Hello and welcome to our May 2024 Newsletter! We have had a fantastic response to our first newsletter and many of you took full advantage of the Product of the Month discount code. It gave us a warm and fuzzy feeling to see the number of codes being used!
Product of the Month – May 2024
Odin’s Mead
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 10 cigs to calm my nerves. Anyway, samples are dutifully sent. This is the 1st 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 6 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 1st 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. 10 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).
News From the Meadery
It’s been a bit of an interesting time in the meadery. We have had a LOT of increased interest since a certain episode of Dragon’s Den was aired. We have been approached by a number of new trade customers and event organisers and combined with an increase in orders, it is a welcome relief from the impacts of the current cost of living crisis.
We have quietly launched our new TikTok channel. We have been asked to go onto TikTok a lot as apparently there seems to be very little about mead on there and what there is seems to be ‘interesting’. We are still navigating our way through it, but it does mean that we can upload longer videos which can then be pushed through to Instagram – keeping those followers happy when the videos don’t cut off!
Our accounting year has ended and the accountants have been in to do their thing. This means that Mrs Mead can get on with her massive to-do list – she is understandably thrilled! We will be celebrating the 11th Anniversary of our Handfasting at Thornborough Henge this month. Mrs Mead is now saying she would’ve got less for murder – she loves me really!
Our next trading events are listed below. The full list can be found here.
Friday 3rd – Sunday 5th May – Beltane at Thornborough, Thornborough Henge, New Ln, West Tanfield, Ripon DL8 2RD
Saturday 11th May – 9am to 4pm, Northwich Artisan Market, Witton St, Northwich, CW9 5DW
Saturday 25th May – 9am to 2pm, Lark Lane Farmer’s Market, Lark Lane, Aigburth, Liverpool, L17 8UP
Monday 27th May – Great Harwood Agricultural Show, Great Harwood Showground, Whalley Rd, Great Harwood, Blackburn BB6 7TD
That’s all from us for now – we will be back with our next newsletter in June. Make sure to give us some reviews as well, preferably good ones! This helps keep us visible when people are searching for all things mead!
In the meantime, you can keep up to date with all our antics and meady goings on by following us on Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram and TikTok