The Sour Orange Blossom is a varietal mead made with wild yeast and orange blossom honey. It’s the second mead I’ve been able to try from the California based Meadery. The first was their Orange blossom mead so it will be nice to see how the wild yeast changes the flavor.
We combined our two most popular meads: Orange Blossom and Sour. The result is a refreshing citrus drink that is gluten-free, 12% alcohol, and made from the most natural and local ingredients in Southern California. Enjoy this unique beverage chilled and always include a friend!
The Sour Orange Blossom mead comes in a 500ml Amber “bomber” bottle. When cracking open the crown capped bottle, you hear the “psssst” of pressure release, letting you know this is a carbonated mead. Good thing too. I hate prying off a bottle cap and hearing no noise.
It pours with significant carbonation that quickly dissipate, yet small bubbles continue to flow up to the surface from the bottom of the glass. The bubbles help release the aroma of tart citrus and light waxy honey. It has a light straw color with some unfiltered cloudiness.
The sip starts slightly sweet and ends quite tart. It has kind of a tart candy flavor that reminds me of some sort of candy from my childhood that I can’t quite put my finger on.
I haven’t really warmed up to sour beers. I find them a little off – like some of the bad batch’s of homebrew I’ve made. However, the wild yeast works quite nicely with this mead. It’s not too sour nor does it have a lot of that wild yeast funkiness. The tartness with this one is a little bit more citrusy – most likely as a result of the orange blossom honey. Overall it’s a nice drinkable, refreshing mead – light sweetness, dry and tart. It’s surprising that this it has a 12% ABV. The alcohol isn’t really noticeable. It’s incredibly drinkable – so watch out.
While I felt that the standard Orange blossom mead fell a little flat on flavor, I think this one improves upon it greatly.
Though I believe they selected the right bottle for the carbonated mead, the label really fights with the amber color, especially the teal color. This is really noticeable with the text on the back. the color along with the font choice and letter spacing makes it look messy and not so easy to read.
There’s also an uncomfortable tension between the teal and the greenish yellow – pair that with all the graphic elements going on, and the whole thing looks a little muddy. Nothing really pops. The mead in the bottle is so bright and lively, so I’d expect to see that coming through in the label.
Very good mead, now i’d like to see the label be taken to the same level!
2 Comments
Thanks for the review, Paul! We are delighted by how well the sours are being received by the mead community, especially since their creation was by accident (or Divine Intervention, as we like to say).
And believe me when I say that we hear you loud and clear on the labelling front – we are working on it and there will be a massive branding overhaul for us this year. I honestly think that your feedback on the labels in your last review were what pushed us over the edge to committing to such an undertaking.
Bee well!
You bet!
I drank it with a mead newbie, and they really liked it as well. I think it’s quite accessible to non mead drinkers.