Mead Cocktails

Created by Neil Buttery

Because the wonderful Lindisfarne Mead is one of our sponsors for Serve it Forth Food History Festival 2026, I was inspired to design some mead cocktails using two of their excellent products: their excellent, original Lindisfarne Mead and their delicious cherry wine and mead combo blóð. I will be showcasing these cocktails at the Serve it Forth Food History Festival 2026 on 17 October 2026.

Mead Cocktails

Kenelm Digby Cocktail

Image: Neil Buttery

The great Sir Kenelm Digby included scores of mead recipes in the 1669 book The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Opened. He flavoured them with various herbs and spices, but rosemary appears most often. I have made a riff on the Queen Mother Cocktail – a mix of gin and vermouth, garnished with a slice of lemon. I’ve simply swapped the vermouth for mead and the lemon for an aromatic sprig of rosemary.

You will need:

• 2 shots of Lindisfarne Mead

• 1 shot gin

• Ice

• A sprig of rosemary

Place ice in a good-sized rocks glass or tumbler, add Lindisfarne Mead gin. Stir well and garnish with rosemary. 

Bittersweet

Image: Neil Buttery

If you want a low-alcoholic cocktail that you can drink lazily all afternoon without getting plastered, may I suggest this mix of mead and Campari. If you don’t have Campari, Aperol would make a good substitute.

You will need:

• 2 shots of Lindisfarne Mead

• 1 shot of Campari

• Ice

• Soda water

• Orange slices

Place the mead and Campari in the bottom of a long glass, mix and then fill with ice right to the top. Fill with soda water and garnish with a slice of orange. 

Kiss in the Dark

Image: Neil Buttery

This is a delicious cocktail flavoured with cherries – hence why I am using blóð for this cocktail. It’s served in a coupe glass so you can feel very sophisticated as you drink it. The brandy is optional, but a small amount can really add depth to a cocktail – rather like a seasoning. You can buy sugar syrup, but it is easy to make by dissolving sugar in water in equal amounts (e.g. 100 g of caster sugar in 100 ml of water).

You will need:

• Ice

• 2 shots of blóð

• 1 shot of gin

• ½ shot sugar syrup

• ½ shot brandy

• 2 tsp lemon juice

• A lemon twist or a cocktail cherry

• 
  

Half-fill a cocktail shaker with ice and then stir in the blóð, gin, syrup, brandy and lemon juice. Stir with a long-handled spoon for 30 seconds before straining into a coupe glass. Garnish with a lemon twist or a single cocktail cherry.

Mellifera Martini

Not for the faint-hearted this one, it containing mead, gin and vodka. It is based on James Bond's favourite cocktail, the Vesper Martini, and should be drunk in the evening, hence its name. Of course it should be shaken, not stirred.

You will need:

• Ice

• 2 shots of gin

• 1 shot of vodka

• 1 shot of Lindisfarne Mead

• A lemon twist

Half-fill a cocktail shaker with ice and add the alcohols, stir for 30 seconds before straining into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with the lemon twist.