3 August: National Mead Day

Today is National Mead Day. National Mead Day was started by the American Homebrewer’s Association in 2002 to celebrate the craft of mead-making, and to spread awareness of this ancient drink. Mead is an alcoholic drink made by fermenting Honey with Water, and frequently fruits, spices, grains or hops. 10 things you might not know about mead.

1. Mead may have been the first alcoholic beverage humans ever enjoyed. Evidence of mead production dating back to 7000 BC has been found in China.
2. It was popular in Ancient Greece where it was believed to be what the gods quaffed on Mount Olympus. It was known as the nectar of the gods and was believed to be dew sent from the heavens and collected by Bees. Drinking it conferred godlike qualities on a person.
3. Perhaps that's part of the reason it has been a favourite drink of historical kings and queens, including Midas, Solomon, the Queen of Sheba and Queen Elizabeth I. Her favourite recipe included Rosemary, Thyme, bay leaves and sweet briar.
4. People often use the term "honey wine" to refer to mead. Strictly speaking, it's not Wine, but is a category of alcoholic drink all of its own.
5. Mead, when mixed with certain herbs and spices, was used as medicine. If the herbs a person had to take were bitter, mixing them with mead made them more palatable. Hence you could be prescribed spiced mead for digestive troubles and depression. These mixtures were called metheglin, derived from the Welsh word for medicine.
6. It was also thought to be an aphrodisiac, and it's from this that we get the word "honeymoon". A bride's dowry would include a month's supply of mead, because people believed drinking mead would ensure a big family.
7. Melomel is mead which contains fruit. Apple based mead is called cyser, mead made with Maple syrup is called acerglyn, mead made with hops or Barley is called braggot, and mead laced with Roses is called rhodomel. There are many more specific types of mead too numerous to mention here.
8. A recipe for mead dating back to 60 CE written by the Hispanic-Roman naturalist Columella instructs: "Take rainwater kept for several years, and mix a sextarius of this water with a pound of honey. For a weaker mead, mix a sextarius of water with nine ounces of honey. The whole is exposed to the sun for 40 days, and then left on a shelf near the fire. If you have no rain water, then boil spring water."
9. Mead is important in Norse mythology, too. According to one legend, the Mead of Poetry was crafted from the blood of the wise being Kvasir and turned the drinker into a poet or scholar. Mead halls feature prominently in the epic poem Beowulf. The inciting incident which motivates Beowulf to battle is his mead hall being attacked by the monster Grendel. Mead also features in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Modern fantasy authors have their characters drinking mead if they live in the right kind of fantasy world. J.K. Rowling, JRR Tolkien, George R. R. Martin, T. H. White, and Neil Gaiman have all written mead into their books.
10. There are 356 calories in an 8.1 oz serving of mead.