Photo Provided By: Bev Wooding

Cocktail Expert Extraordinaire Krysta Oben (of Cowbell) is known for her fresh and inventive cocktails. Known for pushing the boundaries and using local alcohols, and ingredients, Krysta’s cocktails take you on a journey. So when “Get 86’d “ host Ivy Knight invited Krysta and Lauren Wilton to make mead cocktails I knew our locally made mead from the Beamsville Bench would be in great hands.

Mead, the ancient alcoholic beverage made of honey, is a great on it’s own but can also be integrated into cocktails. Mead adds complexity to cocktails due to barrel aging and are balanced and have fresh flavours of honey, wildflower and light citrus notes.

Rosewood Estates Winery, Niagara’s first winery and meadery is proud to present a unique lineup of honey wines that change seasonally.  The summer lineup of refreshing and barrel aged meads includes a new pyment, the Mead Noir (a Pinot Noir & Honey wine blend) as well as our fan favourite the Mead Royale and Mon Cherie. More details at http://www.rosewoodwine.com/pages/1326742217/Meads

Photo Provided By: Bev Wooding

Krysta was given the traditional barrel aged Mead Royale to get creative with for Get 86’d. Inspired by the approaching summer season and the beautiful blooms all over the city, Krysta and her crew went foraging. Inspired by their foraging trip Krysta developed the Wood Nymph Mead Cocktail using a wide range of flowers and herbs. Appropriately all of our hives are in woods and we couldn’t be more proud of this beautifully developed cocktail.

Interested in more mead cocktails? Check this out: http://www.rosewoodwine.com/pages/1336518551/Mead-Cocktails

Wood Nymph Mead Cocktail

By: Krysa Oben, Cowbell
At: Get “86’d” at the Drake
Monday, May 28th 2012

Go foraging and find a combination of things that are in season. Here’s what we picked:
mint
cedar
spruce tips
anise hyssop
sage flowers
thyme flowers
violets
wild ginger
shiso
rhubarb – cook this down with wildflower honey and buzz it up until it’s smooth. Strain it into a squeeze bottle.

Here is what you might buy:
Salted cherry blossoms
Rosewood Estates Mead Royale
Sparkling wine
Rosewood Honeycomb
Rosewood Wildflower honey
Organic eggs – wash them and separate the whites from the yolks.

Directions
1. Wash and dry and pick all of the herbs and flowers. Save some really pretty little flowers to use as a garnish.

2. Tear up everything else and put it in a big bowl. I used a metal champagne bucket with a little tap at the bottom.

3. Add as many bottles of Mead Royale as you want. Let it steep for a little while you can top it up later if you are running low.

4. Into a shaker:
2 ounces of steeped Mead Royale
A big squirt of rhubarb syrup
About 1/3 oz egg whites
Two little ice cubes
* for a stronger drink you can add a splash of brown liquor or gin

5. Shake it up until the ice cubes have made it cold and the egg whites have made it frothy. Pour it into a chilled coupe glass with about an ounce of sparkling wine. (try a local sparkling… Fielding, Vineland, Angel’s Gate etc)

6. Garnish it with a tiny piece of honeycomb, some bee pollen, and a few small wildflowers.  Cheers!

Photo Provided By: Bev Wooding