Making Varietal Honey Mead

Honey is a complex mixture of sugars, flavors from the pollen as well as trace enzymes, minerals, vitamins, and amino acids. The majority of the honey found in grocery stores is Wildflower honey, which is a blend of different honeys made with the goal of producing honey that is consistent in flavor and color. This type of honey is not the same as the Wildflower (or other varietal) honey you can find from a local beekeeper, which isn’t likely to be a blend, and will differ based on time of year harvested, rainfall, and the types of flowers the bees visit. Store-bought honey is fantastic for making melomel (meads made with the addition of fruit); however I highly recommend using a single varietal honey, which is a type of honey derived predominantly from the nectar of one flower, for making traditional meads. Varietal Honey Bees are efficient; they fly to the closest flower sources possible looking for nectar. So when a beekeeper places a hive in a given field and harvests the honey after the bloom, the result is that