Honey varietals and how they affect taste of meads?

Honey, much like grape must (raw grape juice, skin, seeds, stems, etc.), comes in myriad varieties, each with distinct expressions of flavor, texture, acidity, and finish. When brewing a single varietal mead—commonly referred to as a “traditional“—there’s a straightforward way to compare these characteristics. For instance, if you brewed one mead with orange blossom honey and another with clover honey, the flavors would differ significantly, even if you followed the same brewing procedures.

We conducted extensive tests at our meadery while selecting honeys and developing our recipes. A memorable experience occurred at MeadCon in 2022, where a speaker shared his own experiments with honey varieties. His approach was more region- and apiary-specific. Within a 100-mile radius of upstate New York, he collected wildflower honey from five different apiaries and brewed a separate wildflower traditional from each. He then organized blind tasting panels to compare the batches. His findings revealed that each mead was distinct, with markedly different flavors, even though some apiaries were less than 10 miles apart. 

This leads to the concept of wildflower and polyflora honeys, where “poly” means many and “flora” refers to flowers. Wildflower honeys are often seen as a catch-all. Beekeepers might have a general idea of the floral sources their bees visit, but there isn’t a predominant source. Honey bees can travel up to 5 or 6 miles from their hives, meaning that any flower within that range could contribute to the honey. Consequently, even if two apiaries are close, the floral sources their bees exploit can vary widely, resulting in distinct wildflower honeys and unique meads.

This variability presents challenges for us as mead makers. How do we produce a consistent product that doesn’t fluctuate in flavor from year to year? Wineries manage this by creating vintages and educating consumers about how their wines may vary based on growing conditions.

While we don’t use vintages, we have implemented strategies to mitigate these year-to-year changes. One approach is to work with single-source apiaries and maintain direct relationships with suppliers. They often blend honey from different seasons to minimize seasonal flavor variations. This ensures we receive honey from the same area, resulting in consistent flavors. We know the orange blossom honey will taste similar year after year because we source it from a single apiary, and legally, it must be primarily orange blossom, further reducing flavor fluctuations. Single-varietal apiary orange blossom honey is used to make our flagship traditional dry mead, Friending Fenrir, thereby providing an additional layer of consistency. Our distributor even conducts chemical analyses to verify the nectar source.

It’s worth noting that single-varietal honeys, such as orange blossom, typically come from hives placed in large orchards. Honey bees prefer to gather nectar from easily accessible sources rather than venturing far, ensuring that the majority of nectar is sourced from the targeted floral source.

However, this approach doesn’t always work perfectly. Honey is an agricultural product, and like grapes, it can vary from year to year. Sometimes, we have to source honey from different apiaries due to shortages, and occasionally, the honey we receive may taste different. Ultimately, we rely on our most important team member: the honey bee. Therefore, one of our key goals is not only to educate customers about what mead is but also to explain why our mead may taste different and how crucial honey and its floral sources are to the final product.

A great example of this is our  “Aurora” mead, which features rare aroiera honey sourced from the Brazilian peppertree (pink peppercorn). Normally, meads express the honey’s flavor, but the flavor profile undergoes significant changes during fermentation. The aroiera honey was exceptional; the same flavors we loved in the honey were prominent in the mead post-fermentation, notes of marshmallow, figs, and toffee that blended beautifully. Barrel aging enhanced these flavors and introduced warm spices. We are also excited about an upcoming 18% mead made with mangrove honey, which offers tropical fruit notes balanced by a crisp oceanic brine.

This single-varietal principle applies not only to our traditional meads but also to some of our flavored honey-wine varieties. Our “Tart for the Heart” (passionfruit) and “Meadarita” (margarita-style with agave, lime/lime zest, and sea salt) work well because they use orange blossom honey. Both the meads have clean, citrus-forward varietal, which enhances the grapefruit notes in our passionfruit and brightens the lime notes of “Meadarita”, flavors that could be masked by a more robust honey.

Similarly, we often use a light Mexican wildflower honey in our sours, such as the “Mojave Rose”  or “Guava”. We chose a honey that wouldn’t dominate the flavor, allowing the fruits to shine through. Since these are session meads, we wanted them to be easy to enjoy without being overwhelmed by a strong earthy flavor, which can sometimes result from jungle honeys or more controversial options like buckwheat (think barnyard vibes).

So next time you are drinking a glass of mead and wondering why, sometimes, just like wines, you may find a nuanced difference year after year, think about where our most important team member, the little worker bee, wandered to collect its nectar.  We continue experimenting with different honey varietals to offer our consumers a selection of meads made with the greatest elixir on earth.