A Taste of Honey
Moments after Mythic Mead founders Shauna Scheets and William LeFave uncork the first wine barrel, the air fills with the fragrances of honey, huckleberry and the unmistakable scent of yeast. This barrel has lain in wait for over two years, the flavors of aged oak gradually seeping into the blend. William grabs a goblet from its place among laboratory beakers and test tubes, then draws three samples straight from the barrel: one for himself, one for his wife Shauna and one for the lab. “People say mead making is a balance between science and art,” says William.
He takes the first sip, anxiously testing the flavor to ensure the mead is ready to bottle. The tension lifts as he grins at his wife, then they both prepare the contents of the barrel for the next step in the mead making process.
First brewed in 7,000 BC, mead, or honey wine, is the world’s first known alcoholic beverage—and today it’s gaining popularity in Idaho as not merely a novel curiosity but a drink deserving space on the wine rack. Over the years, a number of producers in Idaho have explored the possibilities offered by mead: Camas Prairie Winery makes huckleberry and strawberry meads alongside their traditional wines on offer at the Moscow Farmers Market; Chasing Paradise in Driggs has expanded from apple cider to several fruit-infused mead varieties and recently, mead has taken hold in the Treasure Valley.
As the first company in the state to dedicate itself entirely to mead making, it’s fair to say that Mythic Mead started the mead renaissance in the Treasure Valley after Shauna and William first encountered mead at a wedding. The unconventional flavors of the beverage inspired them to brew their own. What started as a hobby quickly took hold as a family business, with the couple sharing their passion (if not the final product) with their 5-year-old son Liam.
“We love what we do, but the most important thing is family,” Shauna says, watching Liam as he happily mops a corner of the storeroom. In 2016, the team began churning out a traditional sweet mead, “K.I.S.S.,” followed by a huckleberry-honey blend from their unassuming warehouse in Garden City.
The couple’s brewing style creates a bold, intense nectar that showcases the strong, sweet flavors of the honey, sourced from Snake River Honey in Melba, Idaho. The taste of the locally harvested honey is then married with Northwest-grown fruits into different combinations. Mythic Mead has dabbled in huckleberry, blackberry and plum blends; because of their popularity these unique combinations don’t last long and often can’t be repeated. Mythic Mead is always moving on to their next idea, so aside from their standard K.I.S.S. mead, as the year goes on the bottles of fruity meads grow scarcer and scarcer. Currently, the meadery is phasing out “Well Plum’d” and introducing “Grandpa’s Reserve,” a huckleberry mead aged in red wine barrels for two years, and brewed in memory of Shauna’s beloved grandfather.
Weathered Rock Meadery, a single-room facility on the Boise Bench, followed suit shortly after Mythic Mead in 2017. Fitting with the beverage’s historical heritage, Chris and Jenny Szabo first encountered mead while attending renaissance fairs. They have nurtured a passion for medieval history and reenactment over several years, which led to homebrewing the mead they savored frequently at the festivals.
“Mead has a strong historical pull; many people don’t realize how long it’s been around,” says Chris, gesturing to a wall in the meadery depicting the first cave painting to refer to honey bees and honey harvesting.
Weathered Rock Meadery sources honey from Steele Apiaries, with a preference for the pale wildflower honey of North Idaho. Chris and Jenny include local ingredients for more uncommon blends involving spices, peppers, citrus and other combinations. Weathered Rock Meadery pursues unexpected combinations and challenges to the traditional sweet mead, such as a mouth-tingling Chili-Orange Mead, an aromatic Ginger Mead and their beloved bubbly Solstice Cyser (a blend of honey and apple juice fermented together).
Chris’s palate guides him in selecting his ingredients for more extraordinary meads. From hand-selecting a custom batch of apples from Cabelo’s Orchards, to touring the Treasure Valley’s international markets for the perfect ginger specimens, Chris and Jenny devote endless time and energy to ensure the quality of each batch.
The brewing and drinking of mead connects us to something thousands of years older than ourselves, and the careful crafting of this nectar close to home by people who recognize its significance is a fascinating tribute to our ancient history as well as our future.
“It’s an accomplishment every time, to create something from knowledge and skill,” Jenny says, turning a bottle in her hands and smiling.
Mythic Mead
Camas Prairie Winery
Moscow Farmers Market
Chasing Paradise
Weathered Rock Meadery | @weatheredrockmeadery
Steele Apiaries | @steele_apiaries
Cabelo’s Orchards
