Last week, I wrote about how traditional mead came to be. Today, I’ll write about the Hopped mead - especially since it’s now available in Bangalore! Btw, it’s a meadLAB, which means that the hopped mead is probably not going to make another appearance after this lot is over.

Before the Hopped Mead, we’d covered most of the basic tastes -

Sweet - We make meads.✅

Sour - Thai Ginger and Kaffir Lime Mead. ✅

Spicy - Guava Chilli Mead and Mango Chilli Mead. ✅

Salty - Salted Kokum Mead. ✅

Umami - Grilled Pineapple Mead. ✅

[In a dramatic voice] Bitter - the last frontier.

(Well, not really - because back in 2017/18, we made a Beetroot and Karela Mead. That was my take on my mum’s constant nagging to eat more vegetables)

Back to the main story - Bitter - the last frontier. And after years of saying things like - drink bitter, not better, it was time to be hypocritical and make a bitter mead......well, let's be honest, it takes a LOT to make a bitter mead, so I guess, bitter'ish', would be the right word to describe the taste.

Also, from a business perspective - our largest source of volume has been beer drinkers (i.e. people have been switching to meads predominantly from bitter beers), and so we thought it would be fun to make an ingredient so predominantly used by the beer folks - hops. 

Hops are flowers that add bittering and flavour to beers. My first introduction to hops happened at a Craft Beer Bootcamp that my good friend Shailly conducted at Independence Brewing Company back in 2016.

 

While I loved the aroma of hops, I wasn’t a fan of the bitterness. (Predominantly why I’ve never liked beers too much either - too bitter for me. I did get used to the bitterness eventually, but it made me wonder - why does alcohol have to be an acquired taste?) Why can’t it be delicious right out of the bottle?

Our Hopped mead features a delightful combination of Citra, Amarillo, and Mandarina hops that create a fruity and tropical aroma while balancing the mild sweetness of our multifloral honey. You'll get a mild pleasant lingering bitterness similar to that of an IPA, but without the bloating that comes from gluten. In other words, you get all the hoppiness and bitterness you love, without any of the downsides.

To the folks who think the above description is way too 'hipster' for you (and you represent the straight-to-the-point, Chuck Norris tribe) the taste that will first hit you is lychees and the secondary taste is Yumm. Maybe we should modify our tagline- even when you are drinking bitter drink better  

About the label artwork:
We had the pleasure of working with the one and only Sneha Dasgupta, a.k.a. @the.inkpot, for the artwork on our hopped mead label. We've been crushing on Sneha's work for ages, and we knew she was the perfect match for our hoppy mead vision. We told her we wanted the label to be scenic, fresh, striking, and picturesque, and boy did she deliver! It's like she read our minds, or maybe we just have great taste. Either way, we're thrilled with the final product and we hope you love it too. 

Our hopped mead has finally landed in Bangalore, exclusively at Dewars! Don't just take my word for it, go check it out and let us know what you think.

Maharashtra, we haven't forgotten about you! We've been busy bees working on something special, but the label registrations have been slower than a sloth on a Sunday morning. But fear not! We're keeping our fingers crossed that we can spill the beans (or should we say honey?) in the coming weeks.

Stay tuned, folks!
Rohan