Where do we start with Odin’s Mead? This recipe was passed down to me by a Welsh Druid, a story for another time, and was my first ever homebrew. Odin’s Mead is a Metheglin-style mead made using our standard Blossom Honey and, as I was instructed, a good strong cup of Black Tea. In our case that cup of tea has been upscaled and is now English Breakfast Tea.
The Odin’s Mead journey has been, shall we say, crazy. Coming from a Welsh Druid I went with the more Celtic pantheon of Deities and named him Dagda (pronounced Dah-da). Like Odin, Dagda is a one-eyed All-Father figure. In time, we’ll write down the story of how everything is Loki’s fault, suffice to say we moved from the Celtic to the Norse pantheon because of Loki.
So, it’s June 2014, Mrs Mead is doing her teaching stuffs and I take a phone call… it’s a Top Michelin Chef’s Executive Chef and they are interested in our Mead for their restaurant. Mrs Mead comes in not long after and I’m staring at the e-mail with details of who and where to send them with that shocked and totally disbelieving look on my face and saying I need about ten cigs to calm my nerves.
Anyway, samples are dutifully sent. This is the first time dealing with a customer of note and didn’t hear anything for a couple of months. Mid-August an email drops in, can we send a case of six Odin’s Mead to ‘FERA @ CLARIDGES’.
Now Fera was, until a few months prior, the domain of Gordon Ramsey and we had now just scored our first Michelin chef in Simon Rogan. Not long after that, we were sending to his flagship restaurant L’Enclume in Cartmel. We then started getting orders from a Food Provisions company, on behalf of Fera and L’Enclume. Ten years later, we are still supplying L’Enclume and associated restaurants. We know our Mead is good when it is Michelin Good. Suddenly the orders got larger and the next we know is Matt Gillan, another Michelin Starred Chef is using Odin on the Great British Menu and the whole reason we are still in a square bottle – our phones went mad when folk saw it on TV.
So, Odin keeps good company, after all he is the All-Father and Odin’s Mead is the ORIGINAL Drink of the Gods (for mere Mortals).