Moonlight Meadery Sumptuous Review

The Sumptuous from Moonlight Meadery is a melomel made with mangoes – the first mango mead I’ve seen, and let me tell you, I’m a huge fan of the mango. It’s definitely on of my favorite fruits.

I picked this up this bottle Sumptuous at the New Hampshire liquor store. It’s great to find out that they sell mead since they don’t sell beer. They also sell cider – why not beer?

Here is what Moonlight Meadery has to say about their Sumptuous:

Made from honey and mangos, sweet but not overly so, smooth, wonderful complexity between the flavors and the long lasting finish, with a light body. Enjoy with spiced Mexican, Asian, and Indian dishes.

It pours a mid-toned golden yellow, somewhat cloudy with a little bit of carbonation that sticks in a ring around the glass. At a cooler temperature, the primary aroma was honey but as it warmed and opened up the fruit came out as well.

It has a lot of flavor, especially as it opens up. Its sweet and fruity. I get only a little bit of mango flavor primarily in the aftertaste – but grape and apple flavors are more prominent and carry throughout. It has a medium body that coats the mouth and throat and leads to a lingering aftertaste. There is some warm booziness and alcohol flavors that seem slightly out of balance. That alcohol warmth stays with you long after the sip is swallowed which I sort of like. It’s strange that the abv isn’t listed on the bottle, but on ratebeer.com, it says 13.6%.

Overall I feel like the Sumptuous from Moonlight Meadery sips a little two sweet for me, but makes for a fine after-dinner drink.

I dig what Moonlight is doing with their “romance by the glass” mead. The names of their meads follow that theme, with the sumptuous falling nicely in place. I do think brand consistency is a good thing, however there needs to be a little more differentiation between mead types on the labels. Right now, the only difference is the small text on the bottom (there are a few labels where the moon is different sizes or color, but those are few). I think the consumer needs more of a signaling when glancing quickly to a shelf of mead.

On the plus side, Moonlight Meadery uses clear bottles allowing the color of the mead to signal the different varieties. It does seems like they are trying out new labeling techniques lately as seen with their “Last Apple Mead.”