Development of floral mead

Abstract

Mead is a fermented alcoholic beverage that is made from honey, water and often other flavouring agents such asfruits, herbs or spices. It has various health benefits in humans and is enjoyed by a diverse range of people. Work onunifloral mead is very limited. Thus, an attempt was made to prepare mead from different floral honey. The different floralhoney, like Acacia, Lavender, Sunflower, Orange blossom and commercial honey used for the study were procured throughonline platforms. Yeast strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae MTCC 178 was procured from the Microbial Type CultureCollection (MTCC), Chandigarh. The physicochemical properties of floral honey were analysed to know its quality. Different floral mead and combinations were prepared and phenol, reducing sugar, alcohol content and antioxidant wereestimated. Based on these parameters and sensory evaluation, the treatments of Lavender mead and combination of Lavender + Sunflower mead were selected. Combination of Lavender+ Sunflower mead recorded highest alcohol content of8.33% followed by Lavender mead which showed 8.20%. The Lavender mead had highest polyphenol, antioxidant andreducing sugar content of 297.3mg GAE /L, 77% and 6.8mg/ml followed by combination of Lavender Sunflower mead with267.3mg GAE/L, 71% and 6.2mg/ml, respectively. The findings of this indicate that unifloral honey such as Lavender andcombination of Lavender + Sunflower honey can be used for mead preparation with unique qualities and potential healthbenefits.