What To Look For When Buying Mead

There are two main things I can suggest you look for when buying mead. Honey quality and value for money.

Honey Quality

You may have heard of scandals in the supermarket honey of Chinese honey being blended with Australian honey. It is claimed that the Chinese honey is either diluted with sugar syrup or feeding the bees on sugar syrup. From what I understand this is supposed to only affect honey that has ‘Made from local and imported ingredients’ on the label. It does make one doubt other supermarket honey though.

It is a fact that supermarket honey has been heat-treated to prolong the shelf life of the honey from crystalising. This in turn destroys many beneficial qualities of honey. It might be worth asking what honey was used in making the mead.

Water Quality

Water quality is also important in manufacturing mead. Although Australia’s tap water is generally quite good, those who have an under sink filter installed at home can still taste the difference when they are out and drink normal tap water. Honey Wines Australia uses a twin 20″ ‘whole house filter’ with a 1-micron sediment filter and a 0.5-micron carbon filter for removing chlorine and other chemicals. To give you an idea, a human hair is around 50 microns. The eye cannot see smaller than 40 microns.

Value for Money

A common theme in the mead industry seems to be supplying mead in small bottles to make it seem cheaper. They’ll say ‘Oh it’s this size so you can finish it in one sitting’. Okay, so why is wine sold in 750ml bottles? I’m not going to name names, but some websites don’t even state what size the bottle is and just have a photo. Next time you’re looking at mead, calculate what the price of the bottle would be if it were scaled up to a standard 750ml bottle size and see if you still think it is a reasonable price.

All our meads are sold in 750ml bottles. Check out our range of meads.