[susanr]

Hi,  From another Mead post there was a statement "better than any commercial Mead I had".  This got me thinking - what is everyone's favorite commercial Mead?  By asking this I would rather people not trash those Meaderys that they don't care for but there are some great Commercial Meaderys out there and I am curious if I have missed some of them.  I continually find new Meaderys starting up that I didn't know about.

Some of my favorites are:

Redstone (Colorado) - in particular the Vanilla Cinnamon
White Winter (Wisconsin) - Almost all of them - but have to say I am really partial to the Port Mead
B Nektor (Michigan) - have only had a few but they had a great Ginger mead
Mountain Meadows (California) - phenomenal Traditional - Honeymoon Nector

There are a many other Meaderys so I am curious to see what others like.

Cheers,
Susan

[hopfenundmalz]

The B Nector Heart of Darkness Ken Schramm signature series was one that came to mind.  The club bought a bottle so that everyone could have a very small taste. 

[theDarkSide]

Not much available for mead here in NH.  Michael Fairbrother has just started his new business, Moonlight Meadery, and is getting a great response for what I can see.  I just attended a tasting last week and his offerings were incredible, including one that tasted like an atomic fireball.   And Coffee in Bed is outstanding!!

Another meadery in NH made an awesome Vanilla Metheglin, but I was told they are shutting down the business

[tschmidlin]

I really like Sky River semi-sweet mead.  Very nice honey flavor, but it's nothing fancy.

There's a Polish (?) mead that comes in a bottle in a basket, kind of like a chianti bottle.  That is fantastic, but the name is escaping me right now.

[beerrat]

A great topic!

The comparison in the other post was my mead against Pennsylvania's Mount Hope Estate & Winery's Mead's.

I'd be interested in how their products are considered by other mead-makers/drinkers.

[dbeechum]

I'm going to agree with hops... that Schramm mead pretty much kicks the teeth out of anything else I've tried.

[tschmidlin]

It's not commercial, but I had one that Kris England made that was passed out at NHC in MN.  Fantastic stuff!

[susanr]

A great topic!

The comparison in the other post was my mead against Pennsylvania's Mount Hope Estate & Winery's Mead's.

I'd be interested in how their products are considered by other mead-makers/drinkers.

 

Hi,  Had not heard of Mount Hope Estate and Winery - they have a lot of Wines and it looks like most of their Meads are Blends of their wine and Mead (which is fine with me) - but unfortunately I went to their website and tried to put in an order only to find out at the last page of checkout that they can't ship out of state and that I would have to order at least 6 bottles even if I lived in PA.

[The Professor]

The Brotherhood WInery in Washingtonville, NY makes a couple different meads...one is sold under the name "Carroll's" and is an 8%(or thereabouts) straight mead (on the sweet side);    the other is their take on Tej, the Ethiopian honey wine (it has a small dose of hops in it, apparently).  Their "Sheba" brand of tej clocks in at a typical (for wine) 12%abv and it  has found its way into many of the Ethiopian restaurants in NY and NJ.
 
I'm a bit spoiled by the home made stuff (my favorite is sack mead, which I usually don't touch until it's between 5-10 years old) but the Sheba tej is pretty nice both before and after a meal of Ethiopian fare.
At around $10 a bottle in the stores for the Carroll's and around $11 for the Sheba, , neither one is a bad deal.

[nicneufeld]

This thread has me thirsty for mead! 

I've actually had more disappointments from commercial meads than otherwise.  Most imported ones I've tried are either very sweet or somewhat funky (Tower of London mead!).  But after reading about tej and Schramm's Heart of Darkness mead, I think some gesho sticks and blackcurrant juice needs to be added to my shopping list soon!

[ullarsskald1989]

The "Camelot" mead from Oliver Vineyards in Indiana is a pleasant "table-wine" mead.  It is between dry and semi-sweet to my tastebuds.

I usually drink my home brewed, though.

[gordonstrong]

I like White Winter Blueberry melomel and Honeyrun Blackberry melomel.  Redstone can be hit or miss with me; they have three product lines based on strength. I think the middle ones are best.  The vanilla/cinnamon one was good, as was (surprisingly) the juniper one.

If you compare the BJCP guidelines for mead in 2004 and 2008, look at the differences in commercial examples.  Anything added in between is likely something that I tried and really liked.  I remember adding several examples after going to an International Mead Festival in Denver and trying several outstanding meads.  It seemed like a few meaderies were consistently good, so if one of their meads was killer then they all were at least very good.  The opposite was also true.  Duds ran in packs.

[joelambic]

I recently had a chance to try some cysers from AEppelTreow in Wisconsin.  I'm partial to dry over sweet and they had one that was very enjoyable.

I didn't check if they had any straight meads at the tasting though.

[wfaris]

Definitely Redstones Blackberry Nectar.  They should be careful with that stuff.  That could easily get itself declared as being a date rape drug. 

Wayne

[hopfenundmalz]

The "Camelot" mead from Oliver Vineyards in Indiana is a pleasant "table-wine" mead.  It is between dry and semi-sweet to my tastebuds.

I usually drink my home brewed, though.

The Oliver meads were the first I ever had, wayyy back in the mid 70's.  I think that just dated me as an old timer.