While the word “honeymoon” might evoke images of tropical beaches and romantic luxury resorts, the real origin has a different meaning. Folklore has it that in medieval times, a bride and groom were often gifted a month’s (or a full moon’s) worth of mead to sweeten the marriage with happiness.
Drinking a bit of this fermented honey wine every night at bedtime was thought to increase the chances of the happy couple producing offspring. If the mead worked its magic, a baby would arrive nine months later.
Mead: Nectar of the Gods
“Mead is the oldest alcoholic beverage – it’s where alcohol began,” said Jeri Carter, owner of Queen’s Reward meadery in Tupelo, Mississippi. “They have found traces of mead on every inhabited continent on earth.”
This simple fermented beverage made from honey, yeast, and water has been around as long as honey bees. Since 1,000 AD, the Vikings have used this mythical beverage for celebrations, but pottery remains reveal that mead could have been fermented in China thousands of years ago, before beer or wine.
Mead was thought to have magical powers because the fermentation occurred naturally without human intervention, so this blessed potion was often used to toast the newlywed couple for good luck.
While experimenting with winemaking at home, Carter and her husband decided they wanted to use local ingredients, like honey, so they gave mead a try. After making a few batches, they went to the liquor store to buy a bottle for comparison.
“We couldn’t find any on the shelves,” Carter said. “We knew there was a business opportunity here.”
After winning some top awards in a mead competition, the couple decided to go public with their hobby. In 2018, they opened the Queen’s Reward tasting room in Tupelo.
Pioneering Mississippi Mead
As the first mead maker in Mississippi, Queen’s Reward is making fans of this honey-based wine. But demand is growing far beyond the Magnolia State.
“It’s making a comeback. Mead is the fastest growing adult beverage industry in the country,” Carter said. Even producing 20,000 to 30,000 bottles a year, she’s pressed to keep up with the demand.
“It’s such a great craft beverage. It’s a very mild product. It lends itself to creativity because honey and fruit play well together. You can go crazy adding different fruits and even spices,” she said. It’s mild, fun, and playful, making it appealing to people who don’t drink wine or beer.
A common misconception is that all mead is sweet, but just like wine, the flavors are complex. The results are influenced by the bees’ floral source, the soil, the weather, and, of course, the fermenter’s skill.
“Capturing the flavors of the land allows us to showcase what’s beautiful about our state,” Carter said. “Some meads are dry and sophisticated, like wine. Some are very playful, like our Pucker Up. It’s like a bougie Southern lemonade.”
With 12 different kinds of mead, Queen’s Reward has one for every palate. Traditional sweet mead has the aroma of honey, with a hint of floral; the company’s dry mead has notes of spice, along with citrus and banana.
Chocolate Covered Cherry, Blackberry, and Honey Habanero are just a few of the meadery’s creative flavors. Other varieties incorporate Pinot Noir and Riesling grape juice in the fermentation process.
Slushies & Cocktails
Like love and marriage, mead and slushies go hand in hand. These sweet frozen mead drinks are wildly popular, said Carter, who has over a dozen recipes, including watermelon, sweet-tart, and strawberry lemonade.
Customers stop by on their way to the lake to pick up a gallon, or chill in the tasting room with a slushie flight. And slushies aren’t just for summer; their yearlong popularity has spawned a “slushie club” with T-shirts and other benefits.
“It’s a whole thing we didn’t even see coming,” Carter said.
The simple ingredients in mead make it the perfect base for cocktails. Carter makes a Mint Julep with Pucker Up lemon-flavored mead, mint, and bourbon. The Honey Habanero gives a kick to margaritas, and Winter Spice can be served as a hot toddy. The possibilities are endless, and cocktails are an easy way to introduce this historic beverage to modern consumers.
“It’s been fun to come up with creative ways to use the product and share with our customers,” Carter said. Mixologists from around the state have created mead cocktails for their restaurants, and occasionally hold pop-ups at Queen’s Reward.
The Queen’s Reward tasting room is a hive of activity. Guests can sip a glass or flight under the warm orange honeycomb lights, or grab a bottle to take home. Special events like trivia night and local food trucks build a community around mead, not unlike the meaningful social role mead played in Viking society ages ago.
Sweetening the Ceremony
Mead is gaining popularity with couples who are looking to add a touch of tradition to their wedding.
“We have a lot of brides who love the idea of having mead at the wedding, so they will come in and do a tasting. We also have couples who buy mead slushies by the gallon to serve at the reception,” said Carter. “When a bride comes to us and wants to use our product to celebrate their special day, I feel honored. I can’t think of a nicer compliment.”
Taylor Riley-Vergara and her husband, Sergio, got married at Queen’s Reward in 2022. Each guest received a mead glass as a wedding favor.
“I was blown away by the rich history and culture mead has behind it, and I was even more impressed that the staff at Queen’s Reward had such an in-depth knowledge of it all and was willing to share it with us,” Riley-Vergara said.
Guests celebrated with traditional mead, peach margarita mead slushies, and his-and-hers cocktails. The groom’s cocktail, “The Bee’s Knees,” featured Wonderbird Magnolia gin, Pucker Up mead, and local Yazoo honey. The bride’s “mead-mosa” also featured the golden, lemony honey wine.
Partnering with Queen’s Reward, Hotel Tupelo gifts newlyweds a bottle of Pucker Up mead along with a note explaining the origin of the “honeymoon” when they reserve a suite for their wedding night. In a nod to Southern hospitality, all guests receive a complimentary mead tasting at check-in.
Some of the best things in life are simple and enduring, like mead and marriage. Even if you aren’t tying the knot this season, grab a friend and share a glass of this ancient elixir. It might not be magic, but it will definitely make life sweeter.
