1. Was mead gross?
I don't think Google is some kind of emotionally unstable site that arbitrarily decides "mead sounds kind of gross," so I'm sure it’s just reflecting a accumulation of long-held opinions—like search results suggesting, "Hey, there are a lot of people who think mead is gross!"
Why have such voices become so common? Was mead actually gross?
In conclusion, mead produced traditionally was often flawed from an oenological perspective, so it’s highly likely it wasn't "high-quality alcohol."
Fermentation is the process where yeast uses sugar to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide; if this process is healthy, you generally get high-quality alcohol. While honey is rich in sugar, it contains almost no amino acids or lipids, which are essential nutrients for the life activities of yeast. Therefore, it is generally difficult to achieve healthy fermentation just by adding yeast to a mixture of honey and water. Specifically, mead tends to retain aldehyde-based odor compounds, which must have been a characteristic scent in the old ways of mead-making where fermentation often stalled halfway. While perhaps accepted as a "traditional scent" in mead, even though it's considered an "off-flavor" in beer, for us Japanese who didn't know any better, it might have just been an unpleasant smell.
In modern times, yeast development technology has become excellent, bringing us closer to achieving healthy fermentation even with fewer nutrients, but that is a recent development. Also, the world of mead shares very little technical knowledge, and there is a narrative that "mead backed by tradition is supreme." While this is a difficult point between tradition and technological development, it might be a tragedy that occurred precisely because the mead industry had so few players.
Furthermore, because fermentation often stops halfway, many meads are extremely sweet, which might have caused them to be avoided in Japan where pairing with food is a prerequisite, as such sweetness makes pairing difficult.
2. What the quality of beekeeping led to
Next is completely subjective. It's the idea that as the quality of beekeeping has improved, the flavor of mead has undergone changes. It might sound strange at first glance, but it is my own theory based on my experience so far.
We started beekeeping last year, and I remember being deeply moved by the early summer honey made by Mr. Shiomi of Yohoya in Hamamatsu, who taught us beekeeping. He mentioned that summer honey doesn't always fully lose its moisture content and sometimes ferments slightly. That honey has a trace of acidity and the fragrance of many tropical fruits—it’s honestly just delicious.
I think a lot of honey from the old days might have been like that. Because the honey itself had some acidity, I suspect it added a light tartness to the mead itself, balancing the flavor.
In the world of mead, there is often the expression "plain." It’s a very harsh term describing a taste that is monotonous with only sweetness. I’m convinced this "plain" sensation is what created the "mead is gross" sentiment, and I think in ancient times, it probably had more acidity.
Fermentation does produce organic acids, but not enough to mask the sweetness (assuming lactic acid bacteria or acetic acid bacteria don't thrive), so it’s highly possible that the honey itself was where the acidity came from.
Beekeeping technology should be improving all over the world, and we now live in a world where honey that doesn't ferment is provided as a prerequisite. I can’t rule out the possibility that because the honey is too clean, the result has become too monotonous in taste.
3. Mistaken marketing in Japan
I learned the word "marketing" a little while ago, but when it comes to market education, Japan sometimes heads in a slightly strange direction. You can see this in the craft beer world too, but for some reason, it's a common occurrence for "incorrect information that sounds plausible" to walk around acting like it owns the place.
Oenology is so isolated from the public, and since you can't make alcohol at home, people can't recognize what’s wrong, but that’s beside the point.
In the world of mead, there is also a lot of strange marketing.
A prime example is "Mead made only from honey and water is the genuine article."
This really isn't good; the world of mead has had many recipes for a long time that include fruits and spices in addition to honey. It’s sometimes called "genuine" or "pure," but that’s not the case at all. If you start saying that, then since beer used a collection of herbs called gruit before hops were used, then "gruit beer must be the genuine article!"—that logic would hold up, wouldn't it? It’s not good to deny the process of evolution aimed at making things taste better.
As I’ve said many times, it’s only recently that we’ve become able to healthily ferment mead made only from honey and water.
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