Mead is made for more than just the dessert course! Emily Hutto talked to a handful of the country’s best mead makers to get their favorite mead and food pairings you can try yourself.
“I’m a mead ambassador,” says Chrissie Manion Zaerpoor, the owner at Kookoolan World Meadery and Tasting Room in Yamhill, Oregon. “I want people to get seduced by mead.”
According to Zaerpoor, part of that seduction is experiencing mead alongside food, a topic in which she’s well-versed—she has contributed multiple food pairing articles to the American Mead Maker journal, and she’s currently writing and self-publishing a book about mead and food.
Romanced by mead herself, Zaerpoor discovered the existence of honey wine in high school. After years of searching for that transcendent mead-drinking experience she’d built up in her head, she decided that if she wanted good mead in the United States, she might have to make it herself. The year was 1996 when she started home mead making—before most of the country’s craft meaderies existed.
Almost a decade later, Zaerpoor and her husband opened a beef, pork, lamb, and chicken farm in Yamhill, Oregon, called Kookoolan Farms. She went on to get a wine license and launch Kookoolan World Meadery & Tasting Room, where guests can sample through one of the world’s largest mead selections. The tasting room has more than 150 meads available and thirty to forty open bottles on any given day.
“I realized I’ve got more access to different meads and food-pairing opportunities than any other person on the planet,” Zaerpoor explains. With the tasting room steps away from her home, she found herself pouring multiple samples of different meads at each meal and compelled to start writing about it because, as she says, “it had to be done.”
David Myers at Redstone Meadery in Boulder, Colorado, couldn’t agree more. “We do want to talk a lot about mead and food because people immediately assume dessert when they think mead,” he says. “But mead is much more of a wide-ranging beverage,” which makes for a wide range of savory pairing possibilities, too.
With input from Myers and the mead makers at Michigan’s B. Nektar Meadery, California’s Golden Coast Mead, and Colorado’s Hunter’s Moon Meadery, Zaerpoor suggested these flavor combinations.
Heidirun Meadery Oregon Radish Blossom Mead + Vegetable Crudités
Oregon Radish Blossom Mead has hints of jasmine that will brighten the earthy flavors in a crudités plate of raw vegetables. This dry, effervescent California mead is the perfect food mead, with a slightly sour, refreshing finish that makes you want another bite (and another sip). “I think any alcohol that makes you eat more vegetables has got to be good for you,” adds Zaerpoor.
Golden Coast California Oak Mead + Fish Tacos
“Golden Coast makes lovely meads—beer-y, saison-like, farmhouse meads that are very food friendly,” says Zaerpoor. Try the Golden Coast California Oak Mead with a light citrus-forward dish such as fish tacos, suggests Golden Coast Head Mead Maker Frank Golbeck. “I think of California Oak as a five o’clock mead. It’s light and approachable with honey notes up front and a vanilla-caramel finish. It’s also good with chips and guacamole.” Learn more about Golden Coast Mead.
B. Nektar Zombie Killer Cherry Cyser + Fresh, Fruity Salad
Brad Dahlhofer, who owns B. Nektar Meadery in Ferndale, Michigan, likens mead pairing to Thai-style cooking. “It’s all about that balance of sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. Think about those sweet but sour sauces that have tanginess from vinegar and salty anchovy flavor at the same time.” Learn more about B. Nektar Meadery.
Dahlhofer likes to pair the sweet-but-tart Zombie Killer Cherry Cyser with a bed of mixed greens sporting finely sliced apples, cherries, and balsamic or raspberry vinaigrette. “You get sweetness of the fruit and mead that contrasts the tang from the dressing,” he says.
Kookoolan World Meadery Elegance Mead + Lamb Roast
“The flavor of lamb pairs nicely with the mead,” says Zaerpoor about Elegance mead. It’s made with a blend of orange-blossom honey from Northern California and wildflower honey with added bee pollen, royal jelly, propolis, and beeswax. Mead has sweet tones to it that bring out the complexities of roasted meats, she says, “plus lamb and honey are just classic pairing combinations.”
Redstone Juniper Mountain Honey Wine + Sushi
“We often hear that Juniper Mountain Honey Wine is saké-like, and it in fact goes very well with raw fish and salty, cured meats,” says Redstone Owner David Myers. “It’s sweet and piney at the tip of the palate, a little spicy in the middle with the bitterness of berries, and finishes with a dry oakiness that gives astringency. The juniper-berry flavor accentuates saltiness in food.” Learn more about Redstone Meadery.
Hunter’s Moon Meadery Lunar Lemon Mead + Eggs Benedict
Use the zesty citrus notes in Lunar Lemon Mead to cut through the richness of hollandaise sauce, suggests Kim Bowdish who owns the meadery in Severance, Colorado. It’s a light, semisweet mead that will play to the sweetness of Parma ham in a classic Eggs Benedict.
Nectar Creek Honeywine Brood Raspberry Session Mead + PBJ Sandwich
Here’s a fun pairing suggestion from Zaerpoor to demonstrate just how simple and approachable mead and food pairings can be. This crisp, juicy mead was practically made for a peanut butter and raspberry jam sandwich.