Mead is likely to be the oldest alcoholic drink in the world with archæological evidence suggesting mead production in Western Turkey in 45,000 BCE. There is archæological evidence of mead production in every continent except Australia so while many countries have mead in their stories, no one place can claim its creation.
In Scotland, and across the UK, there is evidence of mead production as far back as the Neolithic period, some 5,000 years, with residues suggesting mead being found from Ashgrove in Fife to Machrie Moor on the Isle of Arran. The Rookery looks to evidence in the historical and archæological record for source material, then back-engineers these ancient drinks to create modern and exciting products.
Mead is an alcoholic drink made from honey, usually fermented although many countries go on to distill their meads, creating drinks of higher alcoholic content. An important distinction is that to be mead, the alcohol must be fermented from the honey and is not simply a honey flavoured drink. At the Rookery, the majority fermentables in all our recipes is honey and we never use sugars or syrups. All the flavourings are high-quality ingredients and never artificial flavourings. Most of our meads use hand-foraged ingredients, concentrating on Scottish native species such as meadwort, heather, mountain ash berries, crab-apples and a range of hedgerow berries.
The Rookery – Craft Mead is a registered Trademark