Excellent Danish summer honey, apples, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, ginger and oak were used for this royal mead.
Harald Blåtand is an unusual mead, it is complexly spiced in both taste and aroma in a way that brings back memories of sweet Middle Eastern spice blends. The sweetness is delicately balanced by a spicy taste and plenty of acidity. It has a very strong and complex aroma. This is a rich mead that really fills the mouth with a strong flavor and lingers on a very long aftertaste.
This is an unusual mead for Mjødgård, as they do not normally use spices or herbs that do not grow in the area.
Mead goes well with dark chocolate, ice cream, cake or coffee.
Harald I, Harald Bluetooth (Danish Harald Blåtand, c. 911 – c. 986) was king of Denmark from 958 to 986 and king of Norway from 974 to 986. Harald Bluetooth was baptized around 965 and thus introduced Christianity in Denmark. During his reign, he took care of the development of the state. In Jelling, where his parents were buried under a mound, he erected a richly decorated runic stone, the first evidence of the Christianization of Denmark, and built a church there, to which he had the remains of his father transferred. He also built four forts to defend the territory of his kingdom. He also built other churches and also bridges.
Harald showed true magnanimity in all his actions. He was a strategic master and in many ways he did not want to be left behind any European giants. In his own way, he created buildings, probably based on southern European inspiration, like no one before him.
We thought that with a king like Harald who wanted to show his power through his urge to create, he might also want to show the other Danish magnates that he had close ties to southern Europe. So why not make a mead based on the spices you could get in southern Europe at the time. That's why we brewed Harald's Royal Mead with spices found in the Mediterranean lands during the Viking Age.