypochondriacs, and prescribed to those suffering from symptoms of depression or indigestion. Although the health benefits of fermented honey are debated in modern research, it was certainly held in high regard throughout history.

How Is Mead Made?

Mead is often mistakenly categorized as wine, perhaps because it is made using a similar process as fermented grape juice. Water is added to thin and dilute honey, after which yeast or bacteria ferments the liquid, and turns the sugar inside into alcohol. The proportion of these three ingredients shapes mead's alcohol content, and the liquid is then left to age for added complexity.

But where wine is commonly made from grapes, mead is made primarily from honey. Although fruits can be added to flavour the drink, at least 60% of the drink must be comprised of fermented honey for it to be classified as mead. While many continue to refer to mead as honey "wine," the term more often refers to wine that has been sweetened with honey instead.

The way mead is made, or more specifically the ingredients used in its making, is also the reason why it fell out of popularity before its recent resurgence. For one, honey itself is not easy to produce, and early humans didn't have the modern-day equipment used to gather honey from bees safely. Simultaneously, sugar produced in the West Indies became a prevalent sweetener in the 17th century, rendering beekeeping and honey-making a rather unnecessary risk. The discovery of converting the sugar from malt and grapes into alcohol to produce beer and wine put the final nail in the coffin for mead, slowly pushing the honey-based drink out of the picture until recently.

Mead's Flavour Depends On Several Factors

                                        ©Kuttelvaserova Stuchelova/Shutterstock

A great many factors can influence mead's flavour. For one, there's the honey to consider; much like different types of grapes influence the character of a wine, the type of honey used will play a role in the mead's ultimate flavour. Then, there are different styles of mead — they can be still or sparkling, and sweet or semi-sweet.

In fact, while you might expect all meads to be laced with honey's syrupy flavor, there are dry versions that aren't sweet at all. Crisp like Champagne, dry meads use honey in quantities so low that all of the sugar ferments into alcohol, leaving nothing to actually sweeten the drink. In some cases, even sweet and semi-sweet meads use a method known as back-sweetening — where more honey is added at the end of fermentation to bring the sweetness.

Meads also get their flavour from additional ingredients. Traditional meads with just honey and water will have a smooth sweetness akin to white wine with a hint of acidity. On the other hand, fruit-infused meads known as melomel take on the flavour of the fruits used. Bochet meads made from caramelized honey have notes of toffee and caramel, capsicumel meads pack the heat of chilies, and omphacomel meads boast a sour tartness from unripe grapes. There are also pyment and braggot meads — the former uses grapes to make a wine and mead hybrid, whereas the latter is made from a blend of grains, and is half-beer.

How To Drink Mead

To put it simply, mead is as easy to drink as beer, cider, and wine. It can be consumed straight from the bottle, or poured into a glass. However, it's not unusual for mead to be appreciated the way wine is. Once the mead is poured into a stemmed glass, the liquid is usually swirled to allow drinkers to inhale its scent. The next step is to take small sips of the beverage and roll it around in your mouth each time. As the drink lingers on your tongue, the full extent of its flavour will develop.

Mead can also be served warm or chilled. The ideal temperature for cold mead is approximately 52 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit, but one thing to keep in mind is that the chilled temperature will inhibit your ability to fully savour the mead's nuanced flavour profile. This is why sweet or light-coloured meads are more suitable for drinking cold. If you're going to consume a strong mead that you've stored in the refrigerator, make sure to take it out at least half an hour before drinking to allow its taste and texture to blossom.

Mead can be mulled and heated up to between 122 to 131 degrees Fahrenheit for a sweeter and more caramelized flavour — but any hotter, and its flavour and aroma will quickly evaporate. Meads are also versatile enough to be turned into cocktails — think mead mimosas, mojitos, and even sangrias.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/nutrition/what-is-mead-and-how-do-you-drink-it/ss-AA1IO0ga 

Welsh Sparkling Mead Brand Launches in 50 M&S Stores

From businessnewswales.com

Welsh producer Hive Mind Mead & Brew Co is making its debut in the Marks & Spencer drinks aisle with the introduction of three of its sparkling meads.

In a 12-week listing across 50 UK stores, M&S will be the first major UK retailer to stock Hive Mind’s ‘modern mead’.

For Hive Mind this signals a significant step towards major retailers recognising the growing market for mead, and reflects consumer appetite for authentic, sustainable, small-batch beverages made from UK ingredients.

Hive Mind sparkling meads are a contemporary take on mead, brewed to a lower alcohol strength. They are designed to be a refreshing alternative to cider, beer or sparkling wine made with natural ingredients and low intervention brewing methods.

The sparkling meads launching into M&S are Pure Honey, Honey & Rhubarb, and Honey & Elderflower.

Hive Mind, a small family-run company started by two brothers, is based in Caldicot and champions honey as the core ingredient in all its drinks, including honey from its own hives in the Wye Valley.

Kit Newell, co-founder of Hive Mind Mead & Brew Co, said:

“Our sparkling mead is light and refreshing and made authentically by fermenting honey with water and yeast. Its lighter style means it can be enjoyed year-round, as a light after-work drink, with a BBQ or picnic, or even as part of a cocktail. It is wonderful to have a prestigious retailer like M&S recognise the potential for this category and champion innovative small producers.

 

“There are many benefits to mead – they contain less sugar than a typical cider of the same style and they’re naturally gluten-free. Making mead also supports the beekeeping industry, which in turn boosts biodiversity and pollination, and helps the rural economy.

 

“Mead as a category is seeing fantastic growth globally as people are seeking out minimally processed, simple ingredient products that are more environmentally sustainable. We are excited that this listing will bring our sparkling mead to a new UK-wide audience.”

https://businessnewswales.com/welsh-sparkling-mead-brand-launches-in-50-ms-stores/ 

What's in my drink, honey?

From indiatoday.in 

By Gagan Sharma

The world is in a ‘shaken and stirred’ mode, with cocktails turning heads and headlining bar menus with everyone eager to experiment. Breaking down the idea of a cocktail: a mix of spirits, often mixed with citrus and sugars, allows an examination of each part in its entirety. With increasing interest and exposure, there are growing debates about every element that makes your drink. While you can’t ignore the spirits, it’s the sugar that’s often at the centre of a long-standing parley—‘is honey any healthier than plain sugar’? Well, sugar is sugar, but who’s drinking cocktails for health anyway, right? Yet, there’s an uptick in the use of several varieties of honey in cocktails and conversations, and it’s Asia that’s setting global benchmarks. And championing this change, while spreading the gospel of honey, is the continent’s first meadery, Moonshine Meadery in Pune and bars like Bar Trigona in Kuala Lumpur, Asia Today in Bangkok, and, of course, Cobbler & Crew in Pune.

Library of honeys at Bar Asia Today

WHY HONEY?

If sugar is sugar, how can one make it better? The answer still lies with honey. Of course, there’s no biological benefit of switching to honey in cocktails, however, there’s the idea of sustainability, diversity, and community building, which barely comes at an additional cost. But cheaper isn’t always better; imagine your Old Fashioned made with Royal Stag instead of Royal Salute, or think of block ice becoming the norm instead of a cube or bullet ice which is now considered obsolete. You get the point.

Niks Anuman founded Bar Asia Today in Bangkok eight years ago as a non-supermarket project. He says, “We truly believe that all the good ingredients come from Asia, hence Asia Today. Wild honey was a big part of that thought and later it became everything that we do”. One of India’s finest exports to Malaysia, Rohan Matmary, is the Beverage Manager at the Four Seasons Hotel in Kuala Lumpur that homes Bar Trigona. It takes pride in showcasing only natural products across all their drinks. “Bar Trigona proudly uses only Malaysian ingredients. Trigona honey was widely used in tribal homes; we teamed up with farmers and refurbished their hives, which have multiplied over the last seven years. Now we use it across the hotel, making it a popular feature again,” says Matmary.

Rohan Matmary has championed Trigona honey to make it the centerpiece at Bar Trigona

WHY HONEY IS RIGHT ON THE MONEY

More than just an additive to sweeten cocktails, Cobbler & Crew—a bar in Pune—was the first to completely run on honey. Mayur Marne co-founded the place and claims honey’s superiority for its varied textures, sweetness levels, complexity, colour, and application, over sugars. He claims guests have never asked to replace honey with sugar in their drinks. “They’re receptive to the switch, appreciate the improved texture, and the opportunity to explore different kinds of honey. We offer honey tasting which draws the guests further in and makes them see it as a diverse ingredient”, he shares.

Cobbler & Crew, Pune, Mayur Marne of C & C, with a hive from their Bee Hotel Mayur Marne of Cobbler & Crew, Pune, with a hive from their Bee Hote

The utility of honey is a study by itself —- source of the honey, its moisture content, how it’s stored, how quickly it ferments, and lots more. The majority of our honey knowledge comes from bulk, supermarket brands. And trust me, most of what we know is incorrect. I was born allergic to honey, only to realise I’d been consuming fake bottled honey all my life. It was only after tasting pure honey, I realised I wasn’t allergic to honey but probably to the chemicals used in a majority of the big-label brands. Whatever we’ve been fed has been a result of what works for corporate giants. For instance, pure honey never crystallises; wrong, all types of honey does. It shouldn’t ferment on its own, incorrect, much like all sugars, it does spoil too. Wild hives in the park in front of your house, or in the back alley is consumable. Apparently, not. Honey doesn’t mix with water, yes it does, and that’s how all bars make honey syrup or honey water to add to cocktails. The darker the honey, the better it is; not really. You get the gist. Thus, the utility of honey, for a professional, solicits as detailed an understanding as do whiskies, agave spirits, or wines. Matmary concurs: “Different varieties of honey have different characters. Trigona honey is like a whisky—complex, dark, with very prominent flavour. Since it ferments in the hive it can even have a funky, kombucha-like flavour”. Who would have thought.

Just like various style of alcohols, decoding the styles of honey is imperative. It is as diverse an ingredient as any other. Rather than looking at honey as a loosely grouped term of nature’s favourite sugar, it should be the title of a book worth reading. For now, Nitin Vishwas, co-founder of Moonshine, Asia’s first meadery, shares the cheat-codes. “The type of honey decides the end result. Multifloral honey gives fairly neutral flavours. If you want a citrus twang, turn to Mustard honey, for caramel notes, Sidr works well, and for just a dash of sweetness, there’s Acacia. There are other types of honey too that can be complex and experiential such as the ones from the Sundarbans, Konkan belt, and Mahabaleshwar”, he explains.

What’s more, shares Matmary: “As compared to sugar, honey offers a lower Glycaemic Index (GI)—a measure of how quickly a food raises blood sugar levels compared to pure glucose—delaying your inebriation quotient, thus allowing you to hold your liquor for a longer time and hence drink more”. I’d drink to that.

ADVOCATING FOR BEES

While these bee-advocates have taken matters into their own hands and made it easier for you to participate in this bee-and-honey revolution. Here are some points to ponder: There are 350 types of bees, but only a couple of species make honey. The more urban we get, their habitat disappears. Hence, it becomes imperative to take care of them, which is why “Moonshine started the concept of ‘Bee Hotels’. We install bamboo pipes in societies with flowering plants, which allows a safe-haven for bees, allowing them to cross pollinate”, claims Vishwas. Cobbler & Crew homes a bee hotel too. “We’ve installed one in our outdoor section. It provides shelter for bees during extreme weather conditions and in exchange, engages guests to further the conversation and understanding around their habitat”, adds Marne.

Asia’s first, Moonshine Meadery, uses flavour bridges to make meads more acceptable

Bar Trigona goes a step further and actually encourages people to adopt a bee hive of their own. “We adopt a beehive, nurture and operate it for a year. Whatever is collected from that hive, we pack and store it for the guest to collect at the bar. It creates an emotional connect for them, for nurturing a living thing, and in turn, all the money goes to the farmer. We currently have 600 adopted hives, and that’s a lot!” claims Matmary.

In Bangkok, Anuman and his team bring people to the mountains, where they show them how honey is harvested. “It demonstrates to our guests how the environment and bees are in total sync. Our house project called the ‘Sanctuary Project’ provides a variety of stingless bee species (hives and boxes) to our edible flower suppliers/growers. In exchange for our bees pollinating her flowers, we get a chance to observe and learn about them at close quarters”, he shares.

Einstein once said ‘If the bee disappeared off the surface of the Earth, man would only have four years left to live’. If that’s the case, then it isn’t about cocktails, sustainability, price, a sweetener, or the texture of your cocktail. It’s about survival, doing the right thing for the environment, and for the next generation. And that’s a thought that you may want to raise a toast to.

https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/supplements/spice/story/20250707-whats-in-my-drink-honey-2747057-2025-06-28