On Sunday, Sept. 7th, we attended AbilityNB’s 14th annual Feast in the Field. We were armed with five of our flavours for general consumption, but it paid off to follow us on Facebook or via email, too!
The five standard flavours we poured included:
- Queen’s Nectar (our base mead, made with apples and honey)
- Denim (refreshing blueberry)
- Tart’n (attention-grabbing cranberry)
- Naughtea (a green iced tea developed in-house)
- Shipwreck (our India Pale mead)
The day was gorgeous and bright, if a little nippy in the beginning. While working at our booth, we had the pleasure of providing samples to countless people (often repeat visitors). We enjoyed seeing your positive reactions to our mead and greatly appreciated the feedback. In fact, some of our tasters even wrote out our name on the ballot for “best drink” (we weren’t listed on the ballot since we were only licensed to sell very shortly before the event).
While serving, we were asked many questions, such as:
Q: What is mead?
The simple answer is that mead is a fermented beverage made from honey. To learn more about the history of mead, check out our Mead History page. To learn more about different types of mead, check out our blog post, “From Fruits to Grains: Types of Mead”.
Q: What does mead taste like?
We were asked this question a lot. Many people tried to draw comparisons between mead and other types of drinks, such as wine, beer, and cider. While mead may share some characteristics with each drink, it is something that stands firmly on its own. Wine is a fermented beverage made with fruits like grapes, beer is a fermented beverage made with grains, sake with rice, and cider with apples, for instance. Mead is no more related to them than beer is a “grain wine”, so it’s difficult to describe the taste as similar to any other beverage. In short, mead tastes like mead! With the revival of mead, we (and other meaderies) have the chance to standardize exactly what mead is and what flavours should be included in each type of mead.
Q: What flavour is the most/least sweet?
This question is always difficult to answer because people experience taste in different ways. For example, while many people at the feast stated that Naughtea was the least sweet, we’ve had others exclaim that it was the sweetest. The most common flavours to be declared less sweet is Shipwreck, while we most commonly hear that our sweetest mead is Denim, but individual palates vary. The only way to determine which flavour is the most/least sweet for your personal taste is to try them all!
Q: Where can I get this product?
At the time of posting, we’ve delivered our first kegs to Isaac’s Way in Fredericton, NB, where we will be on tap as soon as they have a tap available. Some restaurants, pubs, and bars we hope to be available in include the King Street Ale House, Brewbakers, and/or The Lunar Rogue Pub, depending on how much support we get from restaurant and bar patrons! We are in discussions with several other Fredericton-area places, too. Once restaurant and bar demand is supplied, we plan to be at local farmer’s markets sometime in the future, depending on licensing and market restrictions on vendor categories.
Q: Do you have your own bees?
Yes, we do! We own fifty beehives, in fact, which is the minimum requirement for our particular license. The honeycomb we displayed on our table at this event came from our own hives.
We had a blast at the event and enjoyed the chance to meet our audience. We love hearing from each and every one of you. Be sure to check us out at UNB’s Homecoming on Sept. 27th!
