Nectar Creek Top Bar Coffee Mead

July 27, 2020July 27, 2020 cidersays Nectar Creek, review 2 Towns, coffee mead, honey wine, mead, mead review, Nectar Creek, tasting notes, top bar

Review of not a cider, but a mead, Nectar Creek Top Bar (coffee). Nectar Creek closed in October 2019, but 2 Towns Ciderhouse has started making their meads. It is my first time trying this, but I’ve had Nectar Creek’s Honeycone, Waggle, and Nectarade.

>>This is a review of a sample bottle provided to Cider Says by 2 Towns. Although I will take care to treat it the same as any other review, there is always the potential for bias as I received it for free. The only consideration I knowingly made was pushing this up in my review cue. I love free stuff, especially cider! Want your cider or mead reviewed here? Contact me.<<

Mead: Top Bar
Meadery: Nectar Creek
Location: Corvallis OR
ABV: 8.0%
How Supplied: 500ml bottles
Style: American craft mead (made from water & honey), with coffee and apple brandy

Availability: 2 Towns’ taproom, local delivery in Corvallis OR, and online sales, until a full roll out in September with 6 packs of cans

Mead Description: Locally roasted coffee blended with unfiltered honey makes for a mead that is rich, complex, and sessionable all at the same time.

Meadery Description: Founded in 2012, Nectar Creek makes meads using unfiltered honey. Their offerings include a wide variety of lightly carbonated meads. As one of the leaders of the resurgence of the mead category, Nectar Creek’s products have been helping bring this age-old beverage into the mainstream.

Price: n/a (retails for ~ $7-8 / bottle)
Where Bought: n/a
Where Drank: home
How Found: it showed up

First Impression: Light caramel hue. Low carbonation. Smells of sweet coffee.

Tasting Notes: Semi-dry to semi-sweet. Light to medium bodied. Low tartness, acidity, and bitterness. No tannins, sourness, or funk. Notes of mainly coffee with a hint of honey. Long bitter coffee finish. High coffee flavor. Moderate flavor intensity and sessionability. Low complexity and honey flavor.

My Opinion: I wasn’t into this, but mainly as I’m not big on coffee-flavored stuff (like candy or ice cream), or even coffee (I go for tea, a latte, or Frappuccino). My husband liked it though. If you also really like coffee, you’ll probably like this.

Most Similar to: The only coffee-flavored alcohol I’ve had is a cider from Schilling, Grumpy Bear, on Nitro tap, for which the coffee flavor wasn’t quite so strong. An online search tells me that a coffee flavored mead had been done elsewhere, especially in the homebrew world (seems weird to use the word “brew” for mead or cider as heat isn’t involved like it is for beer, but that term still seems synonymous to any type of home alcohol-making).

Closing Notes: I think their initial re-release offerings of citrus and coffee were odd choices for mead flavors, but maybe its just me.

Have you tried Nectar Creek mead? What did you think?

Nectar Creek Nectarade Lemon Lime

July 20, 2020July 18, 2020 cidersays Nectar Creek, review 2 Towns, cirtus mead, honey wine, Lemon-Lime, mead, mead review, Nectar Creek, Nectarade, tasting notes

Review of not a cider, but a mead, Nectar Creek Nectarade (Lemon Lime). Nectar Creek closed in October 2019, but 2 Towns Ciderhouse has started making their meads. It is my first time trying this, but I’ve had Nectar Creek’s Honeycone and Waggle.

Mead: Nectarade
Meadery: Nectar Creek
Location: Corvallis OR
ABV: 8.0%
How Supplied: 500ml bottles
Style: American craft mead (made from water & honey), with lemon & lime juice and apple brandy

Availability: 2 Towns’ taproom, local delivery in Corvallis OR, and online sales, until a full roll out in September with 6 packs of cans

Mead Description: Freshly squeezed lemon and lime juice blended with unfiltered honey to make a mead that is tart and electrifying.

Price: n/a (retails for ~ $7-8 / bottle)
Where Bought: n/a
Where Drank: home
How Found: it showed up

First Impression: Medium straw yellow hue. Low carbonation. Smells of honey, citrus, and something else I couldn’t figure out (maybe from the apple brandy, which appeared to have been added to increase the ABV up to the new 8.0%?).

Tasting Notes: Semi-dry to semi-sweet. Light to medium bodied. Moderate tartness and acidity. Hints of bitterness. No tannins, sourness, or funk. Notes of lemon, lime, and honey. Moderate length tart finish with an aftertaste which reminded me of artificial sweeteners. Low honey flavor and complexity. Moderate flavor intensity. High sessionability.

My Opinion: I wasn’t into this one, and neither was my husband. The citrus flavor just didn’t seem to work in a mead, and the artificial taste just made it worse. I did however like the flavor intensity and ABV (8.0%), both of which are higher than many of the newer mead options (often canned and referred to as “session” meads). Lemon-Lime and Coffee seem like interesting choices for initial re-releases.

Most Similar to: Nothing I’ve had. The meads I’ve tried have been plain, or with flavors like vanilla or berry, not citrus.

Closing Notes: This didn’t seem up to 2 Towns’ usual high quality. I actually can’t remember ever not liking anything from them, although some I enjoy much more than others. I’m guessing this was an initial batch, and they will work out the kinks in the next couple months before their larger release.

Have you tried Nectar Creek mead? What did you think?

Nectar Creek Waggle Wildflower Session Mead

October 14, 2016October 9, 2016 cidersays mead, Nectar Creek, not cider, review cider, cider review, cider tasting, hard cider, mead, Nectar Creek, tasting notes, Waggle, wildflower

Review of Nectar Creek’s Waggle, a Wildflower Session Mead (lower alcohol content). I’ve previously only tried their Honeycone hopped session mead, at Cider Summit last month (see here). This obviously isn’t a cider, but sometimes I cover non-cider beverages.

Mead: Waggle, Wildflower Session Mead
Meadery: Nectar Creek (Oregon Honey Products)
Meadery Location: Corvallis OR
ABV: 6.2%
How Supplied: 500ml bottles
Style: American craft mead (made from Oregon wildflower honey, water, yeast, and sulfites)

Availability: Year-round, at least in CA, GA, ID, MN, OR, TX, and WA (see their locator)

Mead Description: The complex essence of Oregon wildflower honey is captured in this session mead with flavors and aromas of ripe fruit and fresh honeycomb.

Meadery Description: Founded by two brothers native to Oregon’s Willamette Valley, Nectar Creek combines a passion for beekeeping, agriculture and brewing into delicious, sessionable meads.

They were founded in 2012 and have a tasting room in Corvallis Oregon (which is also home to 2 Towns cider).

Price: $8.99
Where Bought: Total Wine
Where Drank: home
How Found: Browsing

First Impression: Light straw yellow. Low to moderate carbonation. Smells mild, of honey with a hint of floral.

Tasting Notes: Semi-sweet to semi-dry. Medium bodied. Low tartness and acidity. Simple flavor, primarily of honey, with some floral and citrus. Quick finish length. Low to moderate honey flavor. Low flavor intensity. Low complexity. High sessionability.

My Opinion: Tasty. I liked it. Simple and sessionable. However, I prefer more flavor. It tasted a bit watered down.

Most Similar to: This was similar to their Honeycone, except Waggle was more honey forward and not hopped. Nectar Creek is the only session mead maker on the market I’ve seen.

Closing Notes: This was nice, but I think I prefer the higher ABV sweeter meads, which I’ve found to be more flavorful. Check out some of my other mead reviews here.

Have you tried Nectar Creek Session Meads? What did you think?

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: