Te Atatu Peninsula in West Auckland is home to Honey Bandit Mead. They create fine, modern, hand-crafted mead with only the finest and freshest raw ingredients.
Honey Bandit Mead is made in small batches which allows for experimentation. As a result many different flavour and aroma combinations are possible.
Mead is an alcoholic beverage from fermented honey. It’s believed to be one of the oldest alcoholic beverages as records show it was consumed as far back as 8,000 years. Interestingly, mead was common across ancient cultures around the world including those in Asia, Europe and Africa.
In it’s simplest form Mead is made with just honey, water and yeast, although it can include other ingredients such as fruit, spices or herbs.
Mead can vary greatly in sweetness and alcohol strengths. It can also be still or sparkling.
Adam Read is the owner and mead maker at Honey Bandit. Originally from Devon, England. Adam moved to New Zealand where he studied Viticulture and Enology at the Eastern Institute of Technology in Hawkes Bay. While spending several years as a vineyard manager and assistant winemaker, Adam continued to experiment fermenting honey into mead at home.
Adam’s vision is to educate Kiwis on what a modern mead looks like and the full extent of its flavours and styles.
Other Drinks
Along with Meads Adam has also created a selection of other really interesting drinks. These include:
A Smooth 40% Oaked Honey Spirit with rich Auckland honey and charred American Oak. 200ml or 750ml
A sweet Honey and Strawberry liqueur, 20% ABV sold in 375ml bottles made with local Auckland honey and west Auckland Strawberries. This is a perfect after dinner drink, cocktail ingredient or poured over ice cream treat.
Made from exceptional quality Auckland Pinot Noir grapes, with just a touch of Arneis, producing a sophisticated, pale pink, crisp, southern French style, bone dry Rosé.
A Limechello is a modern take on the traditional European liqueur. Full of zesty lime aroma and flavour, it’s a perfect balance between sweet and tangy with just the right amount of alcohol heat. Nain is an ideal after dinner digestif. Nain (pronounced nine) means grandmother, nan, nanny in Northern Welsh dialect.
Honey Bandit have been getting their barcodes from us, Barcodes Ltd, since 2019
