Happy Hour: The Drink Of The Viking Warlords Makes A Great Cocktail

Happy Hour: The Drink Of The Viking Warlords Makes A Great Cocktail

Long before humans had figured out beer, we learned that you can make a damn tasty crunk-juice by stewing rainwater in a beehive. Mead was the drink of ancient Greek philosophers, Asian hunter-gatherers and Celtic berserkers. It’s also the secret behind some of the best cocktails.


It’s time for Happy Hour, Gizmodo’s weekly booze column. A cocktail shaker full of innovation, science and alcohol.


Contrary to popular belief, mead isn’t just for Viking warlords and medieval reenactment societies. It also doesn’t have to be sweet. Meads are as complex and varied as wines, and in America, they’re making a big comeback. Today, mead enthusiasts around the country are cooking up all sorts of news infusions and cocktails, putting a modern twist on the libation of the ancients.

Growing up in the DC metro area, the first place I ever encountered mead was (naturally) at the Maryland Ren Fest. The honey-coloured drink came in overpriced novelty bottles, and it was abominably sweet. Nevertheless, I have many a fond high school memory of sipping shitty mead on the sly while chomping a roasted turkey leg and watching nerds joust on a hot summer day.

Happy Hour: The Drink Of The Viking Warlords Makes A Great Cocktail

I rediscovered mead a few years back, while spending a week with family in central New Hampshire. One rainy afternoon, bored and painfully surfing the web on dial-up connection, my brother and I stumbled upon the Sap House Meadery, an internationally acclaimed destination located in a town we’d never heard of some 30 miles away. We immediately decided to go, and spent an unexpectedly drunk fun afternoon sampling everything from dry, blueberry hops honey wine to sugar maple dessert mead. I walked away with a crate full of the stuff, and spent the rest of the summer happily swilling glasses of Beowulf’s booze over ice.

I recently got in touch with the Sap House Meadery’s owner, Ash Fishbein, to get some professional advice on how I could be spicing up my mead drinking experience. He shared a couple of his favourite cocktails — naturally, featuring his signature meads. Of course, you can sub for any mead of your liking! I’ve also included a few other amazing cocktails, courtesy of mead experts around the country. Mead is listed at the top of each recipe.


The Perfect Storm

2 parts Sap House Meadery’s Sugar Maple Mead
1 Part Ginger Beer (Recommend: Maine Root Ginger Brew)
Pour ingredients over ice and enjoy!

Via Sap House Meadery, Ossipee, NH


Vanilla Ginger Mashup

90mL Sap House Meadery’s Vanilla Bean Mead
60mL vanilla-ginger simple syrup (follow recipe below):
1 cup sugar, 240mL water, 1/4 cup fresh ginger, chopped 2 vanilla beans, split and scraped
club soda

Preparation:

  1. Combine all ingredients into a sauce pan and bring to a boil for one minute.
  2. Remove from the heat and let steep for 20 minutes.
  3. Strain out vanilla bean pods and ginger and cool syrups.

Via Sap House Meadery, Ossipee, NH


Bluebonic Tonic

120mL Sap House Meadery’s Hopped Blueberry Maple Mead
60mL Tonic Water
30mL Simple Syrup

Citrus Bitters

Pour all ingredients over ice, add citrus bitters if you like, and stir!

Via Sap House Meadery, Ossipee, NH


Mead-mosa

3 parts B.Nektar Meadery’s NecroMangoCon (A fruity mango and black pepper mead)

1 part freshly squeezed Orange Juice

garnish with an orange twist

Via B. Nektar Meadery, Ferndale, MI


The Real Detroit

4 parts B. Nektar Wildberry Pyment (A fruity mead made with strawberries and blueberries)

1 part Valentine vodka

1 part triple sec

1 part Faygo Rock ‘N Rye (Detroit’s signature vanilla cream cola)

squeeze of lime and orange

Add everything but the Rock N Rye to a cocktail shaker with lots of ice. Shake like Zeus.

Pour Faygo into a martini or rocks glass, top with what’s in the shaker. Garnish with orange and lime

Via B. Nektar Meadery, Ferndale, MI


Redstone Spritzer

45mL Redstone Black Raspberry or Boysenberry Nectar
45mL Redstone Traditional Mountain Honey Wine
Splash of soda water or 7 up or Sprite
Serve over ice in a rocks glass

Via Redstone Meadery, Boulder, CO


The Lost Sunrise

Shaker of Redstone Black Raspberry or Boysenberry Nectar

30mL tequila
15mL Grand Marnier or Cointreau
Splash of orange juice

Serve over ice in rocks glass with lime

Via Redstone Meadery, Boulder, CO


Downeast Kir

60mL Moonlight Meadery Fling (A slightly tart mead infused with rhubarb and black currants)
180mL Chardonnay

Pour mead into wine glass, then gently add white wine. Vary the Fling / Chardonnay ratio to taste. This recipe works great with many Moonlight meads, and choose your favourite white wine variety.

Via Moonlight Meadery, Londonderry, NH


The Mojo Mojito

120mL Moonlight Meadery Mojo
60mL White Rum
sprig of mint

Add ice to a collins glass, add Moonlight Meadery Mojo and Rum to glass, add sprig of Mint.

Via Moonlight Meadery, Londonderry, NH


Mead and Beer

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the awesome flavour explosion that happens when mead and beer are mixed. You can jazz up any boring ol’ summer wheat by mixing it with mead in a 2:1 ratio (dry, fruity meads work best here in my experience). On the other hand, adding a sweet, dessert mead (vanilla-infused, if you can find it) to a coffeehouse porter cures the winter blues better than a cup of hot chocolate with brandy.


Shutup and Take My Money!

There are roughly 165 meaderies currently in operation in the United States, according to USA Today. So browse the interwebs to see if there’s one near you. Some of them, Sap House Meadery included, even allow you to order online, but you should really make it out for a tasting if you can. Happy drinking!

Picture: Wikimedia


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