Honey Sun Iqhilika (Mead) - Herbal

Brewed by Makana Meadery
Style: Mead
Grahamstown, South Africa

Name: Honey Sun African Mead - Herbal
Date: 05/05/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, Yankee Go Home!

clear gold, headless, small legs, huge sweet spicy aroma with strong alcohol, huge sweet honey flavor with lots of complex spices, long sweet finish

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 8/10; Overall: 14/20
Rating: 3.6/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: **4

Bottle at Spuyten Duyvil, New York
Beautiful dark amber color. The aroma is intense, with mountain herbs, like the herbs found in any Italian amaro (digestive liquor), Alpine herbs (achillea moscata), and light chamomile. The flavor is medium sweet, actually getting dry at the end, with interesting herbal profile and light spices, not much honey and as said not much sugar.
I’m still in favor for the Polish and Danish mead, too dry, but it’s interesting.

Pours a still clear bronze with thin legs. Aroma of sweet complex cinnamon and potpourri with some floral lavender. Body starts with a nice, sticky clover honey sweetness with a touch of herbal balance. Finishes slightly tart and fruity with some drier palate and interesting spices. A nice mead.

Bottle. Poured clear golden color with good legs. Heavy floral, tea and alcohol aroma. Medium to full body with a smooth texture. Medium balanced spicy flavor with a medium to heavy sweet spicy finish of moderate to long duration. Complex standout mead.

Poured a clear honey color. The aroma was of honey with herbal notes (imagine that). The flavor was of honey and flowers with a medium body and decent warming sensation.

This corked and waxed bottled mead from a bottle shop poured a very small sized head of medium sized clear colored bubbles that were fully diminished and left behind a transparent uncarbonated yellow colored body and a thin oily lacing. The aroma was hot with spicy cinnamon and herbal notes. The mouth feel was weakly tingly at the start and at its soft herbal finish. The flavor contained notes of sweet honey dry and herbal mix. I was braced for a flavor shock after the aroma but then the OK taste did not match it. It was better than I was expecting. An OK brew just nothing special.

I think RLB brought this to Willblakes thing a few weeks ago? Pours a clear light gold, and still. Aroma is flowery, fresh cut hay and grass, spicy- cinnamon, rose hips, citric and vitamin C like. Sweet honey flavor, but not cloying or too sticky sweet like some of the Polish Meads, more herbs and grass, phenolic and spicy, cloves, more cinnamon, rose petals/hips, some raisin and a nice smooth finish. Not as sweet as Jadwiga- but equally as complex. I didnt think I would like this, but I was really surprised. Great Mead.

Bottle that shows 12%ABV at bdigi66’s. Transparent and a clear hue. Nose was honey, sweet, cinammon, some spice notes, and alcohol. Flavor was sweet, honey, cinammon, tart, and finishes dry. Tingly, dry mouthfeel and medium body. Different tasting from other meads that I have rated, better meads to be had IMO, and not one that I liked enough to want to have again.