B. Nektar Necromangocon Mango and Black Pepper Mead
Where in Town: Connecticut Avenue Wine & Liquor, 1529 Connecticut Ave. NW
Price: $7.99/500 mL
Klaatu Barada Nektar
B. Nektar Meadery, located just north of Detroit, has been churning out creative ciders and meads since 2008. For almost that long, bottles like Zombie Killer, a hard cider brewed with Michigan honey and cherries, have been easy to find throughout D.C. and Maryland. With its mango and black pepper mead Necromangocon, B. Nektar seems to take as much pride in local ingredients as it does local “culture.” The name plays off of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead movies. The film series is set in Michigan and revolves around a fictional ancient text called the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis that awakens the dead from their graves.
Gimme Some Sugar, Baby
Necromangocon looks, smells, and tastes exactly as it is described: a mango and black pepper mead with no surprises save the fact that its atypical mix of flavors actually works. It has the expected appearance of a mead: crystal clear and pale gold in color with a quickly dissipating white head. Its nose is mild, with honey aromas and just a hint of fruit and flowers. Despite its dark, foreboding namesake, Necromangocon is light-bodied with a prickly feel. The taste is on the sweeter side (it is mead, after all). Honey and mango flavors appear up front, followed by spicy heat from the black pepper in the finish. My only gripe is a slightly off-putting bitter aftertaste. Try a bottle alongside my least-loathed film of the series, Army of Darkness. A six-percent-alcohol bottle of Necromangocon might help you giggle more easily at Bruce Campbell’s cheesy, macho antics. Maybe.
Photo by Tammy Tuck