The origins of mead go back far beyond recorded history to the tip of Africa and the San people who lived here around 20,000 to 40,000 years ago. Bee hives in hollow tree trunks or crevices would get flooded by seasonal rains, thus diluting the honey in the hive and releasing the wild yeasts trapped within. In turn, this mixture would ferment into an intoxicating sweet beverage. Over time the San learnt to replicate this process themselves, and so the first mead makers were born.
The Swedish botanist, Carl Thunberg, first documented the mead of the San (Karri!) during his travels to the Groot Winterhoek area in 1773. It was here where he observed the San mixing honey, water and moerwortel (Glia prolifera) in the centre of a concave rock. This mixture was then left to ferment overnight and ultimately used as part of ceremonies and celebrations to enter an altered state.
From its humble origins with the San of Southern Africa, the knowledge to create this delightful beverage spread across central Africa to Ethiopia, Egypt and eventually to Europe, where it became a crucial part of European culture. The rarity of honey and the lack of modern beekeeping practices made mead a drink of royalty and celebration – but also almost drove it to extinction.
The spark for Mellivora was ignited in early 2017 on a vacation to Lithuania, a small Baltic country where the art of beekeeping and modern mead making were honed over centuries. We discovered mead, unlike anything we had tried before: well-made, diverse, unique and a true celebration of the honey. This new outlook on mead, combined with a deep love for South Africa and the natural diversity she holds, brewed in with three more years of part-time research, tasting, and discovery until we were ready to take on the first batch of Mellivora mead.
In 2020 we finalised the recipe, ordered our supplies and kicked off the Mellivora journey by brewing our first small-batch mead – a little over 60 litres. After many months, many steps, a few hiccups and a ton of support, our Hopefield mead was ready, and it was delicious! So we launched and reintroduced South Africa to this historical beverage while kicking off the next batch.
A huge thank you to all who have supported us along the way: Brewer’s Co-op, Woodstock Brewery, Cape Town Meadery, !Khwa Ttu, and many more.
Honey is deeply variable, you can’t train bees to fetch pollen and nectar from specific flowers and you can’t control the seasons and weather which create those flowers. Thus every hive, region and season will lead to variation in the final honey which is created.
At Mellivora we decided to celebrate this diversity both in terms of region but also season. We believe that the honey of each season is a testament to the state of the environment at that point in time, and should be celebrated for what it is rather than being blended out. Thus we brew our mead using a carefully curated small-batch process, which ensures that each batch is deeply inspired by the the single-origin, single-season honey from which it was created.
By following a small-batch approach our mead is deeply tied to the environment, and the size of each batch is limited to the amount of honey which can sustainably be collected from an area over a season. Thus each batch of our mead is given a vintage, and each bottle is carefully hand-labelled and given a unique bottle number. While this is a lot more work, we believe that it is worth it; it’s what makes our mead something deeply special and a true celebration of the botanical beauty of South Africa.
To us, sustainability is more than just words – it is a core value of our brand. For this reason, we tend to do things a little differently at Mellivora. Here are some ways we ensure that the environment always comes first – without sacrificing quality:
Even so, we still have some faults, so please reuse or upcycle our agglomerated corks while we find a longer-term solution that can guarantee our meads’ ageing potential while being more friendly to the planet.
Being an environmentally conscious brand isn’t a once-off – it is a journey. So we are always looking for ways to improve; please let us know if you have any suggestions.
Dr Lloyd Hughes is a data scientist and engineer who’s passionate about nature, food and fermentation. He grew up brewing beer with his father and eventually took on this hobby during his student years. His experience as an engineer has meant this process has always followed a scientific approach to experimentation, with much reading and research being done to guide the initial recipe formulation. He discovered mead while travelling in Lithuania and fell in love with the drink. Upon returning to South Africa, he decided it was time to revive this historic beverage in its true home and bring the culture and history of mead back to its roots in South Africa – and so Mellivora was born.
Mellivora is a small batch meadery on a big mission to reignite the love for mead in South Africa – the birthplace of mead. All the while celebrating the unique floral diversity of our beautiful nation and capturing the stories of those who came before us.
