11 Popular Mead Brands, Ranked

As a budding mead fan, you can bet I'll be treating myself to bottles of this fermented honey beverage regularly now that I've become acquainted with some. Though the word "mead" may conjure up images of taverns from the Middle Ages, don't let that taint your perceptions of the drink — the craft of mead-making is still alive and well, with such a wide scope of variations that anyone should be able to find a mead they'll enjoy. Sure, you could make mead at home, but why play around with your own variations when hundreds of meaderies across the United States have already honed in on delicious recipes? 

It's possible that supporting these businesses could help mead make a comeback, which in turn could have a positive environmental impact as it will ensure bees remain in our ecosystem. You don't need to know everything about mead to enjoy it, but I'd recommend having a good idea of your preferred flavor profiles as you're hunting down bottles. I tried and ranked meads from several different meaderies across the country, and because each mead was very different, the ranking process wasn't easy. I ended up ranking them based on flavor potency. I preferred meads that blew me away with wild, full flavors. If your preferences are different, don't hesitate to give some of the meads toward the "bottom" of my list a try — they were still great!

Some recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

Given that Heidrun's meads felt the most luxurious of the meads I sampled, it feels criminal to put them at the bottom of a list. However, because the flavors were the lightest of all the meads I tried, that's the spot I gave them. Absolutely grab a few bottles of the company's sparkling mead if you need a high-class beverage to serve at a fancy cocktail hour, wedding dinner, or evening gala. This California meadery crafts its Champagne-style meads with care and attention, designing each for the "sophisticated wine palate" — if this sounds like you, you should have bought a bottle yesterday. 

Heidrun's California Orange Blossom mead was incredibly light and reminiscent of a sweet white wine. Citrus came through slightly and its effervescence made it only sippable, so don't expect to down gulps of this at a time. Nevertheless, it went down incredibly smoothly. You're left with a slight orange sweetness on your lips after taking a sip. Its Marin County Wildflower mead was very delicately floral and boasted a slightly stronger flavor than the California Orange Blossom. It tasted light and elegant, but it was slightly more playful than its counterpart — I'd pass this one around in champagne flutes at my next springtime brunch. Each was gentle and unassuming, and can easily earn you some sophistication marks if you bring one to a gathering.

My next pick takes us across the pond to sample a mead from Denmark (don't worry — it's still widely available in the U.S.). Though Dansk Mjød has only been brewing mead since 1994, its recipes go back centuries, and the fact that the company develops its own equipment for mead-making proves that it's a big player in the meadery game. I only tried one bottle from the brand, but I'll definitely be seeking out others on my next mead hunt. With flavors like bog myrtle, almond, and Tasmanian pepperberry, how could I resist sampling at least a couple more?

Dansk Mjød's Viking Blod mead is a "Nordic honey wine with hibiscus and hops added." It also boasts 19% ABV. Overall, it was a very light and very sweet mead. Hibiscus didn't come through until the end of the sip, and though I'd have preferred it to be more hibiscus-forward, the mead was nevertheless full of flavor. It had a slight hoppy taste without being reminiscent of beer, and though the ABV is high, it went down very smoothly. A sip of this mead will leave a sweet, honeyed taste on your lips which lingers on your palate, toward the back of your mouth. I enjoyed it, but I could see it being too sweet for the casual mead drinker. 

Herbal beverage drinkers shouldn't hesitate to pick up a bottle of Hierophant's Apotheke mead if they see it on store shelves. It harkens back to a time when herbal meads were used as medicine (a practice which, personally, I think we should rekindle), and that appears to be no accident; after all, the meadery is named after the hierophant, a figure who ushers one into the presence of holiness. Purity and oneness with nature were absolutely at the top of my mind as I drank this herbal mead, which anyone with the mildest interest in herbalism would love. 

Hierophant's Apotheke is a "Honey Wine with botanicals and [Pacific Northwest] mushrooms added," but that's the bare minimum of what's in this mead. The herbs Hierophant combined in crafting this mead include hibiscus, orange peel, lemon verbena, nettle, raspberry leaf, and dandelion root, as well as Pacific Northwest turkey tail mushrooms. It's a sparkling mead with just 6.5% ABV. It felt like drinking a light, sparkling rosé, and was reminiscent of taking herbal medicine, though it didn't taste medicinal. Hibiscus was the strongest flavor. Everything else fell to the background to provide depth and complement each other. 

Melchemy Meadery takes pride in the place it calls home. Nestled in Washington's Cascade Mountains region, its surroundings are ripe with wild ingredients that the meadery incorporates into its bottles. It won't leave you guessing about its practices, either — in fact, the meadery has extensive information on its website about how it sources and grows its ingredients, and how it works with local ecosystems. Though I only tried one of this meadery's bottles, I'm dying to try its "Drylands" juniper-pine offering and its salal mead.

If you've ever tasted a drink with elderflower syrup or with rose syrup, you'll know that each flavor stands distinct among other floral and herbal flavor profiles. Melchemy's Elder-Rose mead is no exception. This mead is flavored with elderflower and rose petal — a daring combination. I'd imagine it was hard to strike the appropriate balance between these two, but Melchemy did it. Both flavors managed to come through equally, complementing each other, and though the end result is quite a perfume-esque mead, I don't mind that in the slightest. It felt like drinking liquid flowers. The mead was delightful chilled and I was happy it wasn't too sweet. If you're looking for a mead to make you feel like you're spending the afternoon in a luxurious garden, this is it; it only got the number eight spot on the list because it lacked the jammy quality I came to prefer.

If you ever find yourself near Worthington, Ohio, I'd encourage you to book a tour with Brothers Drake Meadery. The Brothers Drake themselves (Eric and Woody, to be precise) have been passionate about their community since opening their meadery in 2007, and they incorporate a community-centered ethic into all of their practices. In addition to sourcing local ingredients (especially local honey) when crafting their meads, the meadery strives to be a "third space" for their neighborhood residents to gather, unwind, dream, and enjoy each others' company.

I sampled Brothers Drake's Apple Pie mead. It's described as an apple mead aged in bourbon barrels, infused with the fragrances of apple pie spices like cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg. The apple and cinnamon were delightfully strong in this beverage, while the clove and nutmeg were almost imperceptible but still add some depth of flavor. I can tell it was aged in bourbon barrels — the bourbon flavor added some pleasant smokiness to an already well-rounded drink. Though it was delightful cold, I'll be trying what's left in the bottle as a warm beverage, perhaps by making some hot mulled mead. It's a bottle you'll want to have on hand from September through December, but I won't blame you if you grab some in the warmer months to get a welcome taste of fall vibes.

Our next meadery pick takes us to Pittsfield, New Hampshire, the home base of Moonlight Meadery. Moonlight has been in operation since 2010, when it was started by Michael Fairbrother, whose passion for mead was kindled in 1995. In addition to making mead, his company also makes ciders — despite some similarities, mead and cider are quite different. If you want to keep mead in your alcoholic beverage rotation, Moonlight can help; its subscription-based mead program starts at just $50 per quarter and earns you discounts on other company products. 

Moonlight Meadery's Embrace mead has tasting notes of blackcurrant and honey. When I poured it into a glass, I noticed it had a rich, fruity aroma, but this mead tasted drier than I expected, which I quite enjoyed — especially given the startling sweetness of other meads I tried. Though blackcurrants gave it a good amount of tartness, the honey's sweetness balanced that out enough that I didn't find myself puckering, and it went down wonderfully smoothly. This mead is potent, but don't let that turn you away. Another Moonlight mead, Utopian X, is impressively traditional, matured for 10 years, and made for mead fanatics. It was very sweet and alcohol-forward, with notes of bourbon and vanilla. Though I was slightly overwhelmed by it, it's a bottle to opt for if you're looking for a potent, traditional mead. Moonlight's unique contrast of offerings and the juiciness of its Embrace mead earned it the number six spot on this list. 

B. Nektar Meadery (which also makes cider, beer, and non-alcoholic beverages) gave me a pleasant surprise with some canned offerings. If you're looking for a mead that's easy to tote to the beach, this is your brand. Since 2006, B. Nektar has been a playful, innovative company whose owners strive not to take things too seriously, and manage to make award-winning beverages in the process. You can stop in if you ever find yourself in Ferndale, Michigan, but the brand is widely distributed enough that there's a decent chance of finding a location with some of its offerings near you.

B. Nektar's Apple Pi mead smelled like baked apples and cinnamon, and the spice balance was lovely — I detected notes of cinnamon and nutmeg as well as some cloves, and there may have been a touch of anise in there. This alcohol-forward mead is perfect for those looking for a potent drink. Another of its offerings, Odin's Blessing, was a fairly dry honey mead, and was surprisingly reminiscent of beer (though I can't decide if that was because I was drinking it from a can). It was clean and refreshing, as was Peach Kill All The Golfers, a mead that features black tea, peach, and lemon. The black tea and honey in this one provided a nice flavor balance, while peach and lemon give extra brightness. The fact that the brand offered canned meads gave it a leg up, and the company's wide variety of flavors was also impressive.

Honeytree Meadery isn't just a meadery — it's also an apiary that cares for over 30 colonies of bees in the East Nashville area. I love the closed-loop production of a meadery that sources its own honey, which is what the meadery is all about. Producing mead is only part of its mission; the operators also strive to educate patrons about ecological stewardship in mead making, and are themselves always trying to become more environmentally sustainable.

I tried four meads from this company, which managed to retain its own distinct character in each bottle, despite offering very different flavor profiles. The Signature Series Premium Mead tasted like a nice cross between mead and white wine, especially when enjoyed chilled. It's more alcohol-forward and not as sweet as other meads, making it great for a refined mead enthusiast. Bouquet Toss (made with rose hip, hibiscus, and linden flower) was a beautiful, refreshing floral beverage. Sweet Baby Ginger was definitely potent in its ginger flavor (ginger lovers, this one is for you), and is a bottle I'll be grabbing to aid me in healing from my next cold. The Basic Batch Seasonal Mead is my favorite — it smells warm and buttery, reminiscent of butterscotch, and was sweet and luxurious to sip on without being overwhelming. 

Batch Mead has been a labor of love from a small team of owners, and is currently located in Temecula, California. It sources local ingredients whenever possible and makes its mead in small batches — this means that you'll frequently see something new on the menu, and also that you should stock up on your favorites while they're still around. Its award-winning meads are all playful in their design, and draw inspiration from folklore, mythology, and even circus culture in their names and labels.

I loved each mead I tried from Batch Meadery. Its Curse of Calypso mead was a shocking departure from most other meads I sampled in its tropical character; its notes of pineapple and peaches were distinct from any other bottle, which is part of why this brand got a higher rating on my list. It was incredibly juicy and the pineapple wasn't overwhelming, as the hint of sweet peaches provided a lovely balance. Batch's Figment didn't have the best color (it was a muddy burgundy-brown), but I completely forgot about that when I took a sip of this fig-forward, barrel-aged mead. This was one of the juiciest, jammiest bottles I sampled; the taste of figs lingered on my lips (it felt almost sinful), and there was nothing subtle about the flavor of this mead. Its gentle whiskey notes will give one the impression of drinking a dessert mead in a centuries-old tavern. 

Everyone loves a good "our-business-started-in-a-garage" success story, but that's far from the only reason Four Fires Meadery earned the number two spot on my list. I'm endlessly thankful the four friends decided to expand their hobby beyond a garage-based enterprise, and it was a smart decision on their part — each bottle I tasted from this meadery boasted surprising, delightful, even nostalgic flavor combinations that will have me ordering more once I'm through with my current supply. 

Four Fires' Lost in Translation mead was one of the sweetest I had, but I enjoyed it immensely. It tasted exactly like what it is — a pure, unadulterated honey wine with a slight cardamom warmth. It goes down smoothly despite having a strong alcohol aroma. The Slow Jamz blackberry mead was delightful. The blackberries first hit you in the drink's aroma, and then, in the flavor, they have a slight tart quality that adds some contrast to this still-sweet drink. Kitten Wishes and Business Kisses smelled mellow, but don't let that fool you — it's an intensely jammy, juicy mead with a good balance of raspberry, blackberry, and blackcurrant flavors. My favorite of the selection, though, was Strawberry Hand Grenade. This strawberry vanilla wine tasted like an indulgent dessert. The strawberries were bright and sweet while the vanilla grounded this drink somewhat, and honestly, it felt like I was drinking strawberry sherbet (which I definitely mean as a compliment).

At the top of the list, my personal favorite of the mead brands I tried, is Second City Meadery. This Chicago-based meadery was born from a spark of inspiration that came when one of the owners tried their first mead. The rest, as they say, is history. Second City gets creative with its mead crafting and even has selections of coffee-based meads, as well as spice-forward, maple syrup-infused, and fruit-forward servings. What won it the number one spot on this list, though, was the stunning depth of flavor in each bottle I tried.

Second City's Streetlight mead seems simple in concept, with a flavor profile containing blackcurrant, cherry, and lemon. The combination results in a stunning mead. It's very fragrant, and the cherry and lemon complement each other effortlessly to give a certain freshness to this mead that the others lacked. Streetlight will fill the back of your mouth with flavor, and it has a deep, rich quality without being overbearing. My favorite mead was Second City's Sphere of Influence (which would be a great pairing with chocolate chess pie). It's another one that sounds relatively simple, containing honeyberry, raspberry, and blackcurrant, but something about the combination of those flavors in this drink blew me away. It's very jammy without being too sweet; the raspberry and currants married together beautifully while the honeyberry added just enough sweetness to round out the other berries' tartness. I could drink bottles of this mead without batting an eye.

As I've already mentioned, "ranking" these meads was extraordinarily difficult given how unique each bottle was. In the end, I chose to pick a variable and rank each mead according to that, so I chose to judge them based on flavor potency. My favorite meads were juicy, jammy, rich, and smooth, which is why Second City Meadery (specifically its Sphere of Influence bottle) got the top spot on my list. Lighter, less potent meads ranked toward the bottom, but they were by no means bad — they simply lacked the jammy quality that I prefer in a mead.

I dedicated an evening to sipping the meads I tried, and I decided to taste them all in one sitting so my opinion wasn't influenced by too many external factors. That being said, I can't emphasize enough that this is a ranking that won't be universal to every consumer, as these meads were too unique to truly compare against one another. My advice? Take some time to go through the descriptions for each mead and pick the one closest to what you're looking for. No matter which mead on this list you end up with, you won't be disappointed.