Mead: what it is, what to drink at a market, and how to make it

Mead is fermented honey and water. The real thing is dry to sweet, 8 to 14 percent, and tastes of the honey it came from. Much of what is sold as mead is white wine with honey added. Ask before you pour, and look for local makers at the markets.

What mead is

Honey, water and yeast, fermented like wine. Nothing else is required, though makers add fruit, herbs or spices for variety. Strength runs from a light 5 percent session mead to 14 percent or more. Sweetness ranges from bone dry to dessert. Good mead tastes of honey without being syrupy; poor mead tastes like cough medicine.

Was it a Viking drink

Yes, alongside beer, which was the everyday drink. Honey was expensive, so mead was for feasts and for people who could afford it. The sagas and poems are full of it, which is why every Viking market sells it.

What you will find at a market

Three kinds, and the labels do not always distinguish them.

Real mead from small producers, sold by the cup or bottle. Denmark and Sweden both have craft meaderies, and some traders are the makers.

Honey wine, which is grape wine with honey added. Legal to sell as mead in some countries, and common at cheaper stalls. Not bad, but not the thing.

Spiced or fruit mead, which can be either of the above with additions. Often good with food.

Ask what it is made from. A maker will be pleased you asked. Prices at a market run 50 to 100 in local currency for a cup, more in Norway, and 150 to 350 for a bottle.

Buying to take home

Bottles pack well in checked luggage. Within the EU there are no limits for personal use. Iceland and Norway restrict alcohol imports, and Norwegian prices make it a poor souvenir to buy there anyway. Swedish state shops stock a few meads; Danish supermarkets and specialist shops more.

Making a simple mead

For about five litres: 1.5 kg of honey, water to make five litres, and a packet of wine yeast. Dissolve the honey in warm water, cool to room temperature, add the yeast, and ferment in a clean vessel with an airlock for four to six weeks until it stops bubbling. Bottle, and leave it for three months or more. It improves for years. Use honey you would eat; the mead will taste of it. Brewing shops sell everything needed for under fifty euros, and the honey is the main cost.

Drinking it

Cool, not iced, from a cup or a horn. Dry mead goes with roast meat, sweet mead with cheese or after dinner. At a market, one horn of mead in the sun goes further than you think.

Last updated 2026-09-06. Prices and opening hours change; check the venue before you go. Back to Gear and reenacting or the festival calendar.