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Mead for Me

13/12/2012

4 Comments

 
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Nothing like a hot, sweet, spicy alcoholic drink to celebrate winter :)
Honey wine. The name alone does it for me. (But then again, I have a soft corner for the sweeter end of the wine scale, so that's hardly surprising.)

I got my first taste of honey wine - or mead - more than four years ago in the little Russian town of Suzdal, a few hours out of Moscow. 
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Suzdal - site of my introduction to honey wine
Suzdal did mead-tasting in style! It had an entire hall bang in the centre of town dedicated to it - complete with long log wood tables, stained glass windows and servers dressed in suitably serving-wench-like attire. All it needed to complete the mead-tasting-tableau in my mind were a few Vikings slapping down mugs of the stuff and platters piled high with chicken drumsticks stripped clean. 

Ok... I'll admit... my overactive imagination may be running a little away with itself :)

Still, the mead tasting hall left an impression on my mind... and a lingering taste for the stuff in my mouth. 
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Suzdal's colourful mead-tasting hall definitely magnified the happy effects of downing 10 cups of honey wine
So when I found a stall selling mead at the very festive Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park in London a couple of weeks ago, I was first in line! 

The stuff on sale was mulled mead. All the better in my opinion... nothing quite like a hot, sweet, spicy alcoholic drink to take the edge of a chilly winter's evening :)

I was all ready to part with my pounds having already downed a little taster cup when the server placed another cup in front of me containing - the rather intriguing sounding - Viking Blood.
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Viking Blood... my new mead love!
Viking Blood is mulled mead (hence the Viking connection) tinged with cherry (hence the red = blood connection) and I'm pretty sure it's inventive name accounts for a good chunk of people having a go at trying it.

But even without the creative marketing, I think Viking Blood would be a winner.

Mead on its own can have a bit of a cloyingly sweet aftertaste. I remember the  mead-tasting hall in Suzdal serving up its honey wine laced with a number of different  ingredients including pepper and juniper berries, and the flavoured mead tasted a lot nicer than the plain variety.
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10 varieties of flavoured mead in Suzdal... something for everyone
The spices and tartness of the cherry brings the same advantages to the Viking Blood. I could easily have gotten through a few more cups of it... I may have to make like a vampire and hunt down a Viking or two this winter to get my fill :)

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4 Comments
Reeta @ Happywitchie link
22/1/2013 04:35:39 pm

My first introduction to wine was dessert wine. Very sweet, cloying almost but drinkable. I have not had it for years.

Mulled mead sounds interesting - perhaps next Xmas spicy mulled wine made with dessert wine is on the cards!

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Platetrotter link
27/1/2013 05:38:25 pm

Mulled wine made with dessert wine is great! I've had a mulled version of red wine mixed with port that tasted incredibly Christmassy :)

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sunnysally link
7/9/2013 10:28:04 am

Found this from the Weebly directory, great blog.

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Athalia link
12/12/2016 03:05:05 am

Really enjoyable to read, a honey wine with fruit added offers a honey-fruit flavor, and one with herbs added is a honey-spice experience,you should try it for once, thanks

Reply



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