According to the US Honey Board, there are over 300 varietal honeys in the US. By “varietal” they mean a honey that honey bees have mostly made from a single variety of flower blossom. As an example, most people are familiar with Clover Blossom honey commonly found in grocery stores. Clover Blossom honey has a floral spicy almost cinnamon like flavor. Orange Blossom honey has a very distinct jasmine and white flower aroma and taste. Avocado honey is dark and somewhat earthy with notes of dark caramel and molasses. When you ferment these different honeys in a mead, you get an amazing abundance of flavors and aromas that is sometimes hard to describe. The basic ingredient list of honey, water and yeast sounds simple yet it results in a complex outcome of aromas, color and flavors. Its best experienced by yourself to begin understanding what it can be. Take in the bouquet from the mead in your glass and savor all the different flavors that have melded into an amazing beverage!

Mead is a very sustainable product. Buying honey based products and mead helps honey producers by financing them to make more honey and thus increase honey bee populations. That helps us all as according to the FDA near 35% of all food crops need pollination performed by honey bees. Some crops are highly (blueberries, cherries) to 100% dependent (almonds) on honey bees for pollination.

Colorado doesn’t have the apple orchards it once had before the 1960s. Most of what is Colorado grown are sweet eating apples or desert apples. These apples can help make a base for a cider but by themselves they are not very flavorful after fermentation takes the sugars away. We most often blend apple juices as the yearly crops provide. Some desert apple juice (or unfermented cider) from the western slope mixed with sharper and more acidic juices from elsewhere tend to make the best ciders. Fruit and spice additions can also make a cider more interesting. For example: raspberry, Aronia berry, ginger, tart cherry and Palisade peach are some past combinations that have pleased taste buds over and over.

Fruit wines or country wines are made from non-grape fruit. Colorado isn’t known for a big selection in this area, but we do what we can. We do have a steady seasonal supply of tart cherries and of course peaches! Most fruit wines are made more interesting by blending different fruits together.

The sky’s the limit if you look at it that way!