Just took a look back at this thread and realized I never posted the second part of the essay because it was too long for one post and I forgot! Here is the second half...
A meadery is much like a winery. Meaderies are businesses that profit through the creation and sale of honey wine. Like wineries, meaderies often have public and private tastings for potential consumers to try out their product. Although some would argue that mead must be drunk from a horn or a goblet, they are not necessarily correct. Mead can be appreciated in a wine glass, just like wine. In fact this is how most meaderies will allow you to sample their products. Like wineries, meaderies often have a number of staple products as well as some seasonal products. Unlike wineries, however, it seems that a lot of the meaderies that are springing up tend to have exotic test batches. This may be a juneberry/blueberry blend, or maybe even a lime and ginger mead. But that is one of the great things about mead; it is flexible in ways that wine and beer are not. As such, when visiting a meadery you are likely to find all kinds of imaginative drinks in a meadery which you wouldn’t find at a winery or a beer brewery. If you are interested in mead, or maybe just a bit curious, it would be good to visit a meadery. Not only would a stop by a meadery help to give you an image of what mead really is, but it would also give you a new option when you get tired of wine, beer, and alternative beverages like Twisted Tea.
And yet, that is not all that is wrong with mead. Because people don’t really know what mead is, they don’t really know how to market it, or even where to put it in their stores. After all, with retailers it is all about moving a product and making a profit. But if you can’t move a product because you and your consumer are both confounded by it, you will make no profit. Because of this mead is not widely marketed, except for a few meaderies and even less wineries. On the rare occasion that you do find some mead in a store, it may be in the wine section as it should be, but sometimes it will be found among beer, or even among drinks like Twisted Tea or Mike’s Hard.
When it comes to marketing, beer and wine sell themselves because their place in society is set in stone. Beer is a man’s drink; that is to say that real men drink beer. Wine is a more refined beverage, for the classy drinker. Mead does not sell itself, and neither do the drinks from the malternative universe of alcoholic beverages. This includes drinks like Twisted Tea and Smirnoff Ice. So why have drinks like Bacardi become popular and somewhat mainstream, while mead sits in its dark little corner of the local Wine and Spirits? Well for one thing, almost all of these malternative drinks are sweet, and they taste pretty good too. They are also typically low enough in alcohol that the consumer doesn’t notice the alcohol. However, mead has all of these pros going for it as well, so why isn’t mead popular? The one thing that all of the malternative drinks have in common is that they are marketed as a cool party drink to younger consumers. Their target demographic is trying out whatever they can in order to get drunk more efficiently, and they will try anything to accomplish this goal. These drinks are marketed through billboards, commercials, movies, and television shows. Mead, on the other hand, is often not marketed through any of these forms. I have never seen a mead billboard, I have never seen a mead commercial, and I have never heard of mead being mentioned in a television show or a movie. I have, however, heard of mead being reviewed in local papers and various food magazines. The average reader of the newspaper is a middle class adult, probably 40+ years old. These people are already set in their ways. They have habits and routines which have been honed by repetition for decades, and they are not likely to change these routines anytime soon. If Mr. Average Joe decides to have a glass of red wine every night with dinner, seeing a mention of mead in this weekend’s food section isn’t going to change his mind. So perhaps mead marketers should try to aim for a more receptive, or at least a more easily influenced, demographic. Celebrity endorsement of mead would be a blessing. Think about the rise in sales of Cristal Champagne after it was popularized by hip-hop and rap artists.
In order for mead to become more mainstream, the producer, retailer, and consumer all need to be reeducated about the product. For example, dry black currant mead would go great with a steak, and sweet vanilla mead would go well with a chocolate cake. I don’t know how this is best done on a large scale but I do know how I, as a meadmaker, can try to educate the public about it. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is one bottle at a time.
A meadery is much like a winery. Meaderies are businesses that profit through the creation and sale of honey wine. Like wineries, meaderies often have public and private tastings for potential consumers to try out their product. Although some would argue that mead must be drunk from a horn or a goblet, they are not necessarily correct. Mead can be appreciated in a wine glass, just like wine. In fact this is how most meaderies will allow you to sample their products. Like wineries, meaderies often have a number of staple products as well as some seasonal products. Unlike wineries, however, it seems that a lot of the meaderies that are springing up tend to have exotic test batches. This may be a juneberry/blueberry blend, or maybe even a lime and ginger mead. But that is one of the great things about mead; it is flexible in ways that wine and beer are not. As such, when visiting a meadery you are likely to find all kinds of imaginative drinks in a meadery which you wouldn’t find at a winery or a beer brewery. If you are interested in mead, or maybe just a bit curious, it would be good to visit a meadery. Not only would a stop by a meadery help to give you an image of what mead really is, but it would also give you a new option when you get tired of wine, beer, and alternative beverages like Twisted Tea.
And yet, that is not all that is wrong with mead. Because people don’t really know what mead is, they don’t really know how to market it, or even where to put it in their stores. After all, with retailers it is all about moving a product and making a profit. But if you can’t move a product because you and your consumer are both confounded by it, you will make no profit. Because of this mead is not widely marketed, except for a few meaderies and even less wineries. On the rare occasion that you do find some mead in a store, it may be in the wine section as it should be, but sometimes it will be found among beer, or even among drinks like Twisted Tea or Mike’s Hard.
When it comes to marketing, beer and wine sell themselves because their place in society is set in stone. Beer is a man’s drink; that is to say that real men drink beer. Wine is a more refined beverage, for the classy drinker. Mead does not sell itself, and neither do the drinks from the malternative universe of alcoholic beverages. This includes drinks like Twisted Tea and Smirnoff Ice. So why have drinks like Bacardi become popular and somewhat mainstream, while mead sits in its dark little corner of the local Wine and Spirits? Well for one thing, almost all of these malternative drinks are sweet, and they taste pretty good too. They are also typically low enough in alcohol that the consumer doesn’t notice the alcohol. However, mead has all of these pros going for it as well, so why isn’t mead popular? The one thing that all of the malternative drinks have in common is that they are marketed as a cool party drink to younger consumers. Their target demographic is trying out whatever they can in order to get drunk more efficiently, and they will try anything to accomplish this goal. These drinks are marketed through billboards, commercials, movies, and television shows. Mead, on the other hand, is often not marketed through any of these forms. I have never seen a mead billboard, I have never seen a mead commercial, and I have never heard of mead being mentioned in a television show or a movie. I have, however, heard of mead being reviewed in local papers and various food magazines. The average reader of the newspaper is a middle class adult, probably 40+ years old. These people are already set in their ways. They have habits and routines which have been honed by repetition for decades, and they are not likely to change these routines anytime soon. If Mr. Average Joe decides to have a glass of red wine every night with dinner, seeing a mention of mead in this weekend’s food section isn’t going to change his mind. So perhaps mead marketers should try to aim for a more receptive, or at least a more easily influenced, demographic. Celebrity endorsement of mead would be a blessing. Think about the rise in sales of Cristal Champagne after it was popularized by hip-hop and rap artists.
In order for mead to become more mainstream, the producer, retailer, and consumer all need to be reeducated about the product. For example, dry black currant mead would go great with a steak, and sweet vanilla mead would go well with a chocolate cake. I don’t know how this is best done on a large scale but I do know how I, as a meadmaker, can try to educate the public about it. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is one bottle at a time.
