Tasting the World's Most "Popular" Mead
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- Опубліковано 15 жов 2024
- Have you ever heard of the mead "Chaucers" Before? I bet you have if you have been around the mead scene for any amount of time! This mead is available at almost any liquor store around the US. I wanted to do an official review of this mead and talk about some of the good and bad things about it. It has some versatility and the company does a good job of slightly easing people into trying mead. Let me know what you think below and don't forget to support the channel with the links below!
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Mead Making is an art that people have enjoyed doing for years. It's something that intermediate to expert people can do and I'm somewhere in between. I've really enjoyed trying to use lots of different flavors in my meads like: Apple, Peach, Mango, Pear, Traditional, Elderberry, Blueberry, Blackberry, Maple Syrup, Apple Pie, Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Cherry, Chocolate, Bochets, Bochet, White Chocolate, Cilantro, Peaches, Melomels, Melomel, Acerglyn, Hydromel, Berries, Berry, Capsicumel, Peppers, Fenugreek. Some of my favorite meads have been the big blueberry mead, apple cinnamon mead, Bochet, OK Bochet, Raspberry Bochet, Mixed Berry Mead, Orange Cream mead, and Peppermint mead. I focus on how to make mead and how to make mead for beginners and hopefully anyone who wants to continue to grow in their mead making.
I prefer black-briar mead.
@Cyber Fox i heard they have a rat problem
Awe I loves this part of the comment section only gods know what’s going on here
@@Noble1200 Never should have come here.
Ahem Black Briar Reserve??
NORD MEEEAD
A friend from Japan told me that if sake is served hot, it’s done so to disguise the fact that it is poor quality.
He also said that it is VERY common to buy cheap sake in the colder months, because hot sake is great on a wintery day, and you don’t have to ruin a high quality sake by heating it up.
THAT goes double for Chaucer’s Mead!!! At some point, a cold, snowy, winter’s day, heat up a bottle of Chaucer’s, just below boiling, spice bag or not, and sip it out of a coffee mug. AWESOME winter drink, without the guilt of ruining a GOOD mead.
I had some low quality sake from tokai in Guadalajara Mexico that shit had me sick asf. Food was bomb tho
Chaucer's is probably more accurately referred to as the World's "Best Distributed" Mead. The only mead I've seen on more shelves than this is a local offering from Winehaven. There's much, much better mead than either of those out there.
birb
Tokoloshe mead, from South Africa, is amazing.
Chaucer's is a very 'palatable' mead for first time drinkers. I happen to like it, but then again I love dessert wines. The addition of spices make it more appealing during colder months.
It has a funky twist.
I would not show this to beginners
Chaucer's it's the first mead I ever tried, about 12-15 years ago.
oh wow 15 years? I tried mead like 2 weeks ago haha look my reaction ua-cam.com/video/P9tQJ8ktGfw/v-deo.html
I agree. Chaucer's is a great starter Mead. I love using the spice pack during the cold months and drinking it warm. Very holiday festive drink. I would like for you to try Vikings Blod it is a very popular mead on the market right now. It's alittle higher in price than Chaucer's but I feel it's pretty darn good and deserves a review. Thank u for all that u do and your channel I look forward to the next video soon ..
The Camelot Mead from Oliver Winery is superior to Chaucer's in my opinion.
I agree, even though I think the Camelot is white wine backsweetened with honey, that's just what I get out of the flavor, I may be completely wrong though.
I think both taste like how trash can water smells. Better to make your own.
Camelot is totally backsweetened white wine.
@@dangerousd5937 agreed I prefer local mead I can get 32oz for 8 bucks. Camelot is still a nice honey wine for cheap and it’s super available
“Sweet sells” reminds me of the failed New Coke. They did a blind test between the two and New Coke was picked most of the time. People liked it more because it was sweeter that regular Coke, but when people bought a case of it it was too sweet to drink all the time.
Just finished a white pyment and it is delicious. I made 1 gallon so I got 3 full bottles and 1 1/3 bottle. Drank that third pf a bottle and it is nice. Comes out a bit hot. Im aging the other 3 for 6 months and am looking forward to it. Thanks for the content.
Talking of sweet meads my first ever experience with mead was at like 14 years old when I found a crawlspace storag area that someone was storing old booze in, found these small maybe 200ml bottles of a really sweet amazing mead that had gold flakes in it... never looked into what mead it might have been but it might be why I love mead...
So funny. I have a very old bottle of Chaucer's that I finally decided to open. I 100% agree with you that it's overpoweringly sweet. When I decided to make my own mead, my wife said she was worried that she wouldn't like it because of her experience with Chaucer's. We still have 3/4 of the Chaucer's left. I take a sip here and there, but it's not great and drinking a whole glass is difficult.
I will say, if you can get over the sweetness of it - it's not bad!
I think I'm too spoiled to like Chaucer's. Somehow the universe blessed my husband and I when we bought our current home. We had no clue we would now live less than five miles away from a mead only brewery and tasting room. We still haven't worked our way thru all their versions, but by god, it will be a noble goal to reach for!
That's so amazing!!
Somehow I missed this video, but I try to avoid this particular mead. It was definitely not the first mead I’d had though. My first taste of mead was a home made peach mead and I think I’ve been spoiled ever since. It was a-friggin-mazing. Only ever got about 4 glasses of that peach mead but I’ve been ‘chasing the dragon’ ever since. My preferred ‘off-the-shelf’ mead is Redstone Meadery’s Traditional mead.
Thanks for the measured review!
It's hard to get mead in Texas too, and we even have a few meaderies. Got plenty of "Meridian Hive" here, from Austin, but it's basically just a sugary alcoholic sparkling drink. Sweet, and heavily flavored (they have other products, but are limited edition). I can also find Thorin's mead, and their products are good (traditional, semi-sweet, and dry). Trying to find some others, but it's difficult. I know there are meaderies here, they just don't seem to be distributed (like, I know some semi-local apiaries make mead). I should take a trip (only like a 30 minute drive) to one, once everything opens up again.
Superstition is my favorite mead makers! Coffee marion and Strawberry white all day!
SUPERSTITION is amazing!! I live nearby them
Been to their meadery a few times
If you're ever in Portland, Maine try Maine Mead Works. Very good mead. Normally have 6 types of mead in stock depending on season. Dry, Semi-sweet, Ice Tea, Blueberry, Apple, Cranberry.
I tried Chaucer’s. I wasn’t really impressed at all. Probably the best traditional I have tried is from The Hive Winery out in Layton Utah. I bought their Summer mead which if I remember correctly is semi sweet. That mead did take a mazer cup. If you ever get a chance I would suggest giving them a try. Also I’m super jealous that you can get Moonlight over there. Michael Fairbrother is super inspiring.
I haven't tried traditional mead but I fell in love with one that had dragon fruit and hubisbcus notes, take a look ua-cam.com/video/P9tQJ8ktGfw/v-deo.html
Holy crap these were my exact thoughts. Chaucer's is actually kind of gross in my opinion, weird, antiseptic, whereas The Hive is really good (thankfully I live in Utah and it's readily available).
Whenever I go to Total Wine, I'll pick up a bottle of Chaucer's. I like it...it's fairly decent mead. I like to get the bottle with the spice bag and put the spice bag in and just let the bag seep. It gives it a nice flavor that I really like. I'm definitely familiar with Chaucer's, but since I've started making my own mead, I'm curios to see how my home made mead compares to the store bought stuff...
Found a place in Kalamazoo called Norse Nectar and their mead is UNBELIEVABLE I would rate it up there with Pappy’s 23 year, Weller 12 and woodford it’s amazing truly incredible and they deliver I’ve been buying it ever since like a monthly bill
Had this mead with Carusos dark vanilla cream soda it was absolutely delicious
You live in OK? Me too. I found this video because I have been wondering where to buy mead. I live in a small town my local liquor store does not carry any, but I live near tulsa I will try to find mead there in the city.
I used to backsweeten to 1.040 in mead with honey, now I go to 1.020 and age it out, get a much nicer sweetness and it isn't sickly.
I'm in a small town in East TN...I'm having trouble finding any mead at all. I was lucky to find this brand at a package store down the road from my house.
Please do a review of dansk mjod mead. I haven't tried it yet, and they have a lot of different versions
It is so simple to make, you can make a 2 gallons for what you paid for that bottle.
@@za9462 agree with you. There is only one mead company in india, that too confined to local area. We don't even get to taste it staying at different city.
So decided to make my own mead. Also what they make has very low alsohol content just like beer. I like to have anything in between 12-14% ABV and not too sweet. This time I have made JAOM using cinnamon and plenty of Orange peels in two gallon batch.
Have you tried dancing skeleton meadery in Sapulpa, Ok?
What are your top of the list commercial meads of the ones you've tried?
Probably Moonlight meadery, Crafter Artisan Meadery, Redstone...
I tried a local mead from Greenville. Now I am a mead fan! Take a look ua-cam.com/video/P9tQJ8ktGfw/v-deo.html
I love your channel Garrett!
Like you, I'm generally not partial to really sweet meads. I'm trying one right now that is pretty nice, "Gunnlod's Tear's" by Celestial Meads from Anchorage, AK. It's a traditional dry mead from a clover honey blend. 10% ABV. If you ever see try it I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on it.
If I ever come across it I will definitely make it!
its definitely my go to if none of my favorites are in the store!
Could you mix the mead with a Hefeweizen?
I am looking we have a local meadry here in Northern Utah. I may just send you a bottle as I would love to know what you think of them.
I would love that!!
i am so glad you said it was "sweet" and "in your face sweet".. yes, Chaucer's is very sweet to me.
i've heard you describe other Meads before and i wasn't sure what you thought tasted good, because i don't like the sweet taste. maybe like egg-nog or something, *only on a holiday event, but other than that no, too sweet.
Try Somaek (soju/cass). This is a Korean drink. It’s a mix of 3/4 cass and 1/4 soju. Or your own ratio depending on how strong you want it to be. It HAS to be regular tasting soju.
The only commercial mead in a 100mile radius, is Chaucer's Mead and Thorin's Mead.
I haven't tried Chaucer's, but Thorin's is pretty good. I like my meads more, but for short notice b.y.o.b. thanksgiving/Christmas/new years, il swing by a specs and pickup two bottles of Thorin's.
Usually il drink a bottle and save one to bring home.
On occasion rando's will get curious, "what are you drinking, can I try it?"
And il open the second bottle.
But if I could, I would bring my own mead.
It does say dessert wine!
Thorin's is pretty sweet too.
I think that's why I like my meads better.
Thorin's has some spices I'd rather not taste.
But from your reaction, Chaucer's is a lot sweeter.
The mixed mead drinks served at the New York State Renaissance Fair is excellent.
you can make a mead and add hops to get a braggot
After I made my first Meade I went out and found a bottle of Chaucer’s(there was only one brand years ago I could find , meade wasn’t popular) after tasting it … I was like oh, we’ll I did good, really good. If it wasn’t for Chaucer’s , I would’ve quit making brews.
My favorite was Bunratty until I discovered it isn't Mead. It's white wine back sweetened with honey and spices.
A decent mead for sure. Interesting to see Lagunitas IPA added to it. I bet it's pretty good.
I like it. Wish they had a semisweet but not bad.
I agree Chaucer’s is a starter mead. I also was introduced to mead’s with it. Now that I’ve been around it more I’ve realized it’s just not very good.
Hidden Legends Mead! It’s pretty good!
You’re from OKC?? Nice! Which liquor store around here carries it? I’ve been wanting to try commercially produced mead and see how it compares to my homemade stuff.
Freeman’s liqour Mart is one of the few places to get it around here!
@@ManMadeMead awesome thanks! That’s on my way home from work.
In the spirit of adding a commercial beer to a commercial mead. What is the best mead to mix with Guiness?
Oh gosh... I’m not even sure haha
Did you tried any Polish mead? Apis?
I haven't yet! I'd love to try some though!
Love the vids, never heard of Chaucers I'm from an ex brewery town in the UK Warrington, Only one supermarket sells mead Morrisons and that's Harvest gold 70cl 13%ABV £4.75 that's including tax. I follow your recopies as best I can but I always have to replace some Ingredient's cos I would have to import them at a large charge lol
Have you tried making your own mead with the included spice pack? Was thinking it would be an easy way to add a little something to my first mead.
I haven’t yet but I think that could work well!
Chaucer's is the first mead I tried at Medieval Times
Is most mead around 20%? I bought some vikings blod and I don't really like it have so much of an alcohol taste. Any recommendations?
Most mead is 8 - 14%!
@@ManMadeMead thanks for takeing the time to wright me back. And I'm looking for a sweeter Leah harsh mean any recommendations?
I don't think chaucers is as sweet as some other meads i've tried. I tried a brand called honeywood, and it tastes like pancake syrup sweet. Chaucers is not nearly that bad.
Have you tried anything in the line of Glogg (Scandinavian)? I am getting ready to max and mix a non-alcoholic Glogg with my cyser mead. I did it once before and really liked it.
I can'y say I have before!
Gløgg is the best, especially in the winter time after a skiing trip when you are back in the cabin :) Popular with kids too (non-alcoholic)
Before watching. In my untrained opinion Chaucer's Mead has a sweet syrupy thick consistency that despite being the only traditional mead I've had doesnt seem like it should be there.
Edit: my untrained mouth was correct. Would be better less sweet. I've got a local meadery in Reno NV that does cider style mead. Maybe when they start selling bottles ill try to send one
Never had any other mead except Lindisfarne Mead from the North East of England or home brew, may have to give Chaucers a try.
If you can, try Magic Mead and Fruit Wines (company name), Celteg Wines, and Afon Mêl, they're pretty decent mead companies.
Snort the spice packs like a real man would,
I say this as seeing the spice packs triggered a memory of a kid back in primary school doing that on a dare with ramen spices.
Maxwell is the most common mead here in Australia
Chaucer’s is the first mead I’ve tried! I like it and it’s very reasonable in price but the best mead I’ve tried so far is the mead from Hidden Legends winery!
Montana made in Victor, Montana. Its fantastic. The Kings Mead and the Pute Mead is one Man Made Mead should review
I'm making mead in Mississippi and I can't order a single thing in here. So started my own meadery lol
Have you tried anything from B. Nektar here in MI? I would love to send you some
I've tried one of their things before but I would love to try more!!
I love and miss B Nektar. When I lived in NJ I had access to it, but not here in Portland, OR. I was a beer rep back in NJ, and I happened to be in one of my top accounts the same time the owner of B Nektar was there. He had 15 different varieties, one of which was like a $100 specialty concoction. He invited me to stay and sample them all. Amazing products! And needless to say, I didn't get any more work done that day - lol
That’s pretty cool! I would love to trade you for some good bourbon 😂
Maybe you could get friendly with your local store owner and have them order you some
Well, I don't think I have seen this bottle in Brazil.
Any foreign bottle, actually.
I’ve never tried mead before. Is it like beer?
It’s really similar to wine!
You're wild for saying it is sweat, i had to add a whole bunch more honey to not gag
Good video, I've tried chaucers before, but I'm more partial to wyldewood mead.
It's too bad I can't go across the line to the US thanks to fuggin Covid and try this, as I would probably love it. I am very much a fan of sweet dessert wines and ice wines. There is simply NO mead commercially available where I live (at least as of the last time I checked, about 2 years ago) and in fact my heart sank when the liquor store manager looked at me blankly when I asked if they carried any mead. "any wha??" /sigh This is why I decided to make my own, and thank you for getting me fired up enough to actually do it. I am imagining I will want to back-sweeten my subsequent batches, but my first one is traditional. I can't wait to taste it, the bubbles are still going strong. ;-)
You can definitely make sweet mead at home!! It is sad that it’s not as many stores
It's the only mead I have found and since I cant get mead I make my own.
You should have millions of subscribers, this channel is way underrated. I've been watching for awhile and enjoyed the content.
I've tried many different dessert wines.. as far as meads; Chaucer's regular, Bunrati, Lurgashal, moonlight, and some others that I don't remember all cold or room temp.
Thank you so much!
I wonder what the gravity reading was on it. I had a mead come out at a 1.032 and for me... that needs to be served with birthday cake because it was holy wow slap me in my taste buds sweet. .... but the flavors came out amazing. 5 months in primary cocoa nibs and a vanilla bean and the flavors are great... but it needs to be served with sweet stuff... the overall flavor came out so good I don't want to mess with it. (Rookie mistake is what I am chalking that up to... but a yummy one.) If it had been my cranberry wine though with that kind of fg... it would be fine because of the tartness of the cranberry.
You should try Dwójniak Koronny which is considered the best mead in the world
I definitely should try that!
Oh, I like you. I'll happily subscribe for ya. Congrats on getting past 10,000!
Have you ever had Meridian Hive? They're based in Texas.
I like ya. And I want ya. Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way.. the choice is yours
Oddly enough I've only ever seen this mead in one store around here. Our local meadery The Brothers Drake and of course Dansk Mjød Viking Blod are the most common selections I see around here.
The first mead I ever tried was in a local (Cornwall, UK) “restaurant” called a “Meadery” which is medieval stylised eating- they also produce their own meads (more than one company of “meadery”, they have a great selection of flavour and amazing taste)
Plz do more mead reviews
Spicebag cold is top teir
A braggot is 60 honey to 40 grain, but if you want proper advice, go onto csbrews and ask brian and derica on how to make a proper braggot and what to use.
Love their stuff! Technically you only need 51% of your fermentable sugars to be honey for it to be a braggot. It doesn’t have to be 60 - 40.
careful. Australia does NOT have or sell ANY meads made outside Australia.Maybe in the USA? Chaucers is NOT sold here. We have many craft meads, plus at least one commercial ALL sweet. .Maxwell is the biggest seller here.
🤔 careful
You should try HoneyMaker, specifically their lavender mead. It’s REALLY good. It’s between sweet and semi-sweet I would say. Very floral, very honey aromatic and the lavender infusion really makes it pop.
That sounds awesome!
Very sweet mead. I once made a dry melomel (mead made with juiced apples)It was pretty good and got ya drunk.
don't worry be hoppy
I've had Chaucer's mead, and compared to our local meaderies I wasn't impressed. With that said, if I had no mead, I would drink Chaucers.
Schraams out of MI is the best I've ever had.
I haven't had them yet but I really want to!
Check out superstition meadery in Arizona.
Zach Cameron so good
Am I the only one that brews with Henbane?
👍
1 of 2 meads in local Bevmo!. Mine's better IMHO, LOL
Wow 12$ for a bottle of mead is hefty (The spicebags may add to the price though) - We also have a very sparce variety in commercial storebought meads here in germany. You can get more at various medieval fests and we have some good mailorder shops where you can get very very good meads. Store bought meads here start around 5-6€/7$ (comparable to Chaucer's) and only the very good ones from my favorite shop are over 10€/12$. I guess thats why making mead at home seems to be more popular in the states than here - but this is just a guess, i have no numbers to back this :D Great video - I'm going to test the Braggot Cocktail :)
Never heard of this mead
I didn't haha just weeks ago, watch my reaction tasting it ua-cam.com/video/P9tQJ8ktGfw/v-deo.html
Dansk mjod viking blod it is very tasty with hibiscus
That sounds great!
Oliver is nice roo
I’m also in Ok. Can’t buy good mead and can’t have it shipped from online. What a joke
Check out vino shipper!
Make it yourself then
I wouldn’t appreciate the sweetness either.
i must of got a bad bottle, it's semi sweet, tastes like fuel, smells like oaked, plastic straw...spice bag smells good , can pick up cinnamon, orange peel, cloves, maybe even chamomile. 4/10...maybe
That’s really interesting!!
Wouldn't it be better to call it "US's most 'popular mead" when it doesn't exist outside of the US (and maybe Canada)
That's probably true!
Shramms!
Anyone can send me a bottle. Thanks.
Chaucers just has great distribution. Not a great mead by any stretch of imagination. I only watch your channel and CS Mead and More for mead stuff, but why would you bother with tasting this?
It’s atleast worth trying! At the end of the day we learn from the good and bad meads! (More often from the bad meads in my opinion.)
You would be disrespecting the sacrifice all those yeast so selflessly made to give us alcohol, by boiling it. There is a special place in hell for any who would commit such a atrocious sin!
Most popular...in the US
Not only is this too much alcohol for those of us who want to cut down (and be honest, half of you are alcoholics) but it also has too much sugar for those of us who need to lose weight. I think that too is probably 99% of people who drink alcohol.
I just had this on Labor Day.
It was nasty.
Baxk
Im not a sweet person