Hej! Nyd din mjød!
Tonight a couple friends of mine and I drank a bottle of Danish Mead that we found in a hole in the wall beer store in Orlando, FL. It was very intriguing in a 750ml black stone/ceramic bottle with Danish writing all over the label. This mead is made with hibiscus and hops and is based on a recipe from about the year 1700. It's also 19% ABV so you certainly need to share with a friend!
The website is all in Danish so good luck reading about their product... ok fine... use Google's Translate Feature to read about the Viking Blod!
It pours a nice deep golden honey color which is completely still. The nose has a bit of alcohol and spice but dominates with a nice honey aroma. The taste has a bit of a burn from the 19% ABV but has some pretty nice sweetness, a bit of flowery spice (i.e. hibuscus and hops) and warms the belly quite nicely! It sticks to the glass like a nice thick wine and the honey flavor lingers for quite a long time in your mouth.
This is a quick short post and I really don't know much about the brewer (mostly because the website is in Danish and I didn't feel like translating it all) but also because I still have a glass to finish...
The Bottom Line:
If you haven't tried mead, buy some and try it. Most commercial mead is relatively sweet and Viking Blod is not an exception. The thing that makes this mead interesting is the addition of hibiscus and hops which give a nice spice to the honey wine. For $13/bottle this was a pretty good deal and equivalent to a basic bottle of wine you might buy. As a matter of fact, I found the same bottle online for $30 so we might have gotten a deal. Mead is also relatively easy to brew compared to beer so if you're already a homebrewer mead is another great beverage to create.
Stats:
ABV 19%
I wish I knew more, however, the website says "see bottle hang for more uses" and our bottle was missing a hang. If anyone else knows anything more share in the comments!
Paul,
ReplyDeleteI've had a really hard time getting into Mead properly...or at all actually. It's just to sweet and thick for me. I've heard of some great Meads however and have heard about this one (though never personally tried it myself). Any specific Meads you would recommend for a beginner that don't taste like spiked, heavily spice honey? And yes, I'm very well aware I just asked for something that I guess won't really be Mead! :)
P.S. I scrolled down at first before I read the article and read 19% ABV...thought to myself "what is this beer that I've never heard of that has a 19% ABV!" Ha!
Ilya
Ilya,
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, from what I understand, most commercial meads are going to be thick, heavy, and cloyingly sweet. I don't think there's much of a market for dryer meads out there. All the commercial examples I have tried have been just as you described.
However, I will keep an eye out. If I see or taste something that might meet your taste buds I'll let you know.
PS - You can always homebrew mead! It's not terribly difficult and you can make it how you want it.
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ReplyDeleteI know this is pretty late to the party but i had some Dansk Mjod products when i lived in Mass. Loved them for sure. If i remember correctly(its been 3 years or so since i had bought them) i paid about 15 or so for the Viking Blod so 30 would be pretty overpriced.
ReplyDeleteJust to add my own couple of cents to the excessively late comer mix:
ReplyDeletehttp://hiddenlegendwinery.com/Display.asp?Page=Home
In spite of the fact that they use ASP for their web language, they are actually very smart people. Their mead is much darker and less sweet than most other places. If you grab a bottle of their dark mead, it should hit that not-very-sweet spot that Paul was aiming for. It's along the lines of a red wine.
They also have some sweeter offerings (like the maple mead, which is brewed with maple syrup) that kinda strike a point still less sweet than something like Chaucer's, but sweeter than the dark mead.
I picked up a bottle of Viking Blod earlier today in Ann Arbor (MI). Then I put it down again, as it was $34.00.
ReplyDeleteI went into the store to see what kind of mead they carried, as the beverage is quickly gaining popularity on the west side of the state where I live. They had a few bottles of B. Nektar, an excellent mead made ni Montague (MI). Then I saw the Viking Blod. Nice bottle, but I'm hoping to find it through a local distributor for less.
Mead seems to have caught on here, and there are some that are more towards the dry side.
You wont find viking blod for probably anything less than around $30, and if you do buy as many as you can ASAP because its way under priced compared to a lot of places. Heck I pay $40 a bottle at my local store and its worth every penny.
ReplyDeleteThe mead itself is extremely good. Its super sweet but its balanced out with the hops, habiscus, and alcohol. If I had to pick a mead out of all the commercial ones ive tried to be what I think the vikings would drink, it would deffinately be this one. Everything about this mead and all its flavors scream strong and bold.
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ReplyDelete