Mead - The Elixir Of The Gods

Video: Mead - The Elixir Of The Gods

Video: Mead - The Elixir Of The Gods
Video: Making Medieval Mead like a Viking 2024, November
Mead - The Elixir Of The Gods
Mead - The Elixir Of The Gods
Anonim

Mead is the precursor of all alcoholic beverages. She enjoyed admirers of all kinds of nobles, epic fictional characters and even Greek gods. Mead ferments with three main ingredients: honey, yeast and water. You may hear it called honey wine, but this is not a proper classification.

Mead is created by fermenting honey, while wine is made from fermented fruit. And although mead is often flavored with various fruits, this does not make it wine.

Chinese pottery dating back to 7000 BC offers evidence of mead fermentation that surpasses both wine and beer.

The first batch of mead is an accidental discovery - the early wanderers probably drank the contents of a beehive flooded by rainwater, which fermented naturally with the help of air yeast. Once the production of mead was known, the sweet drink became globally recognized and popular among the Vikings, Mayans, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.

In early England, various herbs were added to mead, and the drink was believed to improve digestion, help with depression and relieve hypochondria. This herbal mead was called meteglin, derived from the Welsh word for medicine.

Mead
Mead

Sweet mead is the original aphrodisiac. The origins of the "honeymoon" go back to the medieval tradition of drinking this sweet drink for a full lunar cycle after a new marriage.

This whole tradition was supposed to provide a fruitful union that would give many children. This belief, based on the consumption of mead, was taken so seriously that the bride's father included mead in the dowry.

The flavors of mead vary depending on the type of honey, what spices, herbs or fruits are used or the time of aging. And today it is also considered beneficial to health due to the healing properties of honey and its accompanying ingredients.

The most common additives today are hops to the German versions of mead and ginger or cinnamon to the French.

Recommended: