Discover the Appeal of Mead, the Oldest Alcoholic Drink in Human History, in Kyoto!

Mead is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey with yeast and water.
It is different from wine or liqueur with honey dissolved into it. The alcohol content is generally around 5–16%, and the flavor varies depending on the production method, aging period, the type of honey and water used, and the country where it is made. It looks like white wine, but the taste is completely different. Mead comes in a wide range of styles, from richly sweet varieties with deep honey flavor that make you want to drink them before or after a meal, to clean, refreshing ones that pair well with food.

Mead is attracting attention today partly because of pop culture. It often appears in movies, manga, and anime, and fans who see it there go looking to buy it. The boom in craft drinks such as craft beer and craft cola, which emphasize small-scale production and locally sourced ingredients, has also helped. For a variety of reasons, mead has become one of the alcoholic drinks drawing attention in recent years.

Mead is said to be the first alcoholic drink humans ever consumed, and it is considered the oldest alcohol in the world. Honey, the main ingredient of mead, is even mentioned in the Kojiki, Japan’s oldest historical record, compiled in 712. Mead is also introduced as “meede” in a late Edo-period Dutch studies textbook called Ensei Ihou Meibutsukou. Since mead is made from honey, which has moisturizing and antibacterial properties, it may have been included in a medical text for that reason. Around 1960, mead began to be imported into Japan from the United Kingdom and was enjoyed as a “honeymoon drink.”

The history of mead varies by region around the world. It appears in Norse mythology, and Vikings are said to have drunk it on their ships. In the United States today, craft mead is booming, competitions are held, and there are said to be more than 500 meaderies.

Mead also appears in movies and manga. For example, it shows up in the Harry Potter films and in the hugely popular U.S. game Skyrim. Some people want to try in real life the drinks they can have in the game, while cosplayers who enjoy dressing up as characters from movies and anime sometimes buy mead to recreate that world.

There is a company brewing this mead in Kyoto: Kaneichi Shoten, a honey specialty shop in Kyoto. Founded in 1930, the company specializes in honey. Rather than keeping bees and producing honey themselves, they are a honey shop that procures honey from many beekeepers. The person responsible for sourcing it is Takusaburo Ichikawa, the third-generation head of Kaneichi Shoten.

In March 2024, this honey specialty shop newly launched Kyoto Mead Brewery in Marutamachi, Kyoto.

It is Kyoto’s first brewery specializing in mead. The mead is brewed with domestically produced honey, originally blended to bring out the unique characteristics of various honeys sourced directly. In a Kyoto machiya townhouse that is Approx. 100 years old, they brew while preserving the character of the honey itself. Each bottle made at Kyoto Mead Brewery is filled with Honey Hunter Takusaburo Ichikawa’s love for mead and honey.

There are various ways to brew mead. There are about 20 to 30 breweries making mead in Japan, but only about six specialize in mead.
At present, most places making mead are sake breweries that also produce it. Among them, Kyoto Mead Brewery, as a honey specialty shop, places importance on how fully it can bring out the potential of honey, and is particular about its brewing method so that the finished mead retains the flavor of honey clearly.

The ingredients needed to make mead are only honey, water, and yeast. At most breweries in Japan, the production method is similar to sake, and many heat-treat the mead at the final stage. At Kyoto Mead Brewery, however, they finish it by filtering out the yeast without heat treatment.
To prevent unwanted flavors from developing, the yeast is matured at a low temperature, and the mead is completed over roughly 1.5 to 2 months. Paying close attention to temperature, fermentation days, and filter fineness, this systematic approach is one of the characteristics of the mead made at Kyoto Mead Brewery.

Making delicious mead is not so easy. That is because the raw honey itself has a major impact on quality. Honey harvested in Japan, with its four seasons and rich vegetation, differs in flavor and characteristics by region and reflects the character of each place.
Mead made with honey collected from cherry blossoms tastes different from mead made with honey collected from chestnut blossoms. In particular, The MEAD Kyoto and The MEAD Osaka Sakura place importance on expressing the flavors and culture of the Kansai region through mead. They aim to offer mead as an “experience” and create products that let people encounter Japan’s nature, culture, and history through mead.

In 2003, Kaneichi Shoten first encountered mead. It all began when a beekeeper in New Zealand introduced them to it. They instantly fell in love with mead as an alcoholic drink made from honey and strongly felt they wanted to spread mead in Japan.

First, they began working toward importing mead. They obtained a liquor license, and in 2005, two years after first encountering mead, they actually visited manufacturers in Australia and the United States. While learning about mead from them, they imported and began selling Approx. 10 types of mead. After that, they expanded their lineup of sweet meads, importing from producers in Canada, the United Kingdom, Poland, and other countries, until people began to say, “When it comes to mead, it’s miel mie.”

Up to that point, they had mainly focused on imports, but from 2017 they started making mead domestically. They asked Joyo Shuzo, a sake brewery in Joyo City in the same Kyoto Prefecture, to produce mead. After various trial batches, they released two kinds of mead. They then successively launched eight types of mead made with honey sold by Kaneichi Shoten, and came to handle both domestically contract-brewed mead and imported mead from overseas.

Then, wanting to help raise awareness of mead in Japan, they decided in 2021 to create a brewery to make mead themselves. They moved toward making it a reality by obtaining a liquor manufacturing license and other preparations, and in March 2024, 2.5 years later, they finally opened the long-awaited Kyoto Mead Brewery.

Takusaburo Ichikawa, the third-generation president of Kaneichi Shoten, who launched Kyoto Mead Brewery, is active as a “Honey Hunter.”

Born as the grandson of the founder of Kaneichi Shoten, he has been surrounded by honey since childhood. Mr. Ichikawa visits beekeepers not only in Japan but around the world to source honey. In a year, he tastes over 300 kinds of honey, and his travel distance exceeds Approx. 52,000 km, equal to 1.3 times around the Earth.
By visiting beekeepers himself and seeing with his own eyes what kind of environment the bees are raised in and how the honey is harvested, and by tasting it himself, he aims to provide “safe, secure, high-quality honey.”

Mr. Ichikawa travels the world all year long in pursuit of honey. Every spring, he heads directly to the beekeepers, drives a 2-ton truck himself, and follows the beekeepers moving north with their bees, from Kyushu in the south all the way to Hokkaido in the north. He visits honey harvesting sites and sometimes even works alongside them. From autumn to winter, it is spring to summer in the Southern Hemisphere. So Mr. Ichikawa heads there as well. To find high-quality honey filled with the care of bees and beekeepers and deliver it to customers, he spares no effort, time, or money.

Honey differs depending on the nectar source, harvest location, and harvest season. It is similar to the idea of vintage in wine or bean-to-bar in chocolate. So why is it possible to produce “single-flower honey,” made from the nectar of just one kind of flower, even when so many flowers are blooming?
It has to do with the habits of bees. To collect nectar efficiently, hardworking bees prioritize flowers with high sugar content in their nectar. Once they find a good nectar source, they communicate its location to the other bees, and the others also gather nectar from that same source. That is how single-flower honey is made.

For example, from March to May, there is sakura honey. It can be harvested across Japan and is known for its strong sweetness and noticeable aroma.
Around May, there is mikan honey. Harvested in western Japan, such as Wakayama and Nagasaki, it has a refreshing citrus-like flavor.
In May, apple honey is also harvested in Nagano and Aomori. It is known for its juicy, fruity apple-like taste.
Around June, acacia honey is harvested in eastern Japan, the Tohoku region, and Hokkaido, and it is characterized by a simple, mild flavor.
After June, chestnut honey is harvested throughout Japan, and it has a roasted aroma with a slight bitterness, much like sweet roasted chestnuts.
From July to August, there is linden honey, harvested in Hokkaido. It has a strong aroma and a herb-like scent. One of the fascinating things about honey is how completely its taste changes depending on what plant the nectar came from, where it was harvested, and when it was harvested.
The Single Origin Honey series was commercialized by making use of those individual characteristics and numbering each product starting from “0001.”

By the way, for bees to complete honey, the sugar content must reach around 80%, but freshly collected flower nectar contains a lot of moisture and has low sugar content. So bees use enzymes in their bodies to break it down into glucose and fructose, then fan it with their wings to evaporate the moisture and concentrate it into honey.
The lifespan of a bee is only about one month, and a single bee produces just one teaspoon of honey in its lifetime. That really makes honey feel even more precious.

The labels in this series contain six pieces of information.

At the back of the miel mie Sanjo Main Store, there is also the attached “miel mie honey cafe.”
At the cafe, you can enjoy luxurious honey toast with unlimited honey, as well as drinks and soft-serve ice cream that let you experience the natural flavor of honey.
The cafe’s most popular item is the honey toast, made with thick bread that is crispy on the outside and fluffy inside.

You can compare all 13 kinds of honey to your heart’s content. The toast is topped with rich, milky soft-serve ice cream. Another highlight is that you can also eat natural honeycomb on this toast!
Personally, I thought this comb honey was absolutely delicious! It is not only tasty, but also visually striking, so it is perfect for photos.

Takusaburo Ichikawa, the Honey Hunter, wanted more people to feel that honey and mead are familiar and approachable. In fact, he sees Kyoto Mead Brewery not only as a place to brew mead, but also as a place to spread mead culture, and various events are held there. For example, a 60-minute mead seminar personally led by Mr. Ichikawa is held around once or twice a month.

While enjoying tastings of several kinds of domestic and international mead and comparing the honey that forms the basis of mead, you can learn about mead production methods and history. Light snacks and desserts that pair well with mead are also served.
By the end of the seminar, you may gain so much knowledge that you could become a “Mead Meister” of Kyoto Mead Brewery. It is a very fulfilling 60 minutes.
*As no meal is served, it is recommended that you eat something light before coming to the seminar.

From time to time, Mr. Ichikawa stands behind the bar counter in the Mead Salon at Kyoto Mead Brewery.
You can enjoy mead while talking with him about honey and mead.

The operating schedule is announced on the official X account (formerly Twitter), official LINE, and other channels, so be sure to check them.

Events related to mead are held at Kyoto Mead Brewery from time to time.
These include projects such as the “World Mead Fair,” where you can enjoy meads from around the world, and food pairing events featuring dishes that go well with mead, bringing mead fans together.