Wales: Hive Mind’s Tavern Mead Story Gathers Pace With 2 Exciting New Arrivals

From wholesalemanager.co.uk

Following the early success of its original Tavern mead, Hive Mind & Mead Co is turning up the flavour with two distinctive new additions for Autumn 2026.

Hive Mind & Mead Co is bringing even greater depth to its fast-growing Tavern mead success story, with two exciting new editions arriving this November. Meet Hedgerow and Spiced: two characterful new expressions that build on the original Tavern’s disruptive approach to making authentic British honey mead accessible to a new generation of drinkers.

First up is Hedgerow, an unapologetically British celebration of the countryside, inspired by the distinctly tart, tangy and wonderfully evocative flavours of the traditional British hedgerow.

Then there’s Spiced, a warming, aromatic creation showcasing the complementary flavours of ginger and cinnamon. Equally at home served chilled or gently warmed, it offers a stylish, characterful alternative to traditional mulled wine as the evenings draw in. There’s even a fascinating nod to mead’s heritage here: traditionally, spiced and herbed meads were known as metheglins, a word believed to have given us the term medicine.

The two arrivals follow the Spring 2026 launch of the original Tavern, a deliberately disruptive addition to Hive Mind’s expanding mead portfolio which has quickly established itself as a compelling new entry point into the category.

The thinking was refreshingly straightforward. Create a genuinely authentic mead, made from 100% honey, but at a more approachable 8% ABV rather than the traditional 14–18% associated with many meads. The result is a lighter, more accessible proposition designed to appeal to curious drinkers looking for something different, without compromising on provenance, craftsmanship or flavour.

Crucially, that lower strength also allows Tavern to occupy a more accessible price point, challenging an entry-level marketplace too often populated by products that bear little resemblance to genuine honey mead, relying instead on wine-based ingredients, flavourings and added sugars.

For Hive Mind, this is about more than launching another couple of drinks. It’s about giving authentic British mead the platform, personality and contemporary relevance it deserves.

According to Hive Mind co-founder Kit Newell:

“We wanted to put a real marker down for Welsh entrepreneurship, our nation’s hard-working beekeepers and the wider rural economy. Tavern was created to showcase award-winning, genuinely authentic honey mead in the best possible light, while opening the door to a much wider audience. The response to the original has been incredibly encouraging, and these two new editions allow us to build on that momentum, bring even more personality to the category and take the Tavern story further across the British Isles and beyond.”

With Hedgerow and Spiced joining the original, Tavern is demonstrating that traditional mead needn’t be confined by tradition. Rooted in British honey, inspired by the countryside and created with a distinctly modern outlook, Hive Mind is giving this historic drink a thoroughly contemporary new chapter.

And this is only the beginning.

New Tavern Hedgerow and Tavern Spiced

• Launch: Autumn 2026
• RRP: £16 per 750ml bottle
• Original Tavern ABV: 8%

https://wholesalemanager.co.uk/hive-minds-tavern-mead-story-gathers-pace-with-2-exciting-new-arrivals/ 

Welsh Mead Maker Hive Mind Mead Wins Gold at Great British Food Awards

From businessnewswales.com

October 2026 offers yet another milestone in the wider Hive Mind Mead story, with its Dark Cherry Melomel (fruit infused mead) winning the Sustainability category at the Great British Food Awards, recognising not simply the mead itself but the company’s wider sustainability vision, as well as being recognised as a regional champion for Wales.

According to the judges: 

“The dark cherry flavour comes through beautifully, rich and fruity without overwhelming the natural honeyed base of the mead. It strikes a lovely balance between sweetness and depth, making it smooth and enjoyable to drink.

 

“Beyond the taste, there’s real reassurance in knowing this has been produced with sustainability in mind, adding an extra layer of appeal for anyone conscious of where their drink comes from. A well-crafted mead that manages to be both indulgent and responsible. Definitely one worth seeking out!”

Hive Mind has committed to making mead the authentic way, fermenting 100% real British honey rather than using a wine or refined-sugar base. This draws on brothers Kit and Matt Newell’s shared love of beekeeping and brewing, whilst supporting the rural economy with a clear sustainability agenda geared around supporting pollinators and the wider beekeeper community, which supplies the honey Hive Mind’s own 200+ hives can’t provide, alongside fully recyclable packaging and carbon-neutral canning.

Hive Mind deliberately promotes mead in a modern, artisanal style, distancing itself from the plethora of novelty medieval offerings and their use of wine bases and flavourings. The business can now count M&S, The Co-op, The National Trust, Selfridges and a nationwide network of Michelin-starred restaurants amongst its many prestigious listings.

According to co-founder Kit Newell:

“Today our expanding offer accommodates classic meads, melomels, honey-based soft drinks, lower-ABV sparkling meads and even an introductory ‘Tavern’ mead that appeals to an inquisitive younger demographic who place greater emphasis on discovery, authenticity and real ingredients rather than purely on alcoholic strength.”

Although this Welsh family business has won a number of prestigious taste and sustainability awards in the past, including the Great Taste Golden Fork for Wales, this latest recognition is particularly significant in highlighting that great taste and responsible production can go hand in hand.

https://businessnewswales.com/welsh-mead-maker-hive-mind-mead-wins-gold-at-great-british-food-awards/ 

Welsh mead maker secures funding to boost production and expand product range

From nation.cymru

A Welsh producer of one of the world’s oldest alcoholic drinks is set to expand its business after securing fresh investment to increase production and develop new products.

Wrexham-based Stone Circle Mead has received a £30,000 loan from the Development Bank of Wales’ Wales Flexible Investment Fund to invest in brewing equipment, label-printing machinery and a laboratory at its meadery. 

The family-run business, founded by husband-and-wife team Tony and Beth Cornish, produces traditional and flavoured meads using Welsh honey alongside locally grown and foraged fruit, flowers and herbs.

The latest funding will be used to buy bespoke fermentation and maturation tanks, increasing production capacity from 220-litre vessels to tanks capable of holding up to 1,500 litres.

The expansion will allow the company to increase stock levels, meet growing customer demand and launch a new range of products, including honey ale, beer and cider. The business also plans to create a dedicated herb garden to supply ingredients for future production.

The investment follows an earlier £23,000 loan from the Development Bank of Wales at the end of 2025, which helped the company boost production.

Stone Circle Mead’s products are stocked by a number of high-profile customers, including the Senedd, the House of Commons, the National Trust and Chester Cathedral. The company also runs a shop and tasting tours from its production site.

Tony Cornish, co-owner of Stone Circle Mead, said demand for the company’s products continued to grow.

“We’ve reached the point where we need additional production capacity to expand and take the business to the next level,” he said.

“The new equipment will allow us to increase production, develop new products and explore new routes to market.

“One of the things that sets us apart is our focus on creating authentic mead using ingredients that reflect the landscape around us. Many of our fruits, flowers and herbs are foraged locally or grown by ourselves, and we’re excited to build on that approach with new recipes and flavours inspired by historic mead-making traditions.”

Malcolm Green (L) Banc Datblygu Cymru; Anthony Cornish, Stone Circle Mead Company.  Photo Ian Cooper/Ian Cooper Photography

Growth

Malcolm Green, an investment officer with the Development Bank of Wales, said Stone Circle Mead had already demonstrated how investment could help drive growth.

“Stone Circle Mead is a distinctive Welsh producer with a strong story, a loyal customer base and clear plans for growth,” he said.

“This latest funding will help Tony and Beth expand production, strengthen their product offering and reach new customers, while continuing to promote a traditional craft with strong roots in north Wales.”

https://nation.cymru/news/welsh-mead-maker-secures-funding-to-boost-production-and-expand-product-range/

Wales: Hive Mind's meads made from 100% British honey

From southwalesargus.co.uk

Hive Mind, Caldicot

This brewery is run by beekeepers and mead makers who have combined a love of nature with an interest in brewing to turn their product into multi-award-winning wine-style meads and soft drinks. Different to offerings on the mass-market, their drinks are made from 100 per cent British honey, meaning that their meads support UK beekeepers and are all natural.

They are working hard to put mead back on the menu as an alternative to beer, cider and wine.  While many mead drinks on the market cater to the novelty gift guides, they aren’t the real thing – Hive Mind is determined to make only the authentic product.

Their website serves up a variety of traditional and sparking meads, alongside honeyade soft drinks for those who prefer something non-alcoholic. Their taproom in Portskewett opens once a month for visitors to enjoy a night of fun with live music, delicious street food and handcrafted drinks.

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/25694916.7-craft-breweries-gwent-can-rival-tiny-rebel/

Welsh Meadery's hook-up with distillery 'the sweetest marriage'

From tivysideadvertiser.co.uk 

A NEW Quay meadery have teamed up with a well-known Welsh whisky distillery to create two products with a ‘unique’ taste.

Afon Mêl, who have described their collaboration with Penderyn Distillery as ‘the sweetest marriage’, have now produced meads finished in both ex-Madeira and ex-Bourbon oak barrels previously used for Welsh whisky maturation.

Sam Cooper, owner and head mead-maker at Afon Mêl, explained: “This collection of small batch meads includes the two products matured in ex-Bourbon and ex-Madeira barrels.

“These have been used at Penderyn to mature their Welsh whisky – and once emptied are filled with mead.

“What comes out is wonderfully and subtly different to what goes in.”

Roll out the barrels! Meadery's hook-up with distillery 'the sweetest marriage'

These two products in this limited edition collection are built on Afon Mêl’s Great Taste, Golden Fork winner, Heather Mead.

Experimenting on a barrel-share basis with the award-winning Penderyn Distillery has been in Afon Mêl’s planning for the last five years.

“All the new Meads created allow us to explore different mead-making methods,” said Sam.

“With these small batch meads we can showcase a new and exciting side to Afon Mêl’s Meads.”

Afon Mêl have just been shortlisted in three categories for The Great British Food Awards 2022.

https://www.tivysideadvertiser.co.uk/news/20674778.meaderys-hook-up-distillery-the-sweetest-marriage/

The Big Welsh winners of the Great Taste Awards 2022

From walesonline.co.uk

Some Welsh businesses have been awarded the top award of three stars for their products 

The Great Taste Awards have been announced for 2022 and among the Welsh winners are luxury ice cream and sea salt. Eight Welsh companies and businesses have been awarded the top award of three stars for some of their products.

Great Taste is the world’s largest and most trusted food and drink accreditation scheme, that tests both food and drink. The awards have been running since 1994 and the products are blind-tasted by selected chefs, cooks, buyers, retailers, restaurateurs, food critics and writers.

Three stars mean the product is exquisite and only around 2% of products tested each year are awarded three stars. 

                                     Businesses awarded three stars include The Wye Valley Meadery (Image: PA)

The 3-star winners from Wales in 2022's Great Taste Awards are:

Fecci's Ice Cream (trading as Mario's Luxury Dairy Ice Cream) for their Espresso Martini Ice Cream in Cross Hands, Carmarthenshire

Best of Hungary Ltd for their Formanek Vineg'Art Tarragon Vinegar in Machynlleth, Powys

Netring Ltd (trading as Allaways Coffee) for their Bay Coffee Roasters - Indonesian Sumatran Fairtrade Organic in Tanygroes, Cardigan Bay

Tasty Bites at Ionas Kitchen for their Curried Goat Patti, in Gwent

Parva Spices for their Sambal Hijau in Tintern Parva, Monmouthshire

The Wye Valley Meadery for their Hive Mind: Big Smoke - Smoked Honey Porter in Portskewett, Caldicot

Pembrokeshire Sea Salt Co for their Sea Salt with Saffron in Bridge Farm, Newport

Pembrokeshire Lamb Ltd for their Hogget mince in Treffgarne, Haverfordwest

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/big-welsh-winners-great-taste-24651024

Making a business from honey: Beekeeper's mead mission

From bbc.co.uk/news

Not many people are lucky enough to turn a hobby into a career.

But that is what Matt Newell, 30, has done, using honey from his beehives to make mead - an alcoholic drink - that is now on sale across the Wye Valley.
Mr Newell, from Chepstow, launched his business, Wye Valley Meadery, a year ago after gaining mentoring and advice from the Prince's Trust Cymru, which supports young people in business.
He is now the winner of the trust's NatWest Enterprise Award, after transforming his idea into a "sustainable business".

"I've been beekeeping as a hobby for 15 years, and have wanted to make mead commercially for such a long time," Mr Newell said.

"But I had no business experience, so needed help with that and also how to market such a niche product in a competitive market."

Mr Newell's interest in beekeeping began in his teens, when a commercial beekeeper asked him to help out with his 500 hives.
"I loved it immediately," he said. "It seems so confusing at first, all the bees swarming everywhere, but behind it there is complete order.
"It's like a whole super organism working together for one goal - creating food for the winter and the expansion and survival of the colony."

                        Matt Newell and his brother Kit believe mead is making a comeback

Mr Newell's formal enterprise only began in earnest, however, after he quit a job in construction.
Determined to put his mead idea into action, he spent months testing recipes, before hiring space in a local brewery.
His brother Kit, 29, an app designer, began helping out and now the duo produce 2,000 litres (about 3,500 pints) of sparkling mead a month.
The drink, which has a 5.5% alcohol content and comes in a variety of flavours, is now stocked in 25 shops.
Mr Newell said: "Some people don't know what mead is or even that it comes from honey.
"But it is often popular with modern craft beer drinkers, and also female customers.
"We plan on making a low or non-alcoholic version soon, as this is where the demand is.
"We hope to help bring mead back into the mainstream and raise knowledge of the importance of bees too."

In order to produce enough honey for the mead, Mr Newell owns 130 hives, each containing roughly 60,000 Welsh honey bees.
The brothers also buy other local honey.

Mr Newell believes the fact mead is made with the honey from bees is appealing to customers who like environmentally sustainable products.
"Most people love bees," he said. "They are essential to society, with a third of our food pollinated by them.
"Their habitats are often under threat, though.
"Bees love brownfield sites, which are often filled with ivy, buddleia and other purple flowers which they are attracted to with their ultra-violet vision.
"But these are frequently built on, which is damaging to bees and all pollinators."
He admits, though, that being self-employed in the bee industry does have its challenges.

                                             The brothers have hives across the Wye Valley

"I work all the time," he said. "And I also get stung a lot, but that's because I choose not to wear gloves so I can do the fiddly bits in the hive.
"Bees also instinctively fear the brown bear - their only predator - so if they see something brown and furry, they go crazy. That's when you don't want to be around them."
The brothers are not the only ones trying to promote mead.
In America, brewing company Anheuser-Busch - behind beers such as Budweiser - has recently begun producing mead.
And in England, the conservation charity English Heritage claims to be the UK's largest retailer of mead through its gift shops and online. In 2018, it said it sold a bottle every 10 minutes.

Elsewhere in Wales, a heather mead produced by Afon Mêl Meadery in Ceredigion recently won "Best Product from Wales" in the Great Taste Awards, the first time a mead has won the accolade.
The meadery, based on New Quay Honey Farm, has been running for two generations and supplies independent shops across the UK.
Director Sam Cooper, said: "I know of four new meaderies in the UK that have opened in the past year. But the biggest change we have seen is in the awareness of customers.
"Young people now know what mead is, largely, I believe, thanks to Game of Thrones, on which it was often drunk."
Sophie Atherton, a beer sommelier, said: "I see the increase in the popularity of mead as linked to the craft beer boom and the surge of interest in gin.
"Our culture today is full of desire for tasting new things and experiencing new flavours.
"Perhaps there's also an element of adding an 'instagramable' historic setting and you've got a drink everyone wants to be seen supping."

Mr Newell was presented with his Prince's Trust award on Thursday in Cardiff.
Philip Jones, director of The Prince's Trust Cymru, said: "Matthew is one of around 4,000 young people supported by The Prince's Trust in Wales last year.
"His passion for beekeeping, combined with the support of our staff and volunteers, made him a more than worthy winner of our NatWest Enterprise Award and we are excited about what he can achieve in the future."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-50069145