Before both beer and wine were produced, mead was the drink of choice from the Greek island of Crete to the empire of China, where mead-making pottery has been dated back over 9,000 years. Mark Beran says that the bushmen of Africa also gathered natural mead (made when bees nested in the rotted-out branches of Baobab trees) since at least as early, and possibly more.As time went on, mead became an every-day part of several legendary cultures. The drink is mentioned in the Rigveda, and Aristotle includes a description in his classical Metorologica. People who remember reading Beowulf in high school are no doubt familiar with the Danish mead halls (terrorized by the monster Grendel in the poem). The earliest of the halls has been dated back to about 500 AD, and were generally feast halls renowned for their gaiety and celebrationmuch like bars on a college campus. In fact, the reason Grendel destroyed the hall was to stop the laughter from it.Mead-making was popular among provincial cultures, but history shows that it often died out as the culture moved into an urbanized stage. Honey was no longer a luxury item with the introduction of sugar cane, and the tradition of mead-making was lost to the general public. The reason we still have the recipe today is that many European monasteries protected the tradition during these vulnerable years.Starting in the 1800s, mead was rediscovered and the process was passed down as an art. In the 19^th and 20^th centuries mead has come back into vogue in several cultures, but enjoys a unique role in American society, where it’s seen as a fascinating and historical alternative to beer and wine. The International Mead Association sponsors an annual festival to spread the word about this most ancient of drinks.