Hello! This is Yazawa, in charge of brewing at ANTELOPE!
To jump right in, have you ever had an alcoholic beverage called mead?
I suspect that many of you haven't just never had it, but have never even heard of it!

For those of you in that boat, I’d like to launch a 6-part "Introduction to Mead" course!
I’m putting my heart into this to help make your drinking life even richer.

＊Course Content＊

Part 1: What is Mead?
Explaining the definition and history of mead!

Part 2: What is Craft Mead?
Explaining the definition of craft mead, its flavor profiles, and more!

Part 3: How to Enjoy Craft Mead
Proposing scenarios and ways to enjoy craft mead.

Part 4: Food Pairings for Craft Mead
We’ll introduce food selections carefully chosen by the ANTELOPE staff to make both your craft mead and your everyday meals even more delicious!

Part 5: How Craft Mead is Made
Explaining how it is made, including raw materials and processes!

Part 6: Recommended Craft Meads
Introducing craft mead products recommended by the ANTELOPE staff!

Now, today is the momentous first installment! I want to get right to the heart of what makes mead so appealing.

In this post, I’d like to briefly introduce "mead," the honey-based alcohol we are planning to make. Many of you may have never had it, or perhaps never even heard of it. I’ve covered a wide range of topics in this article, so even first-timers should find it easy to understand what kind of drink "mead" is. I hope this helps you become even a little bit interested in mead!

"Mead," the Honey-Fermented Beverage

Mead is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey. It is exactly the same as sake made by fermenting rice, beer made by fermenting malt, or wine made by fermenting grapes. The main ingredient in mead is honey.

While we're here, let me talk briefly about fermentation. Fermentation in brewing is the process of using yeast to turn sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide. If you chew on rice or malt, they eventually taste sweet because they contain a lot of sugar. However, depending on the environment, yeast produces various components other than alcohol. This leads to the diversity found in different types of alcohol and contributes to their deliciousness. This is a technical topic, so if you are interested, please take a look at my (Yazawa's) blog!🙌

The Taste of Mead

(Though many ANTELOPE meads are quite dry, so this is often not the case...) To help those drinking mead for the first time, you could compare sweet mead to "dessert wine"! Let me explain a little further.

Sweetness: Since it is made from honey, many people imagine mead to be sweet. However, mead isn't just sweet. You can create a wide range of flavors, from sweet ones like dessert wine to crisp, dry ones like beer. That is the interesting part about mead!

Aroma: The aroma of mead is often delicate; if I had to describe it in one word, I'd say floral. When you drink a mead that brings out the gentle, natural fragrance of the honey, it’s incredibly bright and pleasant.🙌

Carbonation: Just like wine, mead can be still (non-carbonated) or fizzy, like sparkling wine. Meads with refreshing carbonation are called sparkling meads. A sparkling mead with pleasant bubbles is, in my opinion, perfect for a toast, just like champagne!

Food Pairings: Many people might be wondering what kind of food goes well with mead. Since mead is made from honey, I recommend starting by pairing it with foods that go well with honey! Just like there is pizza with honey and cheese, mead is a fantastic match for cheese!

The History of Mead

Mead is often introduced as the world's oldest alcoholic beverage. To give you an idea of how old it is, some theories date it back to 14,000 BC. Beer also has a very long history, but even then, the remnants of beer made from barley found in Iran only date back to 5,000 BC. It is said that humanity's first experience with alcohol was drinking rainwater that had collected in a beehive destroyed by a bear, and that this was mead.🙌

However, as production of beer and wine became more active in the modern era, mead gradually lost its position as a daily staple beverage.

This has been the first installment, "What is Mead?"

I hope you enjoy exploring the wonders of mead throughout this course!