Mead!

I have tried a lot of mead over the years and what I have found is that most of the commercially available mead is not very good. Some, such as the readily available Chaucer's Mead, are acceptable and now a days can be found in most liquor stores. Viking Blod is the best mead on the market, and priced as such. Let's face it good mead is going to cost more than mass-produced mead.  

The best mead I have ever had was handcrafted by a home-brewer. There is just something about a handcrafted brew made by a person who takes the time to carefully craft the perfect drink. This year year we will be crafting our own Yggdrasil mead. The honey will be from local farms and carefully selected. We hope that our first attempt at the crafting of mead will be a success.

The mead of poetry is a mythical beverage that whoever "drinks becomes a skald or scholar" to recite any information and solve any question. Mead is especially associated with Odin who gained the the Mead of Poetry through deception from Gunnlöð. Given this mead is used in many Ásatrú blóts and rituals.

Gunnlod sat me in the golden seat,

Poured me precious mead:

Ill reward she had from me for that,

For her proud and passionate heart,

Her brooding foreboding spirit.

What I won from her I have well used:

I have waxed in wisdom since I came back,

bringing to Asgard Odhroerir,

the sacred draught.

Hardly would I have come home alive

From the garth of the grim troll,

Had Gunnlod not helped me, the good woman,

Who wrapped her arms around me.

 

~Havamal