Is mead posed for a comeback? My first experience with mead was at the local Irish pub. Because I love that pub's atmosphere so much I think I'd enjoy drinking kerosene there. My later experiences (one bottle from an internationally distributed brand, another from a local winery) never quite matched up to that first one. The author sums up my conclusion pretty well:

Strange enough to be intriguing, but too strange to be at home on the dinner table, mead is a stubborn paradox. I like mead conceptually—the lore, the eccentricities. I even occasionally like a bottle. But no mead has ever earned its way into my alcoholic rotation. ... Of course, the rapturous aroma was intoxicating, and I spent a few moments inhaling it. But the taste that followed was neither more nor less than limpid, liquid honey. If Winnie-the-Pooh ever took to the bottle, this is exactly what he'd want.