Want to drink like a wizard? Mead is in the middle of an Ontario renaissance

Now more than ever people in Ontario can drink like wizards living inside a Harry Potter novel.

The world's oldest alcoholic beverage is making a comeback in Ontario.

Elaine Ferrier, founder of Tallgrass Mead, says her beverage is named "for the tall grass prairie which is one of the most rare ecosystems in Ontario, which was once really common in Southwestern Ontario but was mostly converted to agriculture."

"I created Tallgrass Mead to celebrate and recognize that history of the landscape," she said. "But also because mead itself is also a really sustainable type of alcohol to produce."

You need honey to make mead, Ferrier says, and you need bees and pollinating plants to make honey. Unlike with wine-making, she says, "you don't need to convert more land to agriculture."

If you're looking for mead at the LCBO, Ferrier says, head to the wine section. "It is a wine, technically and legally," she says. "But I've seen it in the craft beer section... I think a lot of consumers think mead is a beer or like a beer. There are styles of mead that are like beer. It's called a braggot but there are many other styles. Thinking of it as a cousin to beer is very limiting."

According to the American Mead Makers Association mead making is booming in the U.S. Their 2017 national survey reported that "a new meadery opens in the United States every three days." The association says the beverage can be traced, in Northern China, back to 6500-7000 BC.

Ferrier says she's noticed, lately, a spike in interest in Ontario as well. She says "I'm definitely getting a sense there's a lot more people interested in making mead... That's a really great development. The rules in Ontario can make it a little bit challenging for people."

How the honeymoon got its name

Gavin North, beekeeper and mead maker at Honeypie Hives and Herbals, likes to talk about how he says the honeymoon got its name. He says "traditionally a newly wedded couple would be given a bottle of mead to drink during the first month of their wedding." North says "it would help to lubricate their matrimony, if you will."

If you can get your hands on a bottle of mead, North says expect to taste the honey. He says "even if we're adding other flavours, fruits or herbs we really try to make sure the honey is primary."

But, North warns, that doesn't mean it has to be sweet. "A lot of people expect mead is going to be like an ice wine or like a thick, syrupy, dessert wine, which it certainly can be," North says, "but we also like to make dry and tart and sometimes even sour meads and flavour with herbs that would be seen as unusual like caraway and basil." North says that, for the first time, the province has allowed them to sell their mead at farmer's markets.

Mead tips from Elaine Ferrier, Tallgrass Mead from Thorndale Ont.

- a pyment is a mead made with grapes and honey.

- the mead industry in Ontario needs more women mead makers.

- mead that is made with barley malt is called a braggot.

Mead tips from Gavin North, Honey Pie Hives and Herbels from Prince Edward County

- Sweet meads are great with sharp cheeses like Stilton or Blue cheese.

- A mead maker is known as a Mazer.

- A mead that adds fruit is called a melomel.