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Sample mead at Kelowna’s Viking bar

Muninn’s Post serves a few types of honey wine for the interested customer
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Co-owner of Munnin’s Post Siobhan Jennings-Bates pours a glass of mabon, a honey wine from Meadow Vista. - Credit: Contributed

Mead may not be served like it was for the Vikings centuries ago, but at a local bar, people can dabble in the honey wine’s taste of today.

Muninn’s Post, located on Bernard Avenue, serves honey wines and cocktails that suit the Viking bar’s vibe.

Siobhan Jennings-Bates is a co-owner at the venue and says honey wine is often sold for special occasions, and when people first visit the establishment. It’s sweet like an ice wine, she said.

Related: Kelowna mead maker bringing back taste of the past

Mead drinking is popular on occasion, but “it’s definitely not something you want to drink a ton of because it is quite sweet, but once in a while we’ll get a couple of tables that come in that will order a couple bottles of it and sit and drink it all night,” said Jennings-Bates.

The bar carries three to four different types of Meadow Vista honey wine including Cloud Horse, a basic honey mead which is lighter than a traditional mead, Mabon, a spiced wine and a seasonal Bliss Apple, a carbonated wine.

Rubus is also a fan favourite, but it’s only occasionally in stock. Some wine is served at room temperature, while others are chilled. Cocktails are also made from the meads, said Jennings-Bates.

A good start for the novice mead drinker would be the mild Cloud Horse, which is more popular.

The process of mead-making has evolved over the centuries, it’s nothing like the Vikings’ jugs of frothy foam. “Before it would have been a big foamy mug of alcoholic water, so we’ve refined the recipe over however many years… it probably tastes a lot better,” said Jennings-Bates.

“Water was probably not safe to drink so they had to ferment it if they could.”

The idea to serve mead at Muninn’s Post came from Vancouver, where the trend seems to be growing.

“To go out and have a glass of mead somewhere is pretty cool,” said Jennings-Bates.

Beer is a top seller at the Viking bar, but many people will sample the mead from out of town, just to say they’ve tried it, she said.

The supply of honey wine is primarily from Meadow Vista, but Jennings-Bates can see the trend catching on.

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