Pips - Blue Suede Shews

Pips Meadery is a small, startup meadery outside of Chicago.  As of November 2016 they've not officially opened their doors or selling any product.  They're still going through all the hoops of setting up a production meadery but I expect them to open some time in 2017.  Despite that Pips has garnered a positive following in the mead community.

Let's get to the liquid.  Blue Suede Shews is an orange blossom base with wild blueberries and cashews,  This is an older labeled bottle so it's either a batch 1 or batch 2.

This mead has a really wonderful nose. There's a beautiful melding of jammy fruitiness and nuttiness that almost evokes a peanut butter and jelly combo.  The color is an extremely dark blue/purple, just about opaque as it could be without being 100%.  The taste matches the nose with a big, fruity punch of blueberries, but in a restrained way.  If that makes sense.  See, to me, blueberries have a delicate flavor profile that often times gets lost when used with other bolder fruit combos, but not here.  The blueberries are the star.  There's also a smooth, almost oily feel and taste from the cashews.  Even though it's not the same flavors, I still evoke that PB&J feeling of nuts and sticky sweet fruits when sipping this mead.

Blue Suede Shews really is a wonder beverage.  It's another one of those thought provoking meads for me, like Garagiste's Bangkok or Yukatan Sunrise, that makes you really consider and appreciate the intricate and unique flavor combinations that you don't see in meads every day.  It's well crafted beverage to say the least.