Melionnec Chouchenn (£2.50, 75cl, 13.5%)

My second visit to a Chouchen, and this time a much more elegant look, in a delightful bottle sealed with Celtic spirals and a host of intriguing text that reads thus:

ChouchennCuvee artisanale tradition
La Ruche Celtique
Societe coop d’apiculteurs de Bretagne, 22110 Melionnec
Hydromel Bretton
Boissopn celte d’apertif et de table
Gibier, crepes
Elabore par Joel Catherine, Apiculteur a Korneg

Les Chouchenn
La Ruche Celtique
De la boisson sacree des Druides a la boisson favourite des Fest Deis at Fest nos d’aujourd’hui le chouchenn a toujours ete present dans la culture celte
Le Chouchenn Traditionl de la Ruche celtique eleve de maniere artisanale est une boisson orginale a server tres frais en accompagnement de plats cuisines de viands, poissions et desserts. Il peut etre egalement servi en cocktail d’apertif avec des crèmes de fruits (mure, peche…etc)

This is clearly a mead produced by someone proud of their bee keeping and their Celtic heritage, there’s even a suggestion that there is a bee keeping society involved. Babel fish translates the back text as:

Chouchenn The Celtic Hive Drink sacree of the Druids to the drink favourite of Fest Deis At Fest our of today the chouchenn was always present in the Celtic culture Chouchenn Traditionl of the Celtic Hive high in an artisanal way is a drink orginale has very fresh server in accompaniment of dishes kitchens of viands, pitched and desserts. It can be also been used in cocktail of apertif with creams as fruits (, sinned… etc walls)

So there’s a suggestion of mixing mead with fruit juice, or perhaps something creamy, which probably needs clarifying before experimenting.

The scent is distinctive and reminiscent of the last bottle of Chouchen, sweet but not as sweet as most English meads, with an acidic undercurrent. Not quite vinegar but maybe a hint.

The mead is clear and deep gold, the first taste is sweet but again with subtle undertones, and a bit of an aftertaste, maybe a hint of heartburn but still very pleasant. There’s also dryness here and I suspect if I finish the bottle in one sitting as is my intention I’ll be not only drunk but parched too.

There’s almost a sparkle and the flavor is getting richer. I wonder if someone has ever produced sparkling mead? Anyhow this one has a lot of flavor and the rest of the evening looks set.

Auray Chouchen-hydromel

Ah it’s been a while since I’ve found a new frontier in the world of Mead, my last boundaries being various drinking vessels. God I am such a geek.

After a certain amount of abuse of work contacts, a friend brought me two bottles of Chouchen back from Brittany at what worked out to be about £2.50 each.

I think I’ve written a rambling post about Chouchen 'the drink of the elves' before, I’ve found a facebook page and so I’m clearly not alone in my odd forms of geekery.

This bottle seems quite exciting, it’s a corked bottle and the cork is encased in wax, so I’m guessing this has been bottled with some care. I think the Chouchen is unnamed, or at least my French isn’t up to the translation:

Chouchen-hydromel
“Aux Ruchers d’Armorique”
Plougoumelen 56400 – Auray
Servir tres frais

Which thanks to Babelfish I think means?

Chouchen-hydromel
“With the Apiaries of Armorique”
Plougoumelen 56400 - Auray
To be useful very fresh

The scent is quit sweet but with a bitter honey tang, there’s a cloudy hint and the first sip is that of a sweet mead with a mild white wine tang, and a honey taste. Pretty pleasant for something that’s cheaper than anything I’ve ever tried before.

I wonder to what extent the French government subsidies it as an artisan product, or at least grants tax breaks. At £2.50 a bottle there can’t be much money to be made here.

As the glass empties there is an after taste, a sort of bitter tang, and I think this will be better with ice, but a fairly wholesome start to the world of Breton meads…

Pliny on Mead

Pliny has much to say on Mead in his natural histories, and specifically the medicinal benefits of Mead, of Honey and vinegar, of Mead with oil, with milk or even with breadcrumbs.

Also of importance is the water you make the Mead with, Pliny suggests rainwater aged for at least 5 years.

Equally it’s not clear where the line between a honey / water mixture and fermented Mead are.

Hydromeli, or Melicration
There is a wine also made solely of honey and water. For this purpose it is recommended that rain-water should be kept for a period of five years. Those who shew greater skill, content themselves with taking the water just after it has fallen, and boiling it down to one third, to which they then add one third in quantity of old honey, and keep the mixture exposed to the rays of a hot sun for forty days after the rising of the Dog-star; others, however, rack it off in the course of ten days, and tightly cork the vessels in which it is kept. This beverage is known as "hydromeli," and with age acquires the flavour of wine. It is nowhere more highly esteemed than in Phrygia.

How Hydromeli is made
Hydromeli, also, was a mixture formerly made with pure rain-water and honey, and was prescribed for patients who, were anxious for wine, as being a more harmless drink. For these many years past, however, it has been condemned, as having in reality all the inconveniences of wine, without the advantages.

The various influences of different aliments upon the disposistion
While speaking of the uses of honey, we ought also to treat of the properties of hydromel. There are two kinds of hydromel, one of which is prepared at the moment, and taken while fresh, the other being kept to ripen. The first, which is made of skimmed honey, is an extremely wholesome beverage for invalids who take nothing but a light diet, such as strained alica for instance: it reinvigorates the body, is soothing to the mouth and stomach, and by its refreshing properties allays feverish heats. I find it stated, too, by some authors, that to relax the bowels it should be taken cold, and that it is particularly well-suited for persons of a chilly temperament, or of a weak and pusillanimous4 constitution, such as the Greeks, for instance, call "micropsychi."

Hydromel: eighteen remedies
Hydromel is recommended, too, as very good for a cough: taken warm, it promotes vomiting. With the addition of oil it counteracts the poison of white lead; of henbane, also, and of the halicacabum, as already stated, if taken in milk, asses' milk in particular. It is used as an injection for diseases of the ears, and in cases of fistula of the generative organs. With crumb of bread it is applied as a poultice to the uterus, as also to tumours suddenly formed, sprains, and all affections which require soothing applications. The more recent writers have condemned the use of fermented hydro- mel, as being not so harmless as water, and less strengthening than wine. After it has been kept a considerable time, it becomes transformed into a wine, which, it is universally agreed, is extremely prejudicial to the stomach, and injurious to the nerves.

Oxymeli
Vinegar even has been mixed with honey; nothing, in fact, has been left untried by man. To this mixture the name of oxymeli has been given; it is compounded of ten pounds of honey, five semi-sextarii of old vinegar, one pound of sea-salt, and five sextarii of rain-water. This is boiled gently till the mixture has bubbled in the pot some ten times, after which it is drawn off, and kept till it is old; all these wines, however, are condemned by Themison, an author of high authority. And really, by Hercules! the use of them does appear to be somewhat forced, unless, indeed, we are ready to maintain that these aromatic wines are so many compounds taught us by Nature, as well as those that are manufactured of perfumes, or that shrubs and plants have been generated only for the purpose of being swallowed in drink. However, all these particulars, when known, are curious and interesting, and show how successfully the human intellect has pried into every secret.

None of these wines, however, will keep beyond a year, with the sole exception of those which we have spoken of as requiring age; many of these, indeed, there can be no doubt, do not improve after being kept so little as thirty days.