Mead Cocktails & Honey Vodka Recipe

This is day two of share our strength's share our holiday table virtual fundraising dinner party event. This course is drinks. I chose to select Gourmet drinks to post about, more specifically cocktails. Because really who doesn't love a good strong drink now and then? Anyone who frequents my blog knows that I'm a home brewer. I love all things home made, I make jam, bread, baked goods why not extend my passion for good quality into my bar. My favorite thing to brew of course is mead. So I figured I would highlight that in this post. Mead is type of wine made from honey, it can be carbonated or flat like regular wine. The version I'm using in these recipes is a standard sack style mead that just happens to be carbonated. (sack mead means that it has a higher level of honey, which results in a higher specific gravity, or alcohol content, 13-16%) Normally I do bottle my meads but on this occasion it went directly from the holding jug into the keg. When I have the opportunity to put my mead into kegs, I do. Its easier than sterilizing 5,000 bottles and its  cheap, no lids or corks required. This I find is the best way to obtain carbonation with mead or anything else. If you are unable to find a carbonated mead by all means feel free to use whatever you can find. I've found that standard sack mead is what you would find in any well stocked liquor store or wine shop.


 

Along with home made mead I utilized homemade liqueurs for these drinks. Honey vodka as well as a holiday spiced liqueur. Honey vodka is an after dinner cordial most popular in Poland, I made mine with a standard honey and cheap vodka. For me making my own homemade liqueurs from affordable vodka is a great way to get a wonderful flavor thats cheaper than spending $30 a bottle for something thats really easy to make yourself. An added benefit of making your own home brews and liqueurs is the fact that you know exactly whats in it. Lots of wineries utilize things like sulfate to their wines to inhibit bacterial growth, or to aid in clarifying the final product. The pro's, you will have a consistent brew theres less risk of ending up with a bad batch and it helps for a consistent appearance. The con's, its an additive, lots of people have sensitivities or allergies to sulfates in particular and you really don't need it. If you have a glass of wine and find that you've got a rager of a head ache it might just be that your wine contains sulfate and your body does not approve. If you can find honey vodka and don't want to wait it out by all means you can purchase it as well, because honestly the hardest part about making homemade liqueurs is waiting for them to mellow out. 

Heres a few drinks utilizing mead that I made up. The first one that I tried and absolutely loved is what I'm calling Rapunzel's Delight. Golden yellow and sweet. It contains honey vodka, pineapple juice, mead and ginger ale. The second one I made was good but I found the cherry juice itself to be somewhat unappealing, although I bought the best cherry juice I could find it reminded me of flavored tobacco. Its a mixture of homemade amaretto, spiced liqueur (you could substitute cherry vodka), mead, cherry juice, and lime. For a festive name I'm just going to go with the Linzer Zing referring to spiced linzer torte's or cookies which are usually a spiced dough with fruit filling. Last but not least I simply blended some mead with ginger ale, you can also toss in some bourbon or brandy, or dilute it with juice. (mango would be nice) Its belly warming and simple. I'm calling this drink the honey moon. As I've mentioned before the term honey moon actually historically refers to the ritual of drinking mead for 30 days after a marriage to encourage the birth of a son and the term honey lips refers to the taste of mead, or honey on a maidens lips. Mead has for a long time been associated with good luck, well being (wassail) and romance. Anyone who has had mead knows its not quite like wine although you can appreciate it and sip it by itself I find that diluting it prevents ...getting yourself into trouble or waking up with one hell of a head ache. If your not avoiding trouble by all means add that bourbon, and have a good time.

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Last but not least, on a final note the reason for this post! The blogosphere has gathered for this virtual dinner party because one in four children face hunger here in America, this progressive supper is aiming to raise awareness and hopefully funds to help support share our strength. Think of ways you can support a charitable cause this holiday season. I'm backing share our strength, because as I've said before food is truly my one connection. All of my life I have related to holidays and memories by food. I can not imagine not having a holiday home thats vibrantly decorated, or presents under the tree. Worse yet I can not imagine looking at my children knowing that they are hungry. Luckily most people never think of not having holiday cookies, or food on the supper table. If anyone takes anything from this post I urge everyone to at the very least acknowledge what you are lucky to have. (friends, family, food, a warm home ...coffee?)  I know I find myself guilty of not really focusing on all the things that I do have, instead like many other folks I dwell on what I could have and thats something I work on from day to day. Gather your family and do something together to celebrate your gratitude for each other, make cookies and write inspiring words on them, do a craft to decorate your home with, focus just on giving this holiday season. I feel that the corporations have truly diluted the real meaning of the holidays, its not receiving presents, its not gift cards and cash, its spending time with your family and being happy to have one another. If your fortunate enough to be able to give this year consider share our strength, or maybe theres something close to your heart you can support. Step out into your own community and share and care today.  Happy Holidays, from our holiday table to yours! 

Visit Other Posts for Share our Holiday Tables Drink-Theme.

Food Woolf (gourmet, crab apple vodka recipe)

The gringo chapin (gourmet, ponche de navidad- Christmas Punch)

Three Many Cooks (family friendly, milk punch)

Fat Wuz here (family friendly Share Our Strength Post)

Lexies Kitchen (vegetarian, Cashew Horchata)

Simply Sugar and Gluten Free  (vegetarian, Eggnog)

Gluten Free Easily (gluten free, Reindeer Antlers Punch)

 Front left honey vodka, Front right holiday spiced liqueur

Honey Vodka: 

1 cup honey

3 cups vodka

2 cinnamon sticks (optional* you can also add clove or allspice)

Combine honey, vodka and cinnamon sticks in a glass jar with a tight fitting lid. You can use plastic however you'll want to make sure its food safe. Shake the jar vigorously, shake it from time to time and allow to rest ideally 3 months. It can be used immediately however the longer it sits the more the flavors will meld. (the cinnamon in particular)

Holiday Spiced Liqueur:

I have not yet perfected the amounts for this I generally just toss stuff in a jar and shake it up then forget about it. What I used was vodka, candied ginger, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, whole allspice and brown sugar. I think it was the candied ginger that made it taste different than my other spicy cordials, next time I will use fresh ginger instead maybe. A good general recipe is 4 cinnamon sticks, 10 whole cloves, 5 allspice 1/4 cup brown sugar per  2-4 cups of vodka. (depending how strong you'd like it) Its a great addition to red wine, similar to Christmas wine, or mulled wine mixes that are sold this time of  year. Shake the mixture up and allow to rest for 3 months + I made this in July so its aged 6 months. 

Rapunzels Delight:

This is by far my favorite mead cocktail. I normally do not like mixed drinks (unless you count soda and vodka?). I think this is the perfect "chick" drink or mild beverage for an afternoon brunch. 

1 ounce honey vodka (1/2 part)

2 ounces ginger ale (1 part)

2 ounces mead  (1 part)

2 ounces pineapple juice (1 part)

stir to combine or gently stir with ice and drain. 

Linzer Zing:

This is a recipe I'm still improving upon, I used my spiced liqueur however a cherry vodka might work well. Next time I might use cranberry vodka and cranberry juice instead of cherry juice. Correspond whichever flavored vodka with whatever juice you use. Examples: cranberry, blueberry, cherry, raspberry etc. 

1/2-1 ounce spiced liqueur or cherry vodka

1 ounce amaretto

2 1/2 ounces mead

3 ounces cherry juice 

Lime

* club soda or ginger ale to top off

Gently stir with ice, strain into glass. Garnish with lime and serve over ice. 

The Honeymoon:

Combine equal parts mead, bourbon and ginger ale or club soda. This would also be great with mango juice. For a strong drink use the bourbon, for a weaker drink use juice, soda and mead.