Mead in Poland

Lore & Background

Mead production and consumption in Poland is a tradition that stretches back for centuries. In the Middle Ages, Poland was covered with primeval forests, which the 12th-century chronicler Gallus Anonymus described as 'flowing with honey'.

This abundance of honey and a climate ill-suited for grape growing meant that mead was long more popular than wine. In 996, the Sephardi Jewish traveller Ibrahim ibn Yaqub wrote that 'besides food, meat and land for ploughing, the country of Mieszko I abounds in mead, which is what the Slavic wines and intoxicating drinks are called'. In the 15th century, the Venetian diplomat Ambrogio Contarini observed that 'having no wine, [the Poles] make a certain drink out of honey, which intoxicates people much more than wine.' The 16th-century Polish poet praised the 'nutritious and healthy' mead of Ruthenia as a 'nectar' worthy of Olympian gods, as opposed to wine.

Notwithstanding the popular notion that mead used to be the everyday drink in Poland, it has always been a luxury good, reserved for special occasions, such as weddings, and available only to the affluent, while beer was the daily thirst quencher of the common people. Mead was valuable enough to be deemed a suitable gift for monasteries and dignitaries.

The oldest known recipe for mead was recorded in 1567 by the Swedish chronicler Olaus Magnus, who obtained it from a native of the Polish city of . According to it, ten pounds of honey were to be boiled with forty pounds of water, flavoured with hops and fermented with beer yeast or bread starter. As well as with hops, 17th-century Polish mead was flavoured with fennel, pepper, cloves, cinnamon, anise, poppy seeds or parsley.

Polish meads are traditionally and legally classified into four grades depending on the ratio of honey and water used in production and the resulting sweetness and alcohol content. Their names come from the total number of parts by volume of honey and water, with one part being honey; for example, czwórniak is made from one part honey and three parts water, giving a total of four parts.

The lower the total number of parts, the stronger, sweeter and more expensive the mead. Mead may be flavoured with fruit juices, producing fruit mead, or with herbs and spices, giving herbal mead or spiced mead. Traditional varieties include those flavoured with gooseberry, lingonberry, sweet cherry, bilberry, Cornelian cherry, pear, apple, rowanberry, blackberry, guelder rose, raspberry, hops, grape, mulberry, currant, woodland strawberry, plum, and sour cherry juices, as well as mead made from linden honey and mead matured in oak barrels.

Reader's Guide

Mead in Poland represents a centuries-old tradition that has been formally preserved through European Union recognition of its four traditional grades as a traditional speciality guaranteed. Despite a long-standing tradition of mead consumption, the beverage remains a niche product in Poland. In 2013, about 600,000 litres of mead were sold in Poland.

The production process involves careful control of honey-to-water ratios, boiling or cold mixing of must, fermentation, and aging that can last from nine months to three years depending on the grade. The four grades—półtorak, dwójniak, trójniak, and czwórniak—range from a dessert-strength mead with over 300 g/L residual sugar to a dry mead with 35–90 g/L. Mead is most commonly served at room temperature in a glass or a stoneware cup, though it may also be drunk chilled or warm, and in winter some Poles enjoy mulled mead flavoured with cloves, cinnamon, vanilla, ginger, black pepper or a slice of orange. The legacy of Polish mead is tied to its historical role as a luxury good for special occasions, its mention in the Polish national epic poem Pan Tadeusz, and its modern revival as Poland became the world's largest producer of traditionally made mead.