Lyme Bay Christmas Mead (£11.50, 75cl, 14%)

Now I’ve never been a fan of Christmas, it seems to be a festival devoted to stress, family arguments, idiotic behavior and it has always brought the worse out of my parents sometimes with violent results.

So for the last couple of years I’ve been avoiding going home, although last year I seem to have been tricked into a) cooking Christmas dinner for friends and then b) visting family on Boxing day with the usual results.

After various excitements on the Rainbow Warrior this year I wanted to follow a friends advice and simply go to Quinns, his local Irish pub. I’d already planned an exciting new year with my sister on Knoydart, the UK’s last wilderness (well sort of) and so an especially grumpy Christmas seemed ideal.

Having enjoyed a few pints we headed back to his, where it turned out he’d cheated and laid on some festive cheer (bastard) in the form of a Turkey thing. I’d come prepared with a bottle of Lyme bay Christmas mead from the trip to Dorset.

As a new adventure, and perhaps a Christmas tradition we heated the mead, and what a delightful experience it was. Warm, sweet and full of spices. Similar to a mulled wine but much nicer and without the artifice of adding sugar to a cheap bottle of red plonk. Mead was clearly designed to be served hot to sooth the winters chill.

To be honest I can’t remember a huge amount of details regarding the precise taste and the spices may well have masked the subtly of the honey and bitters. Still I’ll very happily drink many more Lyme Bay meads and before the winter is out, I’d like to try a few more evenings of hot mead.

The only fly is the description on the website regarding the Christmas mead:

A rich, smooth honey Mead blended with festive spices.
Awarded One-star Gold at the 'Great Taste Awards' 2009

Which suggests I should be stockpiling more for Christmas 2011

The Meads of Dorset

What a strange weekend, and a bimbling odyssey across the coastal belt of Dorset, not so much in search of Mead but happenstance conspiring to put it within my grasp on multiple occasions.

From the wee town of Wareham and a delightful tipple in the local pub, the Kings Arms, to a deli in Corfe Castle selling for some reason the Scottish Mead Moniack. I mean why Scottish mead in Dorset?

Even the local National Trust shop was selling mead, a relabelled version of the Cornish friar’s vintner’s mead. Such an excess of diversity leads to indecision, and at £16 for a 500ml bottle common sense suggested that a national trust label doesn’t add that much to the flavour.

Finally in the tourist ghetto of Lulworth Cove a country wine shop devoted to English wines and of course meads. Despite being an independent retailer the shop seemed almost exclusively devoted to the Lyme Bay ranges of both wines and meads, with the suggestion that perhaps that they occasionally stocked the awesome Lurgashall.

Still with free tasting and five varieties in stock, as an advocate of Mead drinking I think they do fine work, and their brochure hints of details that may deserve a return trip.

• Special Mead (honey only) £8.95


• Christmas Mead (Honey & Brandy) £11.50


• Traditional Mead (Grape & Honey) £8.95


• Millennium Mead (Whiskey) £11.50


• West Country Mead £8.95

So what is it that makes Dorset the heart of the Mead country? Do Dorset folk still maintain medieval tastes? or do retired folk settling in cute chocolate box cottages acquire a sweet taste in their latter years?

Or is mead simply part and parcel of the tourist trail, a hint of Olde England, a memento to take home for the mantelpiece or to slowly decay in the drinks cupboard until Christmas?

Still the first mead on the trail, the find in the pub suggests that Dorset folk do drink mead and perhaps a look at Dorset Camra, or the local beer festival may combine various musings.

Mission for Mead

I’ve been saving this for a special occasion, and today has been a day of glorious sunshine and a frustrating morning in the office, so off to Sussex I headed.

At Victoria station I stopped in the Cheese shop, and enquired about Mead. Apparently they normally stock a variety but had sold out, which is interesting on different levels. I’ll need to return to find out what it was, and again it’s reassuring to know others drink the stuff.

An hour and a half later I’m in Lewes killing times between trains, with a pint of Black Rat cider. Lewes is also full of posh Deli’s so I suspect there’s Mead to be found here, but my mission is clear.

Another hour later I’m at Glynde, and so begin the long march. A long march down a busy and positively lethal A27 to Middle Farm. This is not an easy place to get to without a vehicle and only the Mad and the English would attempt it. Luckily I’m both.

The sun is scorching, I’ve not got any water, I’ve chosen to wear new boots and the blisters are starting to kick in as my ankles are rubbing raw. I’m still dodging thundering Lorries and inhaling exhaust fumes but 40 minutes (2miles?) and countless false summits later I make it.

Middle Farm is pretty special. Go there.

It’s packed with people tasting ciders. They have a serious amount of ciders, allegedly 200+ and free tasting of the draft varieties. They have beers and fruit wines and a ridiculous range of Meads to choose from. Very aware that I’m going to have to carry them back down that damn road I end up buying a mere 8 bottles (more to follow).

I’ve attempted to note the different varieties of Mead they had on display but to be honest got bored writing them down, so I missed a few. I also failed to notice the 3 draft Meads behind the till until I was leaving, not to mention the range of 15-20 miniatures. Clearly I’ll be back.

However this is most of what they had:

Friary Vitners Mead (£6.82)
Friary Vitners Spiced Mead (£6.82)
Friars Choice (Brandy, Honey & Spices, £16.19)
Cornish Liquor Mead (£9.22)
Cornish Mead Wines (£8.64)
Moniak Mead (£8.66)
New Quay Honey Wine Mead-Apricot (7.45)
New Quay Honey Wine Mead-Blackberry (7.45)
New Quay Honey Wine Mead-Raspberry (£7.45)
New Quay Honey Wine Mead-Ginger (£7.45)
New Quay Honey Wine Mead-Heather (£7.45)
New Quay Honey Wine Mead-Honey (£9.27)
Lyme Bay Traditional Mead (75cl, £7.45)
Lyme Bay Traditional Mead (375cl, £4.48)
Lyme Bay Christmas Mead (£7.45)
West Country Liqueurs- Whisky & Mead (£8.55)
Godshill Cider Company Mead (£4.81)
Norfolk Mead (£6.65)
Lindisfarne Mead (75cl, £9.34)
Lindisfarne Mead (35cl, £5.73)
Lythe Hill Hotel (Lurgashall) English Mead (£5.99)
Camelot County Products Mead (£8.09)
Sussex Boar Hunter (£14.50)
Dark Mead (£9.99)
Pernards Organic Mead (£7.03)
Carr Taylors Mead (£5.68)
Malmesbury Reserve Mead (£14.30)
Malmesbury Dry Mead (£11.46)
Lurgashall Honey Whisky Mead (50cl, £9.70)
Lurgashall English Honey Mead (50cl, £8.43)
Lurgashall Spiced Honey Mead (£8.99)
Lurgashall Celtic Honey Mead (£8.43)

So depending on how you count perhaps 33 different varieties of Mead. I got lucky only spending £70