Heidrun Madras Carrot Blossom Mead

Commercial Description:
Madras is a small farming town, smack-dab in the center of Oregon, perhaps best known as the hometown of Jacoby Ellsbury, outfielder extraordinaire for the Boston Red Sox (Relax, Yankees fans! This is not an endorsement). There’s a farm outside Madras where carrots are grown for seed, rather than for food. To produce carrot seed, the carrot plant must be allowed to bloom and then the blossoms must be pollinated. After the seed has developed, it is harvested and then sold to other farmers who then grow carrots for food. We contacted the beekeeper whose honeybees pollinate this carrot crop, and he sent us a sample of carrot honey. Carrot honey smells like the fresh damp shavings of exotic woods on the floor of a woodworker’s shop. It’s herbal, peppery, earthy, musky and a little sour. The honey’s flavor is similar to it’s aroma but not nearly as assertive. It’s an interesting honey. The mead produced from this variety of honey, undoubtedly the first ever Carrot Blossom mead, is unusual and intriguing. It is as dry as desert dust and as bubbly as a roused beer. It is very clean in aroma and flavor. All of the qualities of the source honey -- its herbalness, earthiness, etcetera -- are present in the mead, though somewhat muted. There is a touch of the original sourness, reminiscent of some Belgian Lambics, and the woodiness has been toned down to something more like wheat, bringing to mind some of the more unusual historical German lagers and weissbiers. This is a thought provoking mead that offers us a first glimpse into the unique essence of carrot blossoms.