The Heart of Darkness

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ken_schramm

The Compleat Sybarite
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Jan 5, 2005
285
10
18
Troy, MI
Well, it's been a while, and I'll spare you the reason for my scarcity here of late.

Brad is about to bottle and offer the next release of the Heart. It was in fine fettle last time I tasted it. Yes, it will be dear again. I apologize for that, but there is a total of 15 gallons for the world, and once again, Brad has succeeded in leaving me without any of my own favorite mead.
If you want to be assured of a bottle, you may want to get in touch with the meadery.

More soon.

Ken
 
I feel like a rock star just posted.

If the meadery is near troy however maybe I can get a coworker to grab me a bottle to sample a legend :)
 
It's probably elementary to most GotMeaders, but could we please have contact information?

Oh, and Welcome Back!

Just google B.Nektar and you'll find it! ;D

Man, if Brad could ship to me I'd consider it strongly, I had a chance to try it at the Cup last year and it's definitely very very good mead. And probably the most expensive mead in the world, but as Ken said, it's scarce and every drop sold deprives him and his friends of that drop!
 
Brad and Kerry report that labels should be forthcoming in a matter of days (hours?). If bottling follows in suit, a release should be imminent. Maybe I can snare a few bottles for myself. AToE, what you tasted at the Cup is a shadow of what B. Nektar is about to release. There was a reason there was no release in '10, and when you taste the '11, you'll understand.
 
I'll look forward to that then! I thought the reason there was no 2010 release was because there was a poor crop the one year though (no idea what year, how long do you/they age this anyways?) so there wasn't enough? I guess that could go hand in hand with incorrect ratios or simply poorer fruit though (but that said, I though fruit tastes better when the plant is stressed out... not sure where I got that from though!).

Now, if I can just justify to myself buying a bottle!

Also, we should do some research at some point to find out if in fact per ml this stuff actually is the most expensive mead in the world - I'm betting it takes the prize! ;D
 
AToE, you are right, there was not enough fruit for a commercial release, although I guess we could have released 80 bottles or whatever. I did make a small batch that a few folks got to taste at the IMCMC in Boulder. It was OK, but it was not what I would be willing to release commercially. So we didn't. There's a place something's got to be to have my name on it, and it wasn't there.

The fruit last year - the blend, the quality and the quantity - were all in harmonic convergence. I found outstanding honey. It's been six months since I tasted it, but the stuff's the real deal. By the way, and I think folks understand, when I say '11, I mean a release in 2011 of the mead from 2010's fruit and honey.

Ken
 
It's out.

You can contact Brad at the meadery (248-882-9350) if you would like a bottle. There were several sold at the meadery the night of the release, and they had another tasting today. It is delicious.
 
Thanks for the contact info, called and ordered! I plan to save this for whenever I get married... Though I fear the waiting will kill me.
 
Just a random question (since it would be long distance for me to call to Michigan :) ) just what is the ballpark region of 'dear'? I'm interested in keeping my eye on this as a possible gift to my kindred next year (since they're probably sold out this year) but if it's too terribly much (around 100 a bottle? I dunno) it'd have to be something to save for!
 
This mead is indeed over $100 per 375mL bottle, mostly due to all the man hours/hard work Ken puts into each batch (growing enough fruit for a 15 gallon batch takes a bit of work... ;)). Just goes to show what really quality fruit can do for a mead.

Having sampled a little bit of it from the previous release (and a little more after that, with a lot of pleading Ken to pour me another sample...), I can say it is well worth the investment, though I don't think I'd ever be willing to give it away to anyone...SWMBO included. :rolleyes:
 
Trust me, yule would be very lean indeed should I decide to do this next year! Quality makes price, I know, but OUCH that's big bite out of a budget!
 
The Heart of Darkness is being sold at B. Nektar Meadery for $100 per 375ml bottle.
We CAN ship to just about anywhere in the US.
And we offer 1oz samples for $9 at the meadery every Friday (5:30pm - 10pm) and Saturday (1pm - 7pm).

We are VERY hard to find, so if you plan on coming, please read the directions on our website before programming your GPS and hitting the road. But I promise you, it's worth it.