DRINKS JOURNAL
Mead is made by diluting honey with water and fermenting it with yeast. It is a fermented drink rather than a distilled one, and Japan's liquor tax law classes it under other fermented liquors. It is one of the older things people have made, and versions of the same idea survive around the world.
Related bottle in this familyBee Buzz 微醺蜜月 蜂蜜酒 700mlAsk about this bottle →THE DETAILS
Mead ferments honey diluted with water, but honey has also appeared in mixed fermented drinks. Research on roughly 9,000-year-old pottery from Jiahu in China identified evidence of a beverage combining rice, honey and fruit. That is not the same as proving the existence of a modern honey-only mead. The useful historical thread is the variety of ways people turned locally available sugars into drinks.
Yeast converts sugar into alcohol, allowing mead to range from dry to richly sweet. The honey’s floral source, fermentation choices and remaining sugar all matter. Fruit, spices and carbonation add further possibilities. A spirit sweetened with honey is a honey liqueur, not automatically mead: look for how the drink was made rather than relying on the ingredient named on the front label.
A light dry style can suit vegetables or white meat; fruit acidity offers another route towards cheese, while richer sweet styles invite nuts and baked desserts. These are starting points rather than rules. Check strength, sweetness and carbonation before choosing a serving size. Compare a small pour chilled and slightly warmer to see how the floral aroma develops.
Further reading: Penn Museum · Jiahu research
Q-Na
JoanneChilled, in a wine glass, the aroma comes out. Sweet styles go with cheese and nuts, dry styles with chicken and vegetable dishes. WAIN99 carries Bee Buzz, made by Legend Brewery in Taiwan, which shows how directly the choice of honey carries into the taste.
Q-NaMead is often called the oldest drink in the world. That cannot be proved, but there is a reason people say it. It needs no vineyard and no grain processing: if honey is diluted by rainwater, wild yeast in the air can start it fermenting on its own. So it may well have appeared by accident long before anyone knew how to make drinks on purpose. With honey to hand, you barely need equipment. Who made the first one is unknown, but it was certainly the easiest one to stumble into. We do not know, though, whether the honey drinks in old records were made the way they are today.
Q-NaMead is close to just honey, water and yeast, so whichever flower the bees worked ends up being the flavour. Acacia honey is pale in colour and taste and finishes clean. Buckwheat honey is dark, with a strong molasses and earthy note. Citrus blossom is light and fresh; chestnut blossom leaves a touch of bitterness. The direction is largely set at the honey stage, and what the maker adjusts after that is mainly how far it ferments and how it rests. When comparing bottles, start by reading the flower. Heat drives the aroma out of honey, so makers watch the temperature carefully when they start.
Q-NaYou often hear that newlyweds drank mead for their first month together, and that this is where the word honeymoon comes from. It is a story told in several places rather than something settled, and there are other explanations for the word. What the records and tales do show is that mead was long treated as a drink for celebrations. Whatever the truth about the name, it is still one of the bottles people reach for when they want to give something. If you are giving a bottle, a smaller one that is easy to finish asks less of the person receiving it.
Q-NaIt is made from honey, so people expect it to be sweet, and it often is not. Let the yeast eat through all the sugar and you get a dry mead with almost no sweetness left. Stop the fermentation partway and the remaining sugar makes it sweet. The same honey can give a dry version, a sweet version, or a sparkling one. Dry meads sit at the table much like a white wine; sweet ones suit a small glass after a meal. Check the label for dry or sweet and there will be fewer surprises. Some are fermented together with fruit or spices, and those styles go by names of their own.
AT THE TABLE · TAIWAN & BEYOND
Food photos are illustrative. These are pairing suggestions based on flavour; the bottle and seasoning will change the result.
Try sweet mead with salty cheese, or dry mead with a milder cheese. Compare honey’s floral notes and dairy aromas in a small chilled serving.
Try a chilled drier mead with the salty chicken. For sweeter styles, a little soda can adjust intensity so honey does not overpower basil.
