Greetings Rad Blog!

 

What is this I have today? Well, it is a bottle of mead!

 

Now, why do I have a bottle of mead? Well, I’ve been playing way too much Skyrim lately and just had to see what all these Nords like so much about this kind of alcohol.

 

This is actually a bottle of mead that comes from a winery in New Jersey, so I’m sort of supporting local business? Whatever the case, this is really neat that there’s a place in my home state that produces mead. The seem to be a winery too so they probably have wines as well. I mean, why would you call your business “Valenzano Family Winery” if all you did was make mead? You’d probably wanna call yourself a “meadery” at that point.

 

Anyway, this one is called Jersey Devil Mead. When I was doing a little research online about where I could buy some mead around me, the liquor store called this “Jersey Devil Honey Wine.” Obviously, this doesn’t say “Honey Wine” on it from the picture.

 

That confused me so I ended up looking up what honey wine was and it turns out that both “honey wine” and “mead” are used interchangeably these days. That said, I suppose that wasn’t always the case.

 

So, what is mead? Well, it has honey in it. I know that from the Thieves Guild quest in Skyrim. There’s also honeycombs on the label here with the Jersey Devil. Yes, that’s supposed to be the Jersey Devil and not a dragon. I can see how you might confuse it since it sort of looks like a dragon. The head doesn’t really look goat-like enough at a glance. It sort of has a reptilian look to it.

 

Mead is a an alcohol that’s made with distilled honey and water. Does that make it a spirit? A wine? A wine I think since that’s probably why people call it “honey wine.” That makes sense. Seems like a lot of people have this problem so there’s a bit of debate and research on it. I’m sure this bottle is going to be more like wine since it came from an actual winery.

 

So mead is made in a very similar fashion to wine where you take yeast and ferment it, honey for the sugar, and water for, well, water. Really simple. A lot of people use other fruits with it for more flavor too. I think this particular bottle is straight mead as it doesn’t say anything like “cherry mead” or “blackberry mead.” When I was talking to the guy at the liquor store, he showed me this blackberry mead that I might have to cover later if I like this one enough or someone says “Chas, you better cover that blackberry mead.”

 

There’s a quite nice testimonial on the back of this bottle. It thanks me for supporting Jersey agriculture and tells me that their are located in the heart of the Pine Barrens. I guess that’s why they have the name “Jersey Devil” for the mead here. Huh, this is made with local honey so that’s neat. I wonder if we use the same honey where I work or do they have their own apiary?

 

This contains nothing but honey! Cool! I mean, obviously it has water and yeast, but I mean flavor-wise it has nothing else.

 

Well, since that’s all there is to say about this bottle, may as well open it!

 

Before I do, I need to say that it is illegal for people under 21 to consume alcohol in the United States. Pregnant women shouldn’t consume alcohol either. Please do not drink and drive and please drink responsibly.

 

This has 12% alcohol by volume.

 

I wonder if this thing has a cork?

 

It does have a cork! I had to peel back the paper around the top.

 

Letting it breathe for a moment. That’s what fancy people say, right?

 

The scent? Well, it smells like alcohol. I can get the whiff of that right away, but under that it has a sort of floral scent to it. Is it honey? Maybe, but it smells more flowery. It is like the honeysuckles that used to grow on my parents’ fence back in the day. Now that I’ve poured it, it sort of smells earthy too. It doesn’t sting the nose like wine does, to me at least.

 

Well, let’s have a taste!

 

Hmm. Hmm. Oh!

 

At first sip, it sort of has that fiery alcohol taste, but it is way tamer. It is more like a nice fireplace fire rather than walking through a forest that’s burning. The alcohol taste quickly fades away for something interesting. At first, it was sort of sour in the sense of raspberry, but it wasn’t fruity in taste. No. It was like the sour from that fruit was the only thing you could taste. Then it sort of gets sweet. I say sort of because it still has that sort of alcohol-like taste that’s kind of bitter. While I say the fire isn’t extreme, it is still hot, like taking a plate out of the microwave. The sweetness then materializes into what I can truly say is a honey flavor. I can absolutely taste honey. It is almost clear as day it is, but this drink isn’t thick at all like honey. No. It is watery in texture, but honey in flavor. It is really darn good. The aftertaste, man, is addictive. That honey flavor that materializes? It reaches its height in the aftertaste with its sweetness really shining here. I call it sweet, but I wouldn’t go as far and say that it is so sweet that only people with a sweet tooth would like it. No. It is sweet like a nice spot of honey in a tea. The aftertaste also has a sort of tingly feeling that I call woody. Is it actually woody? I do not know. I do enjoy it though.

 

Wow, I gotta say that this is the first alcohol that I’ve actually thoroughly enjoyed. This probably would taste even better slightly chilled.

 

Yeah, I shall be visiting the mead department again.

 

I’m gonna give this one a Fus Ro Dah out of Rad. If you’re a fan of mead, I’d really like to know how much difference this New Jersey honey makes in the taste.