Apis Dwójniak Kurpiowski

Brewed by Spółdzielnia Pszczelarska Apis
Style: Mead
Lublin, Poland

750 ml bottle courtesy of a trade with hopscotch. Pours a clear amber gold with a slight tinting of purplish-red and no head. This is a still mead. The aroma is sweet honey and currants, but there is also an odd off-aroma that is difficult to place. I know it is not the currants, because we have currants in our berry patch and I know what they smell like. It almost smells like the mead has turned, but it is not a sour or vinegar smell. It is more like musty, half-rotten fruit. Thankfully, the flavor is spot on with lots of rich, sweet honey and currants. Sweet, dense, and full bodied, this is certainly a dessert beverage or something to savor and sip by a fire, which is how my wife and I enjoyed this bottle for Christmas Eve. Cheers!

Clear amber with no head. Sweet aroma with notes of honey flowers. Sweet flavour with honey, overripe fruits and caramel notes. Warming alcohol towards the end.

22oz bottle. Pours a heavy orange gold. Big aroma of pure honey and grapes. Raisin and fig too. No head, no carbonation and a bottle that you can recork. This stuff is amazing, very sweet so much so that I immediately see why they have the reusuable cork. This stuff is so sweet its hard to get through one glass let alone a bottle. All of us trying it agreed it was amazing but just way to much except as a desert. However for the style this is astonishing. By far and away the best mead Ive had, I hope the Judwiga will top this, and I suspect it will. Saved half this bottle for another day.

Small sample at ElGaucho*s on 11-17-08. Thanks to tennisjoel for sharing! Pours a thick, dark gold. Honey (not surprisingly), alcohol, white grape juice, white dessert wine, golden raisin, and juices in the aroma and flavor. Some alcohol burn in the aftertaste. Thick and sticky in the palate. Good but, unlike the amazing Jadwiga, not great.

750 mL bottle. Amber colored body. Super sweet and sugary dessert like drink. Honey currants and spices. Alcoholic nose but the sweetness of this nectar covers it in the flavor. Not as good or complex as the Jadwiga. This is very solid in its own right however.

31/10 0.75 l bottle. It poured clear amber body with quite good, oily legs. True honey is predominant in its aroma along with alcohol before some spices. Honey flavor as well, with alcohol bite being much weaker than nose would suggest. Some other flavors are felt here, like for instance fruitness of a sherry or our local wine, prosek. Thick bodied, feels rich oily/creamy in the mouth. Warming, prolonged sweet finish. So sweet, it’s dangerously drinkable, I could easily drink a bottle or two. I was not happy about my first mead, but this is a completely different thing and I really like it!

Bottle, at WeeHeavySD’s Halloween tasting, with thanks to wetherel! Pours a clear amber. Huge honey aroma, sweet and sharp, with spices. Big, rich taste, of sweet honey and sharper spices, and an alcohol bite. The black currant come through nicely. Lingering spicy sweetness. Really tasty.

Bottle from...I forgot? I love Jadwiga, so I’ve been eager to try this, but it’s so big and strong, I had to find a crowd. Pinkish yellow. Sweet. Flat. Pretty good, but no Jadwiga for sure.