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The short answer
The best all-round honey for mead is raw orange blossom honey; the best value is raw clover or local wildflower. Use a light, aromatic honey for traditional meads, a neutral one when you are adding fruit or spice, and save dark honeys such as buckwheat for strong, sweet or blended meads.
One rule beats all the others: taste the honey. If you would happily eat it off a spoon, it will make good mead. If it tastes flat, so will the mead.
Nine honeys and what they do in mead
| Honey | Flavor | Best in | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clover | Mild, clean, faintly grassy | Everything, especially fruit and spiced meads | The neutral base. Cheap and easy to find. |
| Orange blossom | Citrus, white flowers, perfumed | Traditional mead, dry or semi-sweet, and sparkling | The classic. Aroma survives fermentation unusually well. |
| Wildflower | Varies by region and season; often fruity and complex | Traditional mead with a sense of place | Taste before you buy. Spring is lighter, fall is darker. |
| Tupelo | Buttery, pear, soft spice | Showpiece traditional mead | From Florida and Georgia river swamps. Expensive, and slow to crystallize. |
| Sourwood | Caramel, anise, gingerbread | Semi-sweet traditional mead | An Appalachian specialty with a short season. |
| Meadowfoam | Vanilla and toasted marshmallow | Sweet and dessert meads | From the Pacific Northwest. Unmistakable. |
| Alfalfa and sage | Light, delicate, slightly herbal | Dry meads, and as a blending base | Western US. Clean fermenters. |
| Buckwheat | Malty, molasses, barnyard | Bochet, braggot, sack mead, or a 10 to 20% blend | Overpowering alone. Loved by some, hated by others. |
| Forest and tree honeys | Resinous, savory, sometimes smoky | Semi-sweet sipping meads | Think chestnut, honeydew, or African forest honeys such as Miombo. |
Raw, filtered or supermarket?
- Raw honey is strained but not heated or fine-filtered. It keeps its pollen, enzymes and, most importantly for mead, its volatile aromas. It may be cloudy or crystallized. This is what you want.
- Pasteurized, filtered honey has been heated to keep it liquid and clear on a shelf. It ferments without trouble but has lost some aroma. Fine for fruit meads, where the honey is a supporting actor.
- Anything that is not 100% honey should stay on the shelf. "Honey blend", "honey syrup" and suspiciously cheap imports are sometimes cut with rice or corn syrup. The ingredient list should have one word on it.
You do not need to boil or pasteurize raw honey before using it. Honey is naturally hostile to microbes, and heat only drives off what you paid for. Mix it cold, as in our mead recipe.
Where to buy honey for mead, and what it costs
A one-gallon batch needs about 3 lb and a five-gallon batch about 15 lb (calculate yours), so jar prices add up fast. Better sources:
- Local beekeepers. Search for your county beekeeping association, or ask at a farmers market. Many will sell a 12 lb gallon bucket or a 60 lb pail at a good discount, and you can taste first.
- Online honey packers and homebrew suppliers sell named varietals in bulk.
- Warehouse clubs and restaurant suppliers carry large jugs of clover or wildflower. Check that it is pure honey.
Expect to pay very roughly $5 to $8 a pound for good raw clover or wildflower in bulk, more for named varietals, and considerably more for tupelo or sourwood. Honey is the main cost in any mead, which is one reason well-made commercial honey wine is not cheap.
Honeys to think twice about
- Manuka: medicinal flavor and a price set by the wellness market. Fermenting it is an expensive way to make a strange-tasting mead.
- Buckwheat on its own: unless you already know you love it.
- "Mad honey": honey from rhododendron nectar, sold as a novelty, contains grayanotoxins that can make you seriously ill. Do not ferment it and do not eat it.
- Infused and flavored honeys, including hot honey: the additives can inhibit yeast or turn harsh. Add your own flavorings after fermentation instead.
- Eucalyptus and other strongly medicinal varietals: the medicinal note carries through into the mead.
How the professionals choose
Look at how a commercial producer uses honey and you will see the same pattern. Bee d'Vine, the Sonoma honey wine maker, builds its core Brut and Demi Sec on raw clover honey, uses orange blossom honey in two of its sparkling wines and in its reserve, and gives its two most distinctive honeys, Geteme from Ethiopia's Kafa forest and Miombo from Tanzanian woodland, bottlings of their own (each blended with clover).
Tasting those side by side is the quickest education in honey varietals you can buy.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best honey for mead?
For a first batch, a good raw wildflower or clover honey: affordable, forgiving and clean-tasting. For a showpiece traditional mead, orange blossom is the classic choice because its citrus and floral aroma survives fermentation.
Is raw honey better for mead?
Usually, yes. Raw honey has not been heated or fine-filtered, so it keeps more of the aromatic compounds that give mead its character. Pasteurized supermarket honey still ferments perfectly well but tends to taste plainer.
Can I use cheap store-bought honey for mead?
Yes, as long as it is pure honey. Check the label for a single ingredient and avoid anything called a blend, honey product or syrup. The mead will be sound, if a little neutral.
Is manuka honey good for mead?
It works, but it is a poor use of money. Manuka is priced for its reputation as a health product, its flavor is strongly medicinal, and fermentation does nothing for the properties people pay for.
Can I use crystallized honey?
Yes. Crystallization is natural and does not affect quality. Warm the jar gently in a water bath until it flows, and weigh it rather than measuring by volume.
What is the best honey for a traditional mead?
One with a distinctive aroma, because there is nothing else in the recipe: orange blossom, tupelo, sourwood, meadowfoam or a characterful local wildflower.
Where can I buy honey in bulk for mead?
Local beekeepers and beekeeping associations, farmers markets, restaurant-supply stores and online honey packers. Ask for a one-gallon (12 lb) bucket or a 60 lb pail; both are much cheaper per pound than jars.