Understanding Mead Characteristics

Choosing the perfect meal to complement your favorite mead can significantly enhance your dining experience. The structure of mead on the tongue is similar to that of wine. It helps to know which characteristics are more intense. Here are some considerations to ensure a harmonious blend of flavors

Acidity

Meads that are more acidic work very well with rich and fatty dishes because the acidity will act as a palate cleanser. Over consecutive mouthfuls, fat-rich foods will coat your mouth and mask the flavors. A sip of mead between bites will enrich your experience with your meal, making every bite after a sip taste like the first. 

Sweetness

Meads that are on the sweeter side pair best with spicy and salty foods, giving a more balanced bite.

Tannins

Tannins in mead come from the fruit skins added to a melomel or from aging the mead with certain ingredients, such as oak.. They create a dry and bitter taste. When paired with foods like cheese and red meats, the tannins bind to the fats. This causes a smoothing effect, enhancing other areas of the mead and your food.

Weight

Lastly, it's important to consider the ‘weight’ of the mead. This isn't the literal weight of the ounces in your glass; it's the feel of it in your mouth. There are light meads which have the same weight and feel of water, bodied meads which can feel like milk, and heavy meads which could have a similar feeling to half-and half. This sort of pairing analysis is very subjective, but a good general rule to follow is that the sweeter a mead is, the heavier it will feel.

Pro Tip:

Foods and meads that are similar can enhance each other. For example, lighter meads pair with lighter foods like salads, chicken, and fish. Fruity meads pair well with fruit-based dishes, and sweet meads can pair nicely with desserts. These areas can even mix and match; for example, a sweet, fruity mead would pair extremely well with a raspberry cheesecake.