Beware the Ides of March
But please part-take in the Rubus Idaeus this March. Our raspberry session mead is named after the “Bramble Bush of Ida.” It is said that is was on the Greek Island of Ida where Zeus’ mother, Rhea, hid Zeus from his father, Cronus. Cronus took to swallowing his children at their birth as he had heard a prophesy that one of his children would depose him from his throne. Zeus’ nursemaid, Ida, was gathering raspberries in order to calm Zeus, and keep his cries from being heard by Cronus. In picking the berries, she scratched her breast, and her blood tinted the raspberries red.
An earlier post discussed the various attributes of mead: sweetness, carbonation and strength. Our session meads (more to come later this year) are carbonated and come in at about 6% ABV. They will vary in sweetness, but our Rubus is backsweetened a bit to make it a semi-sweet mead. As with any fruit additions, the flavor of the fruit can add a perceived sweetness. We feel that backsweetening can balance out the sometimes tart nature of raspberry, giving the mead a fuller mouthfeel.
We continue to slowly expand our distribution around the greater Madison area. During the next few months we will be focusing on spreading out in south Wisconsin, in the cities and villages between Madison and the Illinois border.
I can not readily relate the blend of joy and anxiety that every day offers. Seeing our product on the shelves of various liquor stores, as well as a restaurant (hoping for more soon) and a specialty shop gives me a great sense of pride and gratitude. Knowing that people well outside our group of family and friends are freely offering their hard-earned money to purchase our product is enough to spin one’s head with elation. This also means that we are regularly under scrutiny. Whether it’s the flavor, aroma and appearance of the mead, or the look and placement of the label, there are many opportunities for someone to be critical of what we send out to the public. But our diligence keeps us from releasing anything we feel is of low quality. Generally this simply means that we need to allow the mead to age a little longer to allow the flavors to marry and create a balanced sensory experience.
Finally, the aspect of running a business is something quite new to me. Finances, financials and taxes; ingredient and packaging inventory; social media; organizing and keeping up with current accounts and chasing new ones down. This doesn’t even include the legal aspects which I can put on hold for the moment, due only to the fact that we are producing under the roof of Mershon’s Cidery and their licensing.
All of that aside, we are available to the public, and to that I am allowed a moment of pride, as well as a deep expression of gratitude. I can only hope to achieve Caesar-like ambition to rise through the ranks of the mead community with modesty, and none of the tyranny for which Caesar inevitably lost his life. But you’ll have to ask my partners about that.