mead

Alcoholic beverage fermented from honey and water. It can be light or rich, sweet or dry, or even sparkling. Alcoholic drinks made from honey were common in ancient Scandinavia, Gaul, Teutonic Europe, and Greece; they were particularly common in northern Europe, where grapevines do not flourish. By the 14th century, ale and sweetened wine were surpassing mead in popularity. Today mead is made as a sweet or dry wine of low alcoholic strength. Spiced mead is called metheglin.

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