Drink - Prachett - Tea - Gaming - Art
MEAD
MEad First
MEad First was Friday August the 15th, the same weekend as PLAY!.
The Event
We had quite a nice little turnout. Not everyone could make it to the tasting but because some of them were nearby we brought them glasses of the ones we thought they’d like. Attendees were asked to bring a bottle of mead, I provided some snacks/palette cleansers to make it easier for us to sample such a bounty. (Many thanks to Connie who prepared the event space.)
Attendees were: Connie, Meg, Joe, Cathy, Jim, Jeremy, Stu and myself. Scott and Logan were "remote participants" whom, because they were nearby, had glasses delivered to them in the game room.
Joe didn’t know it, but he was the guest speaker. He has brewed mead on more than one occasion, and had a great deal of information to provide about the process. It was very interesting, and pretty darned cool. He handled the pressure well.
We took a break after a few tastes, before I was over the limit, and several of us went to a "kink" photography show opening at a local vintage store. On the way to the car we dropped of samples to some of the folks that were involved in games and had not been at the tasting proper. The store was ok, some of the pictures were hot, but overall it was a waste of time. On the other hand, there was a cute chick that got a kick out of my old Cthulhu t-shirt. Was she flirting or parading her inner geek? I’ll never know.
A little more organization wouldn’t hurt. It was worth doing, I’d do it again.
Overall lessons
Bottles
It is a good idea to cover the bottles with a cloth, and labling each with a number, hiding the identity of the mead. If attendees have familiarity with mead, they will still probably not have much of a problem telling the various meads apart – meads do not have standard bottle shapes like many wines. Covering up a bottle still helps attendees to make their judgments without other influence, but really it allows people to make notes, and then have a reveal at the end of the event “Here is the favorite.”
Glassware
Having glasses that concentrate the scent, like a red wine glass or brandy snifter, is very important. Ideally the lip of the glass should be a little narrower than the bowl. Stemmed glasses are also recommended.
Tasting Order
When doing a sampling, start with the driest mead, and then proceed to the sweetest. When I try dry meads right after a sweet one, the taste is off, even with a palette cleanser.
Palette cleaners and food
Speaking of which, it is important to have something to clean the palettes of participants. Bread and cheese are excellent and some fruits work well. Bread will help absorb the mead, and cheese works well at countering the sweetness or sharp alcoholic taste of the other dry meads.
On my next tasting I hope to have a few recipes that were made from mead as well, but those wouldn’t count as palette cleansers, perhaps mead ice cream, or poached pears.
Review Sheets
Have sheets with tasting notes so people can remember what they liked when they were trying it. The one I was going to print out was overly complicated. I’ll have to make one suitable to our skill level. If you know what meads you will have at the tasting, create a little booklet with the name of each mead and room for notes.
Presentations
It was great to have someone with the mead making experience. Have someone who knows about the mead producing process, even if they have not actually made it before.
Another good presentation is history, so know something about the history of mead and talk about it between samples. Mead Made Complicated has a nice little history and is well cited so you can find other resources if you like.
