B. Nektar Black Fang

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Pours a clear dark ruby, not like he typical mead. Aroma has strong blackberry and honey notes. Raspberry dominates the flavor, somewhat sour. Texture is quite thick and fairly fizzy for a mead. Sink your fangs into one.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

I'm kind of flying blind here. I haven't tasted any mead of any kind in 20 years, so I honestly have nothing to compare this to. I am, "in the parlance of our times," "out of [my] element" (cheers to Day of the Dude!). My numeric ratings therefore have nothing whatsoever with other kinds of mead, but only my own personal enjoyment of this particular beverage. The color is a clear but dark ruby with some bubbles on the side of the glass. The aroma is blackberry tart, honey sweet, and clove spicy-- a trace of bitterness from the orange peel is barely detectable. It smells a bit like a dubbel into which someone poured a load of blackberries. The flavor is much the same, a winsome brew dominated by sweet blackberry, just a little tart, but with some bitter clove and orange peel to attain three of the five basics: sweet, tart, and bitter. Clean with a light tingle, more substantial than many grape wines but not too heavy. I think I would have enjoyed a little more effervescence. I like it a lot.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 7

I really don't know how to judge or rate these meads. Seems a lot like wine to me, which I don't care for too much. I like it better than wine though, as seems like not as sweet and heavy, etc. This flavor reminded me of cough medicine, but in a not so bad way. Put it this way, I can appreciate something different, while a small sample was drinkable. Wouldn't want a lot of this though. Appearance was kind of cool and a light purple. Decent feel too.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

A reddish bodied brew. The profile is mostly blackberry. The cloves a little muted. But that combination tones down the expected sweetness you would get from a straight up mead. Light, effervescent and very drinkable. Very nice, indeed.