Winners in the Four Mead Classes

There are four classes of competition for Mead, i.e., Dry, Sweet, Made With Fruit Juice and Sparkling (with or without fruit juice). Entries are judged on seven criteria, i.e., clarity, color, taste, body, bouquet, the bottle and the bottle closure.

Taking a first place blue ribbon in two classes, Sweet and Made With Fruit Juice was Jay DeSimone of the Central Jersey Beekeepears Association (CJBA), one of the eight branches of the New Jersey Beekeepers Association (NJBA). DeSimone's mead is bottled under his Helmetta Brewery label.

In first place in the Sweet class was Alf & Ceil Berg of Herbertsville Honey, while the first place ribbon for Sparkling mead went to Jean-Claude Tassot of Tassot Apiaries.

(Photo by Janet A. Katz)