[moses-palmer]

I find it curious that somebody so invested in recreating a medieval mead does not put in the extra effort of procuring long pepper and grains of paradise---those are certainly spices always present in my spice box.

I have never made mead myself however. Are the spices of so little consequence to the final flavour?

[detritus]

Not sure I'd want those in my mead, but thanks for making me feel like a total ignoramus - I'd never heard of either of those two spices!

I've now found a site that sells them in my country and lo! Oh dear, so many other things I've never heard of to try too.

'Thanks?' :)

[masklinn]

> Not sure I'd want those in my mead

Which I would say is besides the point, the article was about recreating an ancient mead based on a recipe, which called for those ingredients.

Sometimes it's impossible to source the historical ingredients because they themselves have been lost (to memory or possibly entirely e.g. silphium), but that's not the case here. Both grains of paradise and long pepper are in active use, even if not in european cuisines.

[uCantCauseUCant]

Not mentioned but the taste of fruit changes over time, as new breeds are bred and the original, wild aroma is softened ever further.

[zimpenfish]

> does not put in the extra effort of procuring long pepper and grains of paradise

"I used a pepper blend that included grains of paradise" sounds like they did have grains of paradise in there?

[masklinn]

They had a pepper blend when the recipe called for (I assume) straight spices and probably mortaring it all together.

Going through so much effort to match the source material but not the minimal additional step to source the proper ingredients (which have not at all disappeared and are easily obtainable) is weird.

[bryanrasmussen]

>..is weird.

I call it the artistic dilettante last 5% laziness effect. As an artistic dilettante you make it mainly all done to your satisfaction but you don't sweat the final details which is for the small people to do, because, while you are totally focused and energetic until nearly done that last little bit makes you extremely lazy.

[ixwt]

> I have never made mead myself however. Are the spices of so little consequence to the final flavour?

No, they do have an impact on the final flavor. I don't know what long pepper or grains of paradise taste like, or what the yeast will do with the flavor compounds. In my experience, the quantity of spices in that volume will come through. I honestly feel like 20 cardamom pods will come through quite strongly, in my few years of experience of meads.

[kevinmchugh]

I also found this curious. I don't have either of those in my kitchen or at my grocery store, but they're certainly available online.

They would be pretty noticable in the finished flavor, I imagine. Mead flavor is often best described as "delicate", especially in lower abv meads. The carmellization and yeasts are probably going to be the most notable flavors here.

[Igelau]

The article did mention that sometimes you do your absolute best to follow exactly what they would have done in the Middle Ages... and you get something awful.

It's possible that the proportions suggested were something the brewer knew would be nasty. It's also possible the proportions for spice weren't given, instead being "to taste".

[robotmay]

The difference between a spiced and non-spiced mead is pretty obvious, but I must admit I haven’t paid enough attention to the recipes of different spiced meads to tell them apart based on spice content.