Mead from Afon Mêl Honey Farm & Meadery

Mead from Afon Mêl Honey Farm & Meadery has been brewed for the last 20 years and we are very proud of our amazing range.

The traditional aging of Afon Mêl meads is characterised by the long time spent in barrels and bottle before sale and as a result, we have developed a wonderful variety of flavours and styles, all driven by the taste of honey. For us, mead is not something new it is a drink rich in history and culture and that should be celebrated.

We firstly look at our Heather Mead if only for the outstanding reason that it was The Great Taste, Golden Fork winner 2019.

With comments from the judges:

“Boldly floral on the nose with notes of caramel and a long finish. A perfect accompaniment to a cheese board.”

It richly deserved to be awarded a 3-star Great Taste award and then further a Golden Fork. Our Heather mead is the only mead to have ever won the Golden Fork Award and judging can be seen in the video here.

Video caption: Mallika Basu, William Sitwell, Jun Tanaka, Felicity Cloake, Liz Selway, Lucas Hollweg, Peter Sanchez-Iglesias, and Alice Lascelles judging the Heather mead at the Taste Table session.

But the Great Taste judges are not the only ones to comment about Mead from Afon Mêl Honey Farm & Meadery

Alice Lascelles, Drinks writer for The Times “I think this is the best mead that I’ve tasted.”

Emlyn Jones – Writer

We’re in the Highlands. Where else? Darting down the mountainside, the sun is shining. It’s not cold.

The heather is all around us. I’d not seen this before with my own eyes. The heather is knee deep and I have lain in it, surrounded by their blossoms. I’ve watched the red deer foraging on the rocky shoulders of the mountains, the crystal clear highland lochs, and as I sit here back in my home with my fire dancing before me with my Heather Mead in hand, from the moment the bottle opened my senses were flooded with those memories. This mead is a different beast to its sweeter siblings; this carries more acidity with it, and pushes the flavour of that perfect Welsh honey beyond sweetness. Which means it can hold its own with stronger flavours. This is where I like to find this Heather Mead. Heavy stews overloaded with red meat, beef and venison especially go well with this mead. Their rich textures and flavours open up when they meet this mead. This is more of a winter mead for me, perfect for long nights in front of my fire, its flavours mixing with the smell of the burning wood, warming me and opening me to the tales I read while I wait for the summer sun to return.

This is a great drink.

Jack Jameson – Blogger

A fabulous introduction to the world of flavoured mead. Distinctive and bold, stands up well when mixed into any drink and has the most prominent honey flavour of the Afon Mêl range. Understandably award winning.

Louis Barnett – Speaker & Business Developer

Try Afon Mêl’s Heather mead because there’s so much bad mead out there and Afon Mêl does such an incredible job of making an artisan product. This is the epitome of a natural, artisan product that honors the spirit of what mead used to be and how it was enjoyed in Britain. I can’t urge you enough to try this product. It’s amazing! It will change everything you think you know about mead.

Chris – Carver of godposts

Heather Honey mead is the mead by which I discovered Afon Mêl – the name alone piqued my interest, how could it not? So it is with great pleasure that I review my absolute favourite mead of all (so far….)

A colour as golden as the setting summer sun, a literal bouquet of floral Heather on the nose that paints pictures in my crazy artist’s mind – hues of purple and pink against the amber glow of the sun. Immediately I’m reminded of the landscape of a local sacred space where bright Heather sprouts between the ironstone rocks.

Always with this mead, I find myself at peace even before a drop has passed my lips and it’s that all-encompassing sensory experience that makes it my firm favourite. Smooth, consistent and simply delicious, it’s everything I want from a mead – if I was going to gift a bottle of mead to someone who had never tried it, this would be the one!

Ellie Farrell – Alternative wedding, funeral and life events celebrant

This is my favourite mead in Afon Mêl’s range. It’s light, refreshing, full of flavour and my go-to mead. (Everyone needs a ‘go to mead’).

When you open it pass it under your nose and let the sweet aroma of honey float out of the bottle followed by another perhaps unfamiliar smell. It’s intriguing and triggers your tastebuds to reach out for it. It has a flavour that won’t leave you (yes ok it’s mead), but it has a flavour you want to return to. It isn’t overpowering or too sweet, it is tempting.

The heather works so well with the honey and whatever Afon Mêl do during the process, they get the perfect combination. Some heather meads are weak tasting, this one isn’t. It has a nice colour and unlike some other heather meads, it is light in colour making me want to drink it not hand it over to my GP’s receptionist to send off (darker-coloured meads put me off wanting to drink them for this reason).

Heather is believed to be associated with protection and luck, with some referencing it had an association with the Norse Goddess Freya, Goddess of love and fertility. This is the mead I recommend for Norse-themed wedding ceremonies due to Heather’s association with Freya and it is the mead I use as an offering on my altar and during rituals.

If happiness could be bottled and tasted, this mead is it. If my day has been testing or hard, this mead comes out to lighten the weight of the day. It works very well with cheese-based pasta dishes and garlic chicken for those who like to pair mead with food. It went down very well with honey cake on the beach in celebration of the summer solstice.

An enjoyable mead and everyone who tastes it comments on how smooth, flavourful, and special it is. Thankfully a local shop has started to stock this and other meads in Afon Mêl’s range so I won’t ever run out as that would be terrible!

Mead from Afon Mêl Honey Farm & Meadery has other delicious options.

Gunladu Elderflower

Our elderflower mead is delicate and unusual, capturing the subtle floral notes of elderflower in a pale golden form. Elegant with a sweet and warming finish, sipping this mead is like standing at the threshold of the season, where the promise of warmth and growth fills the air.

 

Apricot Mead

This mead is fruity, but with the tart flavour of Apricots and a distinct Almond nose. Afon Mêl Apricot mead is a warming blend of honey, apricot, and almond flavours and is perfect on its own, used as a mixer or used in cooking and poured over a pork joint.

 

Nectar Sparkling Mead

A natural, refreshing pure mead with a light sparkle. The first in our Moon Collection is this 5% abv Nectar and it’s packed full of flavour. Nectar is a natural, refreshing pure mead with a light sparkle. A true celebration of nature’s bounty. Decorated with the story of Gwyllgi this Session mead will give you a fresh, zesty hit with just enough honey sweetness to keep you coming back for more.

• 330ml bottle
• Serve chilled
• 5% abv
• Gluten-free