Nightcap

In other news, and apropos of nothing, the urge struck me to pull down a bottle of my prickly pear mead I'd put up to age and sample it. You know, to see if it was aging well and possibly had the potential to be drinkable. June will mark the one-year anniversary of this batch's bottling. And damn if it isn't good. By far the best mead I've ever laid down (not that that's saying much, mind you). But The Wife liked it, so that's something.

It's not as sweet as I'd feared--a little more than, say, white zin, but nothing like a port or somesuch. Very fruity. More fruity than it tasted when I bottled it, that's for sure. But it's not a sharply defined fruitiness. I noticed this about the prickly pear fruit when I added it to the fermentation vessel--it had a vaguely melonish taste, but nothing that jumped out to distinctly scream "Prickly Pear" the way passion fruit screams "Passion Fruit!" or raspberries scream "Raspberries!" The taste is pleasant, but hard to pin down, which adds an intriguing element to the drink.

By the by, this stuff has got a kick to it. I used a lot of honey in the brewing of it, and it has a correspondingly high alcohol content. One glass and I've got a distinct buzz, which doesn't happen to me with wines. The honey/fruit sweetness disguises the potency of this stuff.

But yeah, I like it. I wonder how smooth it'll be with another year of aging? I wonder if any bottles will survive that long to find out?

Now Playing: Ray Davies Working Man's Cafe