Cork drink wins big at prestigious awards

Kinsale Mead Co won the drink of the year award by Irish Made.

The Irish Made award is run by The Irish Country Magazine, Guaranteed Irish and The Crafts Council in October of each year.

This award comes just weeks after the Cork company took home the gold medal at the World Mazer Cup in Kansas City, USA, what is considered as the “Olympics of mead”.

Owners of Kinsale Mead Co, Kate, and Denis Dempsey, are thrilled to be awarded drink of the year after just five years in business.” 

Kate Dempsey said: “We’ve been in business in the heart of Kinsale now for five years. We bottled and sold our first bottle back in September of 2017 and have been making mead in Kinsale ever since.” 

“There is something extra special about winning the Irish Made award. Especially in Cork, food and drink produced in this country is at such a high standard.”

“People have been drinking mead for 4,000 years before the invention of the wheel. It’s the oldest alcohol in the world, it goes back to at least 6500 BC which is amazing. It's much older than whiskey, gin, wine and beer.” 

Mead is a drink produced from the fermentation of honey and berries and can take anywhere between six months to three years for the process to be completed.

“Seasonally, we use local honey from Ring near Clonakilty. We also do a wild red mead, which has a more autumnal taste, is made using blackcurrants from County Wexford.” 

October marks Irish food and drink month and restaurants around Cork such as Nash 19, The Glass Curtain and Rare, Kinsale have been including the drink as pairings with their menus to provide an alternative way to enjoy the traditional Irish mead.