What has Mead, Honey wine to do with Lepola and cider? For us it has been clear from the beginning that we would like to use as many pure natural ingredients as possible in our products. We have been developing for quite some time these products that are our tribute to the nature and it’s beauty of offering us these incredible ingredients. We have launched our range of Meads – the ancient drink of the Vikings! We are so excited about this and to be able launch such a natural selection of products.

Mead – probably the oldest alcoholic drink

It is honey wine, so basically fermented honey and water, sometimes also for example with fruit or berry juice. The bees are tirelessly searching for nectar from thousands of blossoms that creates the honey in each bottle of mead. The flavours are created from the honey that has been used, but also the fermentation and aging the products are important part of the characteristics in the final product. The honey for our products comes from the local beekeepers’ bees. Some of our own honey has also been used in the products.

Lepola mead selection

When we started to develop the mead products it was springtime. The bees and the nature were waking up after the long Finnish winter. Garden’s blossom was on its best, and the bees were actively looking for nectar from the swamps in Lapland. The idea was clear for the new products! Cloudberry will be starring our mead with honey. After this was decided and fermentation on the way, we started to think we would love to have something lighter, bubbly and fresh to be enjoyed on hot summer day. We wanted to pick a berry because that’s what Finland is full of. We didn’t feel like blueberries, lingonberries, or cranberries, we wanted something more unused berry – we chose gooseberry! Tangy but sweet berry that can be found in most Finnish gardens.

Pairing the meads with food

Meads can be enjoyed similar way than grape wines. Pair medium dry fruit based mead with spicy foods, cheese platter, pastas, light meats, fresh salads, or with cocktail snacks. Sweeter meads go well with desserts. Lepola Meads, cloudberry and bubbly gooseberry, are medium dry. The Lepola meads should be served cellar temperature from a white wine glass.

Mead types

Melomel is mead made with fruit or berry juices.

Pyment is mead made specifically with grape juice.

Cyser is mead made specifically with apple juice.

Metheglin is mead made with herbs or spices or both.

Hippocras: is pyment (mead with grape juice) made with herbs and/or spices.

Braggot: is a honey-ale beverage made by fermenting honey and grains together.

Mead making in a nutshell

The process starts with looking after the bees. Once the honey is ready and collected from the hives we add the water to honey, this mixture is called “must”. In this stage any flavouring can be added, for example cinnamon, berry juice etc. After the must is mixed we have added the yeast and transferred the whole lot into fermentation tanks. Fermenting can take anything between two to four weeks. After the fermentation is finished the mead is racked and removed from the yeast and transferred into aging vessels. While aging more complex characteristics are formed into the products. After 3-6 (or more) months of aging the mead is ready to be bottled! The longer the mead is aged the more improved the flavours are. The meads can be stored even up to 20 year in cellar temperature.

Cheers!