Don't put tea in your mead!

On the Use of Teas in Mead- 2018

"When the honey is squeezed out of the combs an agreeable strong drink, like wine, is produced." Aristotle

Over the last few years, I've been swapping mead recipes with a lot of people.  One of the things I've run into is people's desire to add black tea to mead.  When I enquired about this, I was told it was to increase the levels of tannins and that this was a period practice.  Being of an inqusitive nature, I decided to do a little reading about tea, tannins and mead.  I've come up with a thought on the matter and here they are:

Tea in Mead isn't Period

According to Tom Standage in his book "A History the World in 6 Glasses",(1) tea as a possible trade commodity in Western Europe is mentioned for the first time in the 1550's.  It was not until 1610 that a Dutch ship brought a small commercial amount to Europe, where it was viewed as a novelty.  The Dutch imported tea exclusively until about the 1650's.  The first teas imported were green teas, (Camellia sinensis) bitter to the point of undrinkability.  In the 1630's, tea in the Netherlands caused quite a sensation as a medicinal drink of the social elite and the very wealthy.  Simon Pauli, a German doctor and physician to the king of Denmark published a tract in 1635 extolling tea's virtues, but expressing concern that tea's long journey might cause it to become poisonous.  He also speaks to the price of imported tea "since a Pound of the former is sometimes sold at an Hundred Librae of Silver, which, if I am not mistaken amounts to forty Crowns.". (2) Using the calculations found online at www.measuringworth.com, I have estimated that this would have a modern value of almost $50,000.00 CAD at 2008 rates, not including all the taxes that the British Government would have applied to it.  Hardly a purchase for the modest housewife!

Tea's medicinal reputation, along with it's price as a luxury item would indicate that it was not likely to be added to mead in our period.  A lack of recipes from the period with the inclusion of tea would support this position.  Mead was a country brew, like beer.  Although my search was not exhaustive, I found no records of it being served to high society or used as a social drink.  Most recipes seem to treat mead as a vehicle for herbal remedies; the sweet taste would help disguise some of the more pungent herbs.

Research into Bills of Lading and Manifests of ship's cargo for Britain, Spain and the Netherlands, leading trade countries in our period reveal no record of tea being carried as a trade cargo prior to the 1700's.  The first record I discovered is from a Dutch Ship, carrying "Ordinaire Boei Thee", which is a low grade Chinese tea, considered to have very little commercial value due to it's poor taste.People just wouldn't have been able to afford to add tea to mead until fairly recently.  Tea was also considered such a delicacy (3) that it would have been seen as strange in the least to add it to mead.  You wouldn't add tap water to Dom Perignon, would you? 

Tannins are somehow required to assist fermentation

What is tannic acid?  Tannins are described as "water-soluble phenolic compounds having molecular weights between 500-3000...giving the usual phenolic reactions...having special properties such as the ability to precipitate alkaloids, gelatin and other proteins." (4)  Tannins, in this discussion, are better defined as "gallotannins" and are routinely found in the plants sumac (Rhus Microphylla) and oak (Quercus Lepidobalanus and Leucobalanus).

Honey has a very high sugar level (80-85%) and would not require the addition of tannins to start or continue fermentation.  According to Peter Bennell of the Central Toronto Wine Guild "Undiluted honey generally has T.A. between 2g/l and 3.5g/l (mostly gluconic acid with traces of citric) and pH in the range 3.0 to 4.0. Now we dilute the honey. T.A. gets diluted in proportion and pH stays the same. However honey has poor buffering properties. This means if we add a little acid the pH drops drastically and the must becomes unfriendly to the hungry yeasts". (5)  So, adding tannins can and most likely will create a high acid environment that can be deadly to most types of yeasts.  The argument I have heard put forth is that the tannins will kill only wild yeasts and allow commercial yeasts to grow.  I have been unable to substantiate this statement and suggest that this might be pseudo-science. 

What I did discover is that tannin rich diets (above 5%) in mammals are generally lethal (6).  The author of this particular paper, an undergrad in Animal Science at Cornell, goes on to discuss the effects on mammals: "Animals fed diets with a level of tannins under 5% experience depressed growth rates, low protein utilization, damage to the mucosal lining of the digestive tract, alteration in the excretion of certain cations, and increased excretion of proteins and essential amino acids. " (7)

According to Professor Ann Hagerman of the Miami University, "A major family of proteins secreted by the salivary glands of some animals constitutes the best characterized of the defence mechanisms against dietary tannins.  The parotid and submandibular salivary glands synthesize a group of proteins that are high in prolines, the so-called "PRP's"... PRP's collectively constitute about 70% of the proteins in human saliva...Recent evidence suggests that a primary role for these proteins may be protection against dietary tannins." (8)

We know that tannins are harmful to certain yeasts: in a study by Dr's Strumeyer and Malin (Dept of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Rutgers University) they state that condensed tannins (the kind people are adding to mead via black tea) are the most potent antagonists to brewing yeasts and that studies had observed the virtual elimination of microbial growth when added to soils.  The study reveals that there are very few yeasts (none used regularly for brewing) that can resist being denatured by condensed tannins.  On the other hand, fungal spores were found to be very resistant to the effects of the tannins, finding the environment to be more satisfactory than without.  (9)

This information leads me to conclude a few things:

1. Tannins are bad for mammals,

2. Tannins are bad for brewer's yeasts,

3. Tannins cause brewer's yeasts to die in favour of wild yeasts and fungal spores,

4. Tannins raise the pH levels beyond reasonable levels.

Mead tastes bland without tannins

Well, if you boil the must it does.  This is another pet peeve, by the way.  It's not necessary to boil the must.  Boil the water, boil the equipment, but stay away from the honey!  Honey is a natural antibiotic and antiseptic, something known in the middle ages.  Galen of Pergamon (129-200CE) refers to honey in his medical treatises, (10) as does Trotula. (11)  There are modern accounts of honey found in Egyptian tombs still safe to eat.  According to Dr. Molan...

"At the University of Waikato (New Zealand) we have investigated how much variation there is in the antibacterial activity of honey likely to be used medically. Commercial apiarists supplied 345 samples of honey from 26 different floral sources for the study. The samples of honey were tested against staphylococcus aureus, the most common wound-infecting species of bacteria. The activity of each sample was compared with that of a reference antiseptic, phenol (carbolic). It was found that the activity varied from a level that was the equivalent of 58% phenol to a level that was below the limit of detection (2% phenol). One third of the samples tested were of this low level of activity. The results of this research (recently published internationally in the Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology) show the importance of selecting the honey used for medical purposes. Although all honey will stop the growth of bacteria because of its high sugar content, when the sugars are diluted by body fluids this antibacterial action is lost. The additional antibacterial components (primarily hydrogen peroxide generated by the glucose oxidase enzyme in the honey) then become important. Considering that carbolic disinfectant is usually used with a phenol concentration of 4-5%, it is evident that selected honeys can remain antibacterial when extensively diluted by body fluids." (12). 

Dr Molan also states:

"Although it is generally thought that honey is a sterile product, bacteria and spores are able to survive in the honey but it is unlikely that they will actually grow in it unless the water content is too high. One report has shown that disease causing bacteria introduced into honey samples were capable of surviving 1.5 months to 2.4 years at 214F.".(13) 

Thankfully, the end result of the fermentation process is alcohol, a great destroyer of bacteria!  If you leave the tannins out and allow the yeast to work unimpeded, you'll get a high enough level of alcohol to please even the fussiest germophobe.  If you add tannins, evidence has been presented to support that the yeasts may die off prematurely, not allowing the yeast to ferment the mead to a high enough level to destroy most bacterias.   

Mead was aged in oak casks, so the tannins are reproducing that.

Mead, like wine, was aged in whatever was at hand.  In Classical times, wine was aged in clay jars. (14) It's fair to say that mead may have been aged in wooden casks, but it's not clear how this would have impacted on the flavour.  According to a study by Cornell University, tannins do naturally occur in oak.  (15) Very little record is kept about the average brewing time, so one cannot guess at the impact.  Also, although we do have evidence to support that wine and beer was brewed/fermented in oak casks, we do not have the same evidence for mead.  Given the difficulty in collecting large volumes of honey to ferment all at once, unlike beer or wine, one might assume that mead was made in smaller batches, which could have been fermented in ceramic containers.  Given the lack of hard evidence, a complete statement may not be given either way.

In our period, honey was collected by hand according to the seasons.  As maintaining a certain level of honey in the hive is necessary to the survival of the bees, a great deal of skill was required to collect honey.  Local farmers might keep several hives and wandering bee-keepers were not uncommon.  One of the most important skills was understanding how and when the honey could be harvested.  The beekeeper would need to know when the local honey would flow and how long it would take the bees to produce the honey.  He would also have to know how much honey he could safely take without damaging the hive.  In most regions of Europe the nectar will flow twice (different plants) and honey could be harvested accordingly.  Often, it was also safe to take a fall harvest if the hive had been particularly successful. 

One might argue that adding tannins to mead might reproduce the flavour of medieval meads. Firstly, we must make the assumption that mead was aged in oak casks, which has not been substantially proven.  Other woods or non-porous materials may have been used in areas with competent potters or lacking coopers.

Ageing mead in an oak cask might have changed the flavour, but there is no was to tell how this might happen. There are no quantitative studies I have found that track the leaching rate of "oak flavouring" in meads from the Middle Ages, as no meads have survived from then. If the cask is new, the mead might pick up a great deal of the flavour, but an older cask would not have the same effect.  The flavour would also depend on the previous contents of the cask.  If a wine, whiskey or other alcoholic beverage had been previously stored in it, the mead would draw from that flavour as well.  Burning, cleaning or improperly storing the casks in damp conditions would also change the flavours.

I think that trying to mimic the conditions of medieval mead brewing is unrealistic.  Because of the nature of mead brewing, very few period sources have been handed down to us.  Sir Kenelm Digby's work is often relied on at the ultimate brewing guide, but he is by no means authoritative.  Sir Digby was a diletante, collecting recipes because it pleased him to do so.  He was not a Guild Master or more reliable source and cannot be trusted as being factual. 

There's tannins in grapes and other fruits

Agreed, but now you're entering the area of pyments and cysers.  If you're making red wine, you'd want to add tannins as they help prevent premature oxidization.  You'd also want to add finings as part of the fermentation process to adjust the tannin levels and precipitate some of them out of the wine.  Thing is, we're making mead, not red wine. 

In Conclusion

I gave this topic a lot of thought before beginning this essay.  The idea of adding tannins to mead has been floating around discussion groups for a long time, but something didn't sit right with me.  As a rule, I prefer not to add anything to my brews, with the belief that people in the Middle Ages simply didn't have the time, knowledge or inclination to include things that would have had no tangible result.  Tannins, as we know and define them today were simply not recognized in our period- science had not developed to the point where identification of specific acids was possible.  In context, mead appears to have been a simple country drink and would not have warranted the inclusion of such an expensive ingredient as tea.  Most period sources indicate that tea was taken without adulteration for any sort to enjoy it's benefits.  I suggest that if you rich enough in our period to afford tea, you weren't drinking mead. As I have also discovered, tannins are not good for you.  I agree that alcohol, by it's very nature isn't either, but why add something so toxic that your body has evolved specific proteins to negate it's effect.

I believe that the artificial addition of tannins, such as modern black tea, is unreasonable, not period appropriate and is supported by dubious, pseudo-science at best.

Footnotes

1)_Standage, Tom  A History of the World in 6 Glasses  (Anchor Canada, 2006

2) Pauli, Simon  A Treatise on Tobacco, Tea, Coffee and Chocolate  (T.Osbourne, London, 1635)

3) Pauli

4) http://www.users.muohio.edu/hagermae/tannin.pdf5) Peter Bennell, Central Toronto Wine Guild (http://www.littlefatwino.com/bennellmead.html)

6) Cornell University Paper (http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/toxicageents/tannin/toxic_effects.html)

7) Cornell

8) Dr. Ann Hagerman, Dept of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Miami, (http://www.users.muohio.edu/hagermae/tannin.pdf)

9) Dr.'s Strumeyer and Malin, Dept of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Rutgers University (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/pagerender.fcgi?artid=1179303&pageindex=1)

10) Galen  On Food and Diet  Translated and Notes by Mark Grant (London, Routledge, 2000)

11) Whitney, Elspeth  Medieval Science and Technology  (Connecticut, Greenwood Press, 2004)

12) http://www.members.tripod.com/~Bee_Mann/honey1.html

13) ibid

14) Standage

15) Cornell Univ.

Appendix A- The success of Asian products in XVIth to XVIIIth century Europe, by Philippe Haudrere,, Professor, Univ.of Angers, Membre of Academie de Marine

"The development of tea consumption was parallel to that of coffee, but it was quicker with a craze that recalled the craze for cotton. Tea appeared in the British and Dutch cargo at the same time as coffee. From 1698, the Directors of the English East India Company decided to import it in big quantities and they took a lot of trouble to spread its use. 'Here the consumption of tea increases', they wrote to their employees in Asia. 'We have offered it to some of our best friends at the Court, and we wish to receive five or six of the best and fresh quality tea every year; that which gives a beautiful color to water in which it is brewed, especially green tea, is the most sought after'. In the continent, the Directors of the Dutch company did the same thing and they turned particularly to the medical corps. The famous Doctor Nicolas Tulip of Amsterdam, recommended drinking tea to feel well; in 1685, one of his colleagues published a Treaty of an excellent herb named tea and advised his patients to take fifty to two hundred cups of tea every day [sic], royal remedy against all the pains they could suffer from. The effect of this propaganda was decisive: at the end of the XVIIth century, it was still the beverage of the elite, for fortunate people who tasted it in delicate porcelain cups, with best quality cane sugar; in the beginning of the XVIIIth century it came to be widely used in all the strata of society in England and the United Provinces, and tea merchants were found in all the cities of these two countries.Tea was produced only in China. How did the Europeans obtain it? In the beginning they received it in their trading posts in India, brought by ships of local navigation, then, from 1697, the English and the French sent ships directly from Europe to Canton, port of South China; the Dutch did the same thing a little later. There were big differences in the qualities of tea bought by the Europeans. The British loaded about 30 % of their green tea in their cargoes, and about 40 % of best quality black tea; more or less 30 % of the bouy, more ordinary quality, with low taste. With the Dutch, the French and other continentals, the cargoes were formed with 70 to 80 % of bouy. This was largely meant for the consumption of the British Isles where it arrived as smuggled goods, often after cutting with the local herb to reduce its price. According to contemporaries, the fraud amounted to twice the legal trade. The imported British teas were in fact crippled by heavy taxes, at least 40 %, which the tea merchants of the middle of the XVIIIth century, converged on Thomas Twinnings, were not able to get rid of or at least get reduced. One had to wait the year 1784 and the Commutation Act of Pitt – the second Pitt – for the duties to be restored to 12.5 %, straightaway bringing a quick growth in traffic: six million pounds in weight transported in 1784, sixteen million in 1785 and twenty million in 1786."

Appendix B- Definitions

Mead- alcoholic beverage fermented from honey and water; sometimes yeast is added to accelerate the fermentation. Strictly speaking, the term metheglin (from the Welsh meddyglyn, “physician,” for the drink’s reputed medicinal powers) refers only to spiced mead, made with the addition of spices and herbs such as cloves, ginger, rosemary, hyssop, and thyme; often, however, the terms are interchanged. Mead can be light or rich, sweet or dry, or even sparkling. In the Middle Ages it was usually similar to sparkling table wine. Mead is made in modern times as a sweet or dry wine of low alcoholic strength.  (Brittanica Online)

Tea- Camellia sinensis is native to mainland South and Southeast Asia, but is today cultivated across the world, in tropical and subtropical regions. It is an evergreen shrub or small tree that is usually trimmed to below two metres (six feet) when cultivated for its leaves. It has a strong taproot. The flowers are yellow-white, 2.5–4 cm in diameter, with 7 to 8 petals.The leaves are 4–15 cm long and 2–5 cm broad. Fresh leaves contain about 4% caffeine. The young, light green leaves are preferably harvested for tea production; they have short white hairs on the underside. Older leaves are deeper green. Different leaf ages produce differing tea qualities, since their chemical compositions are different. Usually, the tip (bud) and the first two to three leaves are harvested for processing. This hand picking is repeated every one to two weeks.The three most common types of tea are green, oolong and black (others include yellow, white, compressed and flavoured teas). All use the same leaves of the same plant. Green tea is steamed (Japanese method) or roasted (Chinese method) very soon after picking to stop the oxidation process. Oolong tea is left to oxidize a bit longer and is the type used by most Chinese restaurants. Black tea is oxidized for the longest period of time which produces the darkest of the teas. White tea, a delicacy in the orient now beginning to be found in Western shops, is made from "tea needles," the newest, still folded shoots of leaves at the end of branches. Further distinctions are made to denote the size of the leaves used (the youngest, smallest leaves are generally held to have the highest quality flavor), and the region of origin (in much the same way wine is classified).  (Wikipedia)

Tannins- are astringent, bitter plant polyphenols that either bind and precipitate or shrink proteins. The astringency from the tannins is what causes the dry and puckery feeling in the mouth following the consumption of red wine, strong tea, or an unripened fruit. The term tanning refers to the use of tannins in tanning animal hides into leather; however, the term is widely applied to any large polyphenolic compound containing sufficient hydroxyls and other suitable groups (such as carboxyls) to form strong complexes with proteins and other macromolecules. Tannins have molecular weights ranging from 500 to over 3,000. Tannins are incompatible with alkalis, gelatin, heavy metals, iron, lime water, metallic salts, strong oxidizing agents and zinc sulfate.  (Wikipedia)

English Money ("Crowns")- The silver penny ("d" for Denarius) was the principal and often sole coin in circulation from the 8th century until 13th century. Although some fractions of the penny were struck (see farthing and halfpenny), it was more common to find pennies cut into halves and quarters to provide smaller change. Very few gold coins were struck, with the gold penny (worth 20 silver pence) a rare example. However, in 1279, the groat, worth 4d was introduced, with the half groat following in 1344. 1344 also saw the establishment of a gold coinage with the introduction (after the failed gold florin) of the noble worth 6/8, together with the half and quarter noble. Reforms in 1464 saw a reduction in value of the coinage in both silver and gold, with the noble renamed the ryal and worth 10/- and the angel introduced at the noble's old value of 6/8.

The reign of Henry VII saw the introduction of two important coins, the shilling (known as the testoon) in 1487 and the pound (known as the sovereign) in 1489. In 1526, several new denominations of gold coins were added, including the crown and half crown worth 5/- and 2/6. Henry VIII's reign (1509-1547) saw a high level of debasement which continued into the reign of Edward VI (1547-1553). However, this debasement was halted in 1552 and a new silver coinage was introduced, including coins for 1d, 2d, 3d, 4d and 6d, 1/-, 2/6 and 5/-. The reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) saw the addition of silver ¾d and 1½d coins, although these denominations did not last. Gold coins included the half crown, crown, angel, half sovereign and sovereign. Elizabeth's reign also saw the introduction of the horse-drawn screw press to produce the first "milled" coins.  (Wikipedia)