Wine & Champagne

Mead

Mead is honey diluted with water and fermented by yeast into an alcoholic drink, sometimes with fruit, spices or hops. Bottles range from bone dry to very sweet and from roughly 4% to 20% ABV, so the label tells you more than the name. The Mead Royale calls for a dry one, counted at 12%, under sparkling wine.

Quick Facts

ABV12% ABVFrom about 4% to around 20%, by style.

Legal categoryNot a wine in UK law, which requires grapes: for duty, mead is an "other fermented product"

OriginMade wherever honey is gathered; the earliest chemical trace is from northern China, about 7000 BC

Flavour Strengthlight medium

Our keeping timeAbout a week in the fridge once opened, like wine.

Storage

Sealed and cool, upright, out of light: treat it as wine.

Allergens

Contains: sulphites. Many meads have added sulphites and some have none: check the label.

The ingredient

About Mead

Flavour Profile

Primary Flavours

HoneyFloralOrchard fruit

Tasting Notes

Honey’s aroma without honey’s thickness: dry versions read as white wine with a floral memory, sweet versions keep the nectar.

Honey, water and yeast are enough

Mead needs nothing else. The honey is diluted into a must, yeast ferments its sugar over weeks or months, and the mead is drawn off its sediment and left to settle. Stop early, or start with more honey, and it stays sweet; let the yeast finish and it comes out dry.

What goes in with the honey names the style

Meadmakers name a bottle by what goes into the must alongside the honey, and by how much honey there is. These are the words most often printed on a British label.

Mead styles by name

Traditional

What goes in: Honey, water and yeast
Sweetness: Dry to sweet
Strength: Usually wine strength

Sack mead

What goes in: Extra honey
Sweetness: Sweet
Strength: High, up to about 20%

Session mead

What goes in: Less honey; often carbonated
Sweetness: Usually dry or off-dry
Strength: Low, from about 4%

Melomel

What goes in: Fruit, such as raspberry or blackberry
Sweetness: Varies
Strength: Varies

Metheglin

What goes in: Spices or herbs
Sweetness: Varies
Strength: Varies

Style	What goes in	Sweetness	Strength
Traditional	Honey, water and yeast	Dry to sweet	Usually wine strength
Sack mead	Extra honey	Sweet	High, up to about 20%
Session mead	Less honey; often carbonated	Usually dry or off-dry	Low, from about 4%
Melomel	Fruit, such as raspberry or blackberry	Varies	Varies
Metheglin	Spices or herbs	Varies	Varies

The label matters more than the name

Few bottles cover such a range under one word. A dry still mead at 12% and a sweet sack mead near 20% both say mead on the front, and they make different drinks. Look for a strength and a sweetness word, and taste it before you measure.

The Mead Royale wants it dry

The Mead Royale follows the Kir Royale pattern: a small measure of dry mead with a smaller one of elderflower liqueur, topped with dry sparkling wine. Because the liqueur sweetens the glass already, a sweet mead tips it into cloying; a dry one adds honey to the aroma and leaves the wine to keep it crisp.

Using it

Using Mead

Usage

The Mead Royale puts 30ml of dry mead and half as much elderflower liqueur in a cold flute, then adds 90ml of dry sparkling wine. Use a dry mead: a sweet one stacks sugar on the liqueur's. On its own, serve a dry mead cool in a wine glass.

Pro Tip

Taste the mead neat before you build a Mead Royale. If it is sweeter than the label suggests, keep the sparkling wine strictly brut, which leaves the glass crisp rather than cloying.

Top Tips

Check the label for a sweetness word and a strength before you pour; each varies more across mead than across wine.
Serve dry and sparkling meads chilled. A strong, sweet mead usually shows more at cellar temperature.
Once opened, stopper it and refrigerate; drink it within about a week.
A bottle labelled metheglin has spices or herbs in it; a melomel has fruit.

Possible Substitutions

Dry White Wine: With a teaspoon of honey syrup: the strength and dryness, with only a hint of the honey

Production Method

Honey diluted with water into a must and fermented with yeast over weeks to months. Fruit makes it a melomel; spices or herbs make it a metheglin; extra honey makes a sweeter, stronger sack mead.

History & Context

Pottery from Jiahu in northern China, dated to at least 7000 BC, carries the chemical traces of a fermented drink made with honey, rice and fruit. Plain mead, honey and water alone, is the same idea at its simplest.

Go further

More to explore

Common Questions

What is mead?

An alcoholic drink made by fermenting honey diluted with water. Yeast turns the honey's sugar into alcohol, as it turns grape sugar into wine, and how far it is allowed to go decides whether the mead finishes dry or sweet. Fruit, spices, herbs or hops are sometimes added, and each changes the name on the label.

Is mead wine or beer?

Neither, in law. UK duty rules define wine as fermented fresh grapes and beer as ale, porter, stout and the like, so mead falls into a third class, other fermented products. In the glass it drinks closer to wine, so it is often called honey wine and poured in wine measures.

How strong is mead?

Anywhere between roughly 4% and 20% ABV. Light, often sparkling session meads sit at the bottom; sack meads, made with more honey, at the top. Our Mead Royale counts a dry mead at 12%, so its 30ml adds about 0.4 UK units. A stronger mead at the same measure adds more, so read the label.

What does dry mead mean?

Mead fermented until little sugar remains, so it smells of honey without tasting sweet. That is the style the Mead Royale needs, because the elderflower liqueur already brings sugar and the sparkling wine brings acidity. Sweet and semi-sweet meads keep more of the honey's sugar and suit sipping more than mixing.

What is metheglin?

A mead flavoured with spices or herbs. It derives from the Welsh meddyglyn, from meddyg, healing, and llyn, liquor. A melomel is the fruit version, made with raspberries, blackberries or strawberries, and a sack mead is the rich one made with extra honey. The style name tells you what went into the must.

How long does mead keep once opened?

Roughly a week, recorked and refrigerated, much as an open bottle of white wine. Stronger, sweeter meads hold up a little longer than light ones. Unopened, keep it cool, dark and upright, and follow any date on the label.

What can I use instead of mead?

A dry white wine with a teaspoon of honey syrup comes nearest: it has the strength and dryness but only a hint of honey on the nose. In a Mead Royale it gives a lighter, plainer glass. A sweet cider is weaker and tastes of apple, so it changes the drink more.

Make something

Made with Mead

Featured In These Cocktails

Mead Royale

Often Used With

Guide by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 11 October 2026

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