I went to Nikki’s tasting tonight, which was mead, something I’ve never had before and will likely never try again. I always try everything at least once and this was that once. Mead is basically honey wine. It’s high in alcohol (the lowest of the night was 12.5%) and on the sweet side. They had some different ones. The first was very sweet and not too bad. The middle were all high in alcohol (19-20%) and you could taste it. I am not a liquor drinker and hate the flavor of alcohol (also doesn’t help that I don’t really like honey either). They weren’t for me. Then he poured one made with chili peppers. Holy heat, Batman! It actually was spicy hot like a chili pepper. That wasn’t bad because the pepper took over the flavor. The last one was an herbal mead that tasted almost like a tea.
Now, I know you’re wondering what the hell the crunch berries were describing. Well, I almost bought a bottle of Thirsty Dog’s Raspberry Ale. Luckily, Mike pulled on out to try. It tasted like the Crunch Berries of Cap’n Crunch fame. I kid you not. Susan agreed, as did the cashier, and Mike (though he had never had the cereal, but understood what we meant). I happily put that bottle back on the shelf and grabbed something else.
I slacked off an missed this post, but I bought a bottle of mead about a month ago while at a Whole Foods up in Ann Arbor, MI; Chaucer’s I think. I actually enjoyed it, but then again, I prefer wines that are sweet, specifically ice/late harvest wine, or wines that are not over dry. I picked up a bottle of mead at the local store that focuses on specialty alcohol (i.e., not a liquor store, but the only one of it’s kind I’m aware of in the area), and it was ok.
I’m not big on wines, though I do like Manishewitz. The wines that I actually prefer are finer wines and tend to not be quite as sweet.
The beer I like is anything but sweet (though some have some sweet qualities to them). The place I buy my beer specializes in higher end craft beer (I spend more money on beer than most, and I only buy a 6 pack or 2 a week).
I’m not big on honey, but the herbal mead and the chili mead were decent. The ones I didn’t like were the higher end ones (Viking Blod or something like that).