Honey Mead
I have been away for a bit. Do you ever get so many irons in the fire that you cannot remember which one to take out first. That is where I am at right now.
I have my regular job at Antonio’s that pays the bills and keeps the roof over my head.
I have this, my beloved Tripping Vittles. It is my dream that is slowly making it to reality. It is what keeps my mind going it has taught me so many new things from getting back to writing all be it poorly sometimes as I have not done anything like this since my last creative writing class in high school. My 30 year reunion is this fall so you do the math. Then there are the classes about blogging and computer code(this is so hard I cannot tell you). I admire anyone that understands code as it makes cooking a soufflé easy by comparison. Plus learning about Photography and e-commerce.
My plate is full with just that but I have now added on a new project I am volunteer managing the Camp Sychar snack shop and soon to be added a coffee shop with a good friend of mine. Camp Sychar is where I go each year in July and August for 10 days to recharge my spiritual battery. It is a Christian Holiness Camp but it is even more to me. It is a place where I can shut off Phones and TV where I can read the Bible and any other book that can expand my social and spiritual conciseness. It is where I can hear birds chirp and I do not have to drive a car or be involved in the worlds rat race. It is very good for me and my heart.
So all that said I am trying to post Monday, Wednesday and Fridays but some weeks this may not happen as my readers please bear with me as I get to a place I am more regular with content.
I have a stack of things I want to write about and share I sometimes have a hard time just getting to it all. I have wanted to write about corn on the cob for a few weeks but I just have not gotten to it. I went to some festivals and I am trying to decide do i write about those now or wait until they roll around again and talk about them before they happen next year? Or do I do both. I am trying to stay seasonal and topical I may not always get it right but in the long run I will figure it all out.
Today was easy though today I get to share with you an awesome gift I was given. It is a bottle of Honey Mead. The simple explanation of mead is fermented honey, water and yeast. You would think I would have tried this drink before but in my head I always thought it would be more beer than wine and well I hate beer.
Apparently this mead stuff upon research maybe one of the oldest boozy beverages on the planet. Sometime around 7000BC someone maybe a Chinese guy since the evidence was found in Chinese pottery that mead was being brewed. As continents moved and people traveled Mayans, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all seemed to dig this drink. Lets not forget about the Vikings not the team in Purple that just beat the Green Bay Packers but they did and I raise a glass of mead to ye’ Skol Vikings!! But those dudes hailing from the trifecta of Denmark, Norway and Sweden or Scandinavia as you may know it. Growing up in Minnesota land of the Scandinavian and all things Norsk you would have thought my first drink would have been some mead but alas nope, it was a half a beer when I was 13 or so shaping my disgust for that beverage for the rest of my life.
I now live in Ohio and for the first time in my life I tasted some honey mead. It blew my mind! Not literally but figuratively it does not taste like beer. It has a smooth golden taste like a sweet wine but not as crisp as say a Riesling or a Muscato. It is mellow and well after 9000 years or so I would be mellow too!
Now you can go ahead and just put this in a glass and sip away on it but I have to be honest after a single glass you will be on honey overload. Though one glass maybe enough for most as the alcohol content can run upwards of 20% so it is a boozy little fermented drink. The first glass I had I just sipped. The second time i lured myself a glass i drink it with a nice rib eye steak and some brussel sprouts and roasted potatoes. It worked the sweet went well with the smokey grilled meat.
Next Challenge could I make a cocktail with this. The answer was Yes I can and a really good one at that. I am calling this drink the Normandos it is the closest Spanish word for Vikings I could find and it comes from what the Spaniards and Portuguese called the Vikings in the 9th century when they were a marauding force.
The ingredients and where they come from and how they formed a cocktail in my brain.
The Honey Mead was a gift, The Apricot Brandy comes courtesy of the movie Notting Hill…. Hugh Grants Character upon trying to give Julia Roberts Character something to eat..Would you like something to eat? Something to nibble? Apricots, soaked in honey? Quite why, no one knows, because it stops them tasting like apricots and makes them taste like honey… and if you wanted honey, you could just… buy honey. Instead of apricots. But nevertheless they’re yours if you want them…..So my Brains said Honey and Apricots and yes in my head I hear it like Hugh Grant some how he makes Apricots sound sexy. The Tequila I used was made by George Cloony, I mean he probably did not make it really I am pretty sure he just owns the company but connect the dots he was in a movie with the Julia Roberts lady and tequila is my favorite hard booze so that is how you get tequila and I really dug the hickory smoke with the mead from the steak so I added some smoke to the drink. Lemon because it was the citrus on hand and I like it. I now present to you The Normandos Cocktail!!
The Normandos Cocktail
- 2 oz Honey Mead
- 1 oz Apricot Brandy
- 1 oz Tequila Resposado
- 1/2 oz Monin Hickory Smoke Syrup
- 3/4 oz Simple Syrup
- Juice of Half Lemon
fill cocktail shaker with ice add all ingredients shake until you can’t shake any more and then shake for a few more seconds. Strain into a martini glass and serve with a garnish of lemon peel.