Mead: Encyclopedia II - Mead - History of mead

Mead - History of mead

The history of mead goes back more than 8,000 years. The oldest known meads were created on the Island of Crete; fermented honey was seen as an entheogen and bees were sacred to Demeter. Wine had not yet been created. Mead was the drink of the Age of Gold, and the word for drunk in classical Greek remained "honey-intoxicated." (Kerenyi 1976 pp 35ff).

Mead was once very popular in Northern Europe, often produced by monks in monasteries in areas where grapes could not be grown. It faded in popularity, however, once wine imports became economical. Especially partial to it were the Slavs. In Polish it is called miód (pronounced [m^jut]), meaning "honey." Mead was a favored drink among the Polish szlachta (nobility). During the Crusades, Polish Prince Leszek I the White explained to the Pope that Polish knights could not participate in the Crusades because there was no mead in Palestine.

In Finland, a sweet mead called Sima (cognate with zymurgy), is still an essential seasonal brew connected with the Finnish Vappu festival. It is usually spiced by adding both the flesh and rind of a lemon. During secondary fermentation raisins are added to control the amount of sugars and to act as an indicator of readiness for consumption — they will rise to the top of the bottle when the drink is ready.

Ethiopian mead is called tej and is usually home-made. It is flavored with the powdered leaves and bark of gesho, a hops-like bittering agent which is a species of buckthorn. A sweeter, less-alcoholic version called berz, aged for a shorter time, is also made. The traditional vessel for drinking tej is a rounded vase-shaped container called a berele.

Mead is also mentioned in many old north Anglo-Saxon stories, including in the epic poem Beowulf.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History of mead", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki