What is Mead?

What is mead? The basic answer is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented honey, but there is more to it. The U.S. government answers the question what is mead by saying it is "honey wine", probably because it is made by the same process as wine, but it deserves a classification of its own. What is mead? You ask? Mead can be sweet or dry, sparkling or still, and flavored with anything imaginable. Honey doesn’t oxidize like grapes do so mead doesn’t have to be consumed before the next morning, or you'll have to cook with it, like wine. A good bottle of mead will never make it to the next day though, because it will be gone. If you've never tried it before, visit Hidden Legend and order a bottle.

What is mead? Mead has a flavor and mouth feel unlike any other drink. Classifying it as wine doesn’t do it justice and it is not beer either. It is mead and is probably the oldest alcoholic beverage on the planet. Really wine and beer should be compared to mead, not the other way around. Mead should be the standard. The reason we can say that mead is the world’s oldest drink is answered in the question, “What is mead?”

Mead is fermented honey. Honey was the only universal sugar source. Bees make honey on every continent. Grapes, sugar cane, wheat, corn, potatoes, and every other sugar source came from specific regions and were not always as widespread as they are today. Mead can be traced back to many places. What is mead? Mead is the original, the one that all others should be compared too.

Mead doesn't put on heirs

Mead (honey wine) doesn't put on heirs. It is a naturally delicious drink that is made in the same fashion as wine but without all the fluffing. You can enjoy mead if you've never liked wine because it is a drink all its own. At the same time, you can enjoy mead if you like wine because it is a smooth and delicious drink. If you like the flavors of honey then you can just sit back and enjoy a nice cool glass of mead without worrying if you know enough about wine to enjoy it because it just plain tastes good. Be careful you don’t drink too much though, because one thing it has in common with wine is a 12.5 % alcohol content. You don't have to worry about whether it is dry enough to impress your friends or from the right region of the world because it is the oldest fermented beverage on the planet and most of your friends have never heard of it before. It is a drink that legends are made of and is a part of many legends. It can be made with just honey or have fruit added to create many different flavors. This means you are practically guaranteed to find a mead that you will love, because these fruit flavors are ones that you already know and are sure to enjoy in the form of mead. If you’ve never had mead give it a try. It tastes great!

Honeywine, also called mead, is the original medicinal wine, so........Drink to your Health!

Mead is Drinkable Honey, and it is known that it retains the numerous nutritional qualities of honey. The National Honey Board says that mead has similar health benefits of white wine due to the antioxidant characteristics of honey. The immune boosting properties of honey are retained in mead as well.

Hippocrates, the most famous father of medicine, promoted the use of honey in all kinds of healing ways. He also used elderberry tincture as a staple medicine, often combining this elderberry wine with raw honey to make it more palatable. Hidden Legend makes a Wild Elderberry Mead that is healthful as well as delicious! Honey was a dominant ingredient in many ancient medications and the mythical medicinal powers attributed to mead are because of the use of honey in the winemaking process. Honey is considered to be a disinfectant and alcohol can be used as an expectorant. When herbs are added to make various forms of metheglin (spiced mead), the medicinal qualities of the herbs are infused into the mead. Cultures all over the world made their own unique blend of metheglin to cure whatever was needed. Aborigines made mead from rare medicinal herbs and Europeans used over 100 different herbs in some mead that were designed as a complete Cure-All!

Mead is essentially a wine made by fermentation of honey using yeast. It is one of the oldest wines made by mankind and was often associated with health generating, aphrodisiac or magical powers in ancient literature and mythology. In Norse mythology for instance the “mead of Suttungr” could convert a layman to a scholar. In ancient Ethiopia “none except nobility and the highest chiefs and warriors were privileged to drink Tej( mead). Tej was considered to be the most treasured of gifts to be given to visiting royalty as evidenced by the fact that Makeda, Queen of Sheba, carried mead to King Solomon of Jerusalem.

Mead was a ritualistic drink of the Maya culture. When the Spaniards banned it in order to convert the natives to Christianity, many Mayans began dying off due to the missing health benefits of their mead.
Many languages have a word similar to “honeymoon” which refers to the drinking of honeywine during the first month of marriage. Such a commonality lends acceptance to the fact that many ancient societies believed honeywine was a drink that promoted health, an increased sex drive and the resulting fertility, especially of male offspring and so honeywine became the traditional wedding wine.

Hidden Legend Winery proudly carries on the traditions of the ancient meadmakers. The meads are made with the highest quality ingredients and finished to perfection in a natural way by our winemaker. We believe our wines retain the ancient mystical properties to enrich the lives of those who choose to drink them!

Hidden Legend Winery

Hidden Legend Winery is a producer of premium mead (honey wine), made from the finest honey and wild berries. It is a family owned winery located in the mountains of Montana. The ingredients used in its mead are produced and harvested almost exclusively in Montana. There is a growing wine industry in Montana and Hidden Legend Winery is proud to be in on the ground floor of developing this industry.

Ken Schultz has been making wine for almost 40 years and been involved in commercial mead making for almost 10 years. This experience brings something to his meads that you will not find in many. The meads produced by Ken are fashioned after the fine table wines he is accustomed to making. These are not syrupy, super sweet meads but very balanced table wines made from honey. Ken’s meads have consistently won medals in international wine competitions, including two gold medals for his Wild Chokecherry Mead. One of these gold medals was received from the Northwest Wine Summit in 2008 and the other from the Taster’s Guild International Wine Tasting for 2009. You can read all about these awards by clicking here.

Ken started his commercial mead making career as the wine maker, in a partnership with Lisa Schultz (his wife) and a few friends, under the name of Painted Rocks Winery. Ken and Lisa broke away from Painted Rocks Winery in 2004 and started making mead under their own label, Trapper Creek Winery, in 2005. In 2008 Trapper Creek Winery changed its name to Hidden Legend Winery after another Montana winery complained of name similarities. In 2008 Joe Schultz joined the team at Hidden Legend Winery after serving in the U.S. Air Force for 4 years and in 2009 Pat Schultz came home from 4 years of service in the U.S. Air Force and is working with the family as well. Hidden Legend Winery is a family owned and operated business dedicated to making premium meads as well as introducing Eastern U.S. native grape wines to the Western United States.

This Family owned winery makes the best mead money can buy. You will not be disappointed when you taste these premium meads. You can pair them with food or enjoy them on their own. If you have never tried mead these are good meads to start with. Whether you are an experienced mead drinker or just getting ready to try it for the first time, you can’t go wrong with the meads produced at Hidden Legend Winery.