MEAD SALES SET TO TAKE FLIGHT

THE UK’S FIRST EVER MEAD FEST WAS A SOARING SUCCESS, ATTRACTING HUNDREDS OF VISITORS TO TRY THE ANCIENT HONEY-BASED DRINK WHICH, ACCORDING TO MARKET RESEARCHERS, LOOKS SET TO SEE A RENAISSANCE IN POPULARITY, SO CONTRIBUTING EDITOR MELISSA COLE WENT DOWN TO PICK UP ON THE BUZZ.

Fortune Business Analysis is predicting sales will more than treble globally to over one point five million dollars by 2028, and UK producers are starting to band together to ensure they get a slice of the action.

Speaking to journalists before Meadfest commenced at Gosnell’s meadery taproom in SE London, James Lambert, CEO of Lyme Bay, the largest UK producer of mead, said the highest hurdle was engaging consumers about what mead is and how broad the category is: “For us the biggest challenge is that the average consumer doesn’t necessarily know what mead is.

“We’ve seen growth of 20% in the past year and going back over the last 10 years we’ve had solid 10% growth yearon-year but if you asked me to define the consumer I couldn’t do it for you and whilst who know there is consumer demand via our own website, Amazon and other sales the biggest challenge is to get through the gatekeepers, who do you talk to about it? There is a buyer for cider, a buyer for wine but there aren’t category buyers for mead.

“For mead to gain real traction in the UK, we need listings in major retailers for the short to medium term growth of mead in the UK before we start to define mead styles.”

A sentiment Tom Gosnell, owner of Gosnell’s Mead, agrees with: “We’ve had a lot of long discussions about whether we should be categorising our meads, we make very sessionable mead, which isn’t like the traditional stronger ones, but it remains that consumers are still not fully aware of what mead is exactly, which is one of the reasons we wanted to hold Meadfest.”

With 30 professional meaderies in the UK, the market still might be seen as niche, but it’s something that Gosnell believes is ripe for expansion, especially if you make sure your product is seen as having more than one use.

“With our draught mead, we want to make sure it works hard for the venues, so we have some recipes like the Peckham Lemonade for quick cocktails that will yield extra GP from our tap.”

There’s also no doubt that there is a huge market for mead if it can tap into the key trends for consumers as well, which includes sustainability, natural products and a good story behind the brand, but it could also rely on innovation such as Gosnell’s head mead maker Will Grubelnik’s wine and mead making loves colliding in the limited release Pinot Noir Pyment, where stem and seed pinot noir grapes and mead collide, with the mead offsetting the tannins and bitterness of the seeds and stems with the former balancing out the sweetness of the latter allowing both mead and grape variety to sing in harmony.

Other meaderies that impressed on the day were Shire Meadery, with Dr Benjamin Guscott at the helm, based on campus at Aberystwyth University and taking a seriously science-based approach to mead, and Mountain Mead from Mike Cooke, who teases out the terroir of various honeys in a beautifully balanced fashion. And, for beer lovers, there’s a good start from Brood meadery, which is producing some hopped meads amongst others.