The making of Lavender Mead: A New Zealand Mead Maker’s Story.
The first 12-months of Undisturbed as a commercial meadery in Christchurch, New Zealand was primarily about markets, and having our meads tasted and reviewed by as many people as possible. Every palate is unique, so crowd-sourcing preferences was a great way to understand which of Aotearoa’s unique floral honey made mead that people enjoy.
During this time, a number of honey-wise folk asked “have you made mead with lavender honey?” Clearly lavender honey stood out as a delicious honey - but how was I to source raw, fresh, and local lavender honey?
As often happens when a dream is cast into the ether, the right person came my way. Kasia is a beekeeper in mid-Canterbury and she came to the market at the Arts Centre where we were sharing our meads. Kasia had her hives on lavender farms to the south of Christchurch, she promised to get in touch when the honey was ready. And to her credit, a few months later, she did just that.
With beautiful lavender honey sourced it was time make mead. First… the research phase, what does the internet know about making good lavender mead? This question took me on a deep dive to the edges of the internet in home-brew discussion forums from 20-odd years ago where the conclusion seemed to be that lavender honey made fairly bland mead and it was easy to get off flavours.
As we all know: don’t believe everything you read on the internet.
My process with a new honey variety is to ferment the honey without any additional ingredients to see what flavours the honey offers once the sweet sugars are fermented away. This takes 2-4 weeks - so there was lots of time to think about what might, a) be a good flavour, and b) have a good ring to it. Thinking it would be bland I wondered about a feijoa mead, with lavender honey as the base, as feijoa is such a classic kiwi fruit. Or perhaps a Lemon & Lavender mead could be nice, as I’d had joy adding the tang of rhubarb with clover honey.
Lavender honey is a slow fermenting honey. As it approached a suitable level of fermentation I took my first taste. It was immediately surprising after the reading as there was heaps of flavour there. A few more tastes a it was clearly a mead worth sharing, with enough complexity to not need anything else.
My preference is to make meads that are single-origin, single-ingredient meads so that those who drink it get to learn about the flavours in the flowers around us. Only mead has the process to reveal this.
We named in Canterbury Lavender Mead to reinforce the land and place of its origin. Perhaps those home brewers were right, the lavender honey sourced did make bland, off mead. However they probably weren’t lucky enough to have Canterbury lavender honey to work with. I can promise you it is neither bland, nor ‘off'.
Everyone we’ve shared it with so far has been surprised by its flavour. Some haven’t like it, yet the majority have absolutely loved it. It’s on the lighter side, when compared to the meads from the forest. Here’s what members of the University of Canterbury Wine Club had to say about it when blind tasting it (i.e. they didn’t know its source)
“Visually, the mead presents as very clean, with a slight mist, as if to represent clouds in a glass.
The aroma punches forward with toasty pine, flufffy white peach, and hints of ocean breeze.
In a vast contrast, the palate launches instead into flavours of rich dried apricots, cinnamon-poached pear, and a long finish of sweet honeycomb and orange peel.
Medium body and medium sweetness make this a wonderful crowd pleaser for sure.
Perfect for cool climate autumn weather, it will pair wonderfully with creamy baked brie, fatty tuna dishes, and white chocolate.
So it does leave some choice for further interpretation, but overall, it absolutely was a crowd pleaser. Everyone who tried it was both enamored and agreed they could easily get lost in a few glasses of the stuff.”
Lavender fields require pollination. So to take a by product of agriculture and turn it into something exceptional - is a great feeling. It’s also my favourite tasting mead to date, so much so it pains me someone to bottle it up and share it with others… the sacrifice we mead makers make ay ;-)
Sam Callander, Mead Maker, Undisturbed Meadery
A floral expression of place - made from honey gathered by bees pollinating Canterbury lavender fields. No lavender is added during production - the flavour is shaped naturally through the landscape the bees forage in.
Clear, calming, surprisingly complex, Canterbury Lavender Mead offers a softer side of the Undisturbed range while continuing our focus on showcasing the unique flavours of Aotearoa flora. A mead to get lost in.
TASTING NOTESCinnamon-poached pear, rich dried apricots, and a long finish of sweet honeycomb and orange peel.
500ml | 13% abv | Approx. 5.1 standard drinks.
Gluten-free. No cane sugar. Low sulphite.
Free shipping on orders of 3 or more bottles.
Visit our dedicated Canterbury Lavender page to learn more about seasonal meads.
