Description

The Lancashire Mead Gift Set is a great gift for introducing someone to mead, or to the Lancashire meads in particular. The four 10cl bottles include one each of Skadi’s, Odin’s, Freya’s and Ægir’s mead, and allow the imbiber to take a stepwise journey into the nature of mead and how it interacts with different ingredients. The pack comes with a small information booklet from the producer.

Skadi’s mead is a pure honey mead. Soft and simple, it is a good first taste of mead that gives the honey room to shine.
Odin’s mead is fermented with English breakfast tea, making it a “metheglin” (spiced mead). The tannins from the tea give the mead a fuller body and mouthfeel.
Freya’s mead is a wild fermentation* with orange juice, making it a “melomel” (fruit mead). The tang from the orange juice helps cut the sweetness a bit, and the wild yeast adds some winelike complexity.
Ægir’s mead brings everything together, combining the tannins of the tea and the tang from the orange juice. This is a rich and flavourful mead, with the additional ingredients complementing the honey for a full flavour.

The meads from the Lancashire Mead Company are probably best described as classic meads, with sweet and straightforward flavour profiles. They also tend to have a slight winelike “funk” that no doubt stems from close proximity to more experimental wild fermentations. While usually not strongly aromatic, they sit very pleasantly on the tongue and have both a mellowness and depth that make them extremely moreish. As such they are best enjoyed alongside cheeses or desserts that can serve as a contrast or a compliment to the sweetness of the mead, while also helping to prevent an entire bottle from “accidentally” vanishing.

*a wild fermentation does not involve adding a specific yeast strain, instead relying on natural yeasts to kick off the fermentation. What you lose in smoothness, you gain in complexity. Of the four meads in the box, only Freya’s is wild fermented.