Mead Across the Ages: A Comparative Review of Medieval and Modern Mead Production and Sensory Profiles

This review presents the scientific and technical aspects of mead production, focusing on honey characterization, medieval and modern mead production and sensory profiles. It highlights the challenges and potential opportunities for optimization of mead production, emphasizing the need for further research into honey’s chemical properties and their influence on mead’s sensory attributes. However, the bioactive profile, aroma composition (flavor), taste, health-promoting properties and overall quality of alcoholic mead composition have been scarcely studied. Moreover, this review also covers the characterization of the production process for low-alcohol mead and studies related to the sensory evaluation of mead. The study concludes that understanding these constituents and technological steps is crucial for enhancing mead quality and consumer appeal.