...or should I say goddesses? Oh, but back to that in a moment.

Let me tell you, after a week in Prague, I now know how, and why, Central Europeans embrace winter: hot cocktails. Hot mulled wine, hot glog, hot grog, hot punch, and my personal favorite, hot mead. "Huh what", you say. Mead. Still getting a blank, glazed look from you. Mead. Well, if it weren't for someone, or someones, discovering, and popularizing, the fermentation of grapes and grains, my guess is that mead, being the first known fermented beverage, would still be the world's most popular fermented beverage.

Knowing no borders, mead has been popular not only for thousands of years, but pretty much across all cultures. Ancient Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Assyrians, Scandinavians, Aztecs, Incas were all imbibing for celebratory and religious purposes, hey all in the name of God, right? And rumor has it, that this golden nectar is quite the aphrodisiac. Mead played a huge part in what we now know as the 'honeymoon'. It is said that for the post wedding 'month of seclusion (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) the father of the bride would provide his son-in-law, and daughter, with a month's supply of mead. There you go, from honey wine, a honeymoon.

So, now that I have your taste buds peaked, I will not let you down by telling you mead is the stuff of legend past, or only to be had in other parts of the world. No, no, no, gratefully of the 100 or so commercial meaderies in the world, we are fortunate enough to have one right here in Chicago, Beverly to be exact. The Wild Blossom Meadery & Winery. Who knew right? Chicago's first and only meadery and winery is owned and operated by Greg Fischer, who has been making his award winning meads commercially for ten years now, and from his own honey. Okay, his bee's honey. Now I'll finally get back to the goddess reference. As far as I am concerned, since it is the female honey bees that do all the work, aka, fly around pollinating the flowers, and making the honey, I think that mead should be referred to as 'nectar of the goddesses' not gods, heck all those male bees are doing is sleeping, eating and ahem, making the queen bee happy. And talk about your locavores dream, Greg's bees are making the meadery's honey right here in Chicago, and of the 80 hives, a handful sit right a top a Mag Mile rooftop, sweet.

Once the honey is harvested, a basic mead is begun, ready to take notes? Honey, water and yeast. That's it. And that alone transforms into a beautiful ambrosia, but Wild Blossom Meadery whets our appetite further by creating, not one, but 13 varieties of mead, infused with fruits like green apples, raspberries, peaches and blueberries, chocolate, hibiscus, cinnamon and other spices.

"Where can I get this delectable liquid gold," you ask. Online, directly from Wild Blossom Meadery & Winery or at Binny's Beverage Depot. Not ready to indulge in a whole bottle? There are a number of bars and restaurants, including Hopleaf and The Funky Budda Lounge, here in Chicago, that feature Wild Blossom Meads. Still not swayed? It is said that the drinker of mead is imbibed with the following: more life, wisdom, courage, strength, and well, going back to those aphrodisiacal properties....

Cheers,

Mo

moira@efete.net

p.s. a huge thank you to The Local Beet for compiling the most complete list of area winter markets, Winter Markets Ahead. See you at the markets!