Mead-ieval Times

The first conversation I ever had with my boyfriend, Dave, took place on the jungle gym at our school's end-of-year kindergarten picnic. I didn't know him--he was in the morning class; I was in the afternoon--but that's okay, because I had a really great pick-up line:

[Wait for it, wait for it...]

"What kind of sandwich is that?"

It turned out to be a BLT, which I found incredibly fascinating and exotic. BLTs were a dinner food at my house. For lunch, the choices were PB&J and baloney and cheese.

Almost 30 years (and one trip to Japan) later, Dave still inspires me to expand my culinary horizons. I now know, for example, that I like sea urchin and beef tongue. I can even eat shrimp with the head on--a great party trick for business dinners. But most recently, Dave and his friends introduced me to the many wonders of mead.

It all started when Dave's friend Colin started a small fermenting operation in his bedroom. After about a year of trial and error--including one early batch that "smelled like an apple tree vomited"--he declared the elixir fit for public consumption. Dave offered to make some food, and thus, Mead Fest was born.

It turns out that when you mention "mead fest" in casual conversation, you get asked a lot of questions. Here are some of the most common.

What is mead?
Mead is an alcoholic drink made from fermented honey. It's also known as honey wine. According to Wikipedia, it is the "ancestor of all fermented beverages."

Hey--didn't they drink that in Spartacus?
Why yes. It also features prominently in Beowulf. Which is pretty much all I remember about Beowulf.

I'm sensitive to the sulfites in wine. Can I still drink mead?
It depends. Wine- and mead-makers often add sulfur dioxide to their beverages because it kills microbes that lead to spoilage, while sparing the yeasts, which have evolved to be resistant to sulfur. (Cheers to Darwin!) However, there are plenty of producers who use alternative sterilization methods. Organic mead should not contain added sulfites.

What does mead taste like?
Like alcoholic honey (shocking, I know). In a word, divine.

Does mead come in different flavors?

Of course! Here are just some of the ones we tried:

I believe these are cherry vanilla, cranberry, and raspberry. And yes, that would be a jar o' Pez in the middle.

My favorite flavor was orange cinnamon; I also loved cranberry and cherry vanilla. Although it was very tasty, I only managed a sip of the jalapeno, which is probably just as well, as Dave claimed the next day that it was still eating him from the inside out. That might have put a damper on my Sunday bike ride.

What do you eat with mead?
A better question: What don't you eat?

Paella and gyros and ribs, oh my!

Our party of nine also enjoyed brisket, shrimp, potatoes and roasted vegetables. And of course, there was dessert. In addition to making an Easy Key Lime Pie, I tried a new cupcake recipe.

It may look like an ordinary vanilla cupcake. But here are the secret ingredients:

They go together like PowerBars and top tubes.

  You can find the recipe in this awesome book by Julie Hasson, otherwise known as my cupcake bible.

Now that you're a mead aficionado, are you going to start doing things like attending Renaissance Fairs and making your own chain mail?
No.