Superstition - Amante

Amante by Superstition Meadery is their mead Safeword aged on coffee, cocoa nibs, cinnamon and chiles.  It is a yearly release available online and in their tap room for $48 for a 750mL bottle.  It is 13% Alcohol by volume.  

Amante is a Gold Medal winner at the 2016 Mazer Cup International.

For background, the base mead is Safeword, Safeword is Superstition's bourbon barrel aged mead with Belgian Dark Candi syrup.  So Amante cranks Safeword up to eleven by adding coffee, cocoa, cinnamon, and chile to the mix.

The easiest way to describe this mead to anyone familiar with craft beer is: Hunahpu.  This is the mead version of Cigar City Brewing's beautiful cinnamon, cocoa, and chile imperial stout, Hunahpu.  

This mead pours a very rich, dark ruby. It's dark and near opaque but still has beautiful clarity.  
The nose is this bouquet of aromas.  You get hit with honey sweetness, candy, coffee, cinnamon, bakers chocolate, rum soak dates.  It's just this explosion of richness to it.  Just on the nose and appearance you know this will be a decadant drink,

The taste is wow.  Much like the Coffee Marion, Amante takes a tasty base mead and elevates it to another level.  All the flavors are there, the coffee, the honey, the bourbon, the chile, the cinnamon. 
 However it is so well balances that none of the flavors overpower.  They all are beautifully balanced to create this extremely rich, dark, flavorful drink.  It's damn near like drinking a bourbon barrel aged imperial stout.  So if you're a fan of that style, this is the mead for you.  
This is a very lovely mead and worth seeking out if you are a fan of the flavors described above

Superstition - Safeword

Safeword by Superstition Meadery in Prescot Arizona is a mead made with Belgian dark candi sugar, that that used in beer such as stronger Belgian beers like dubbels and tripels.  This mead was also aged in bourbon barrels.  This mead is available in 750mL bottles and retailed for $36, when it's available.  

The Commercial description from Superstition is as follows:

This craft beverage is seductive and full of surprises. Safeword pushes the limits of liquid gratification as Honey and Belgian Dark Candi Syrup are tied together and then disciplined in a Bourbon Barrel until they are released for your pleasure. Enjoy the adventure waiting for you within this bottle and remember, don't forget the Safeword.

This mead is rich, it's rich in color, aroma, and taste.  The color is a dark dark brown, very similar to a barrel aged barelywine, bordering on stout level opaqueness.  The aroma is beets, candied dates, figs, and coffee.  The taste follows pretty closely with the aroma, lots of dark, rich fruits; figs and dates.  There's also a candied sweetness that might be the honey just elevated by the candied sugar.  There's also notes of leather, a bit of smoke and char, and some earthy, woodsy qualities to the taste a well.  This is a big mead.  Something that would be sipped nicely next to a fire, maybe with a cigar, on a cold winter night.  It reminded me a little bit of the Swedish mulled wine, glugg.  Something enjoyed around the winter holidays with friends and family.  

Misbeehavin' - The Great Gats-bee

The Great Gats-bee by Misbeehavin' Meads out of Valparaiso Indiana is a Lemon and Lavender mead released at their taproom in early Summer 2016.  It came only in 750 mL bottles.

The nose on this mead has a lovely sweet floral sent.  You pick up the lavender aroma but the honey adds an additional layer of sweetness.  A slight lemon twinge but it's subtle in the background.  The taste is interesting, there's a nice balance of sweetness from the honey with citrus from the lemon and floral.  I did get some soapiness from the lavender and the lemon taste veers close to the Lemon Pledge spectrum, but it's not off-putting.  Lemon and lavender are difficult ingredients to use and definitely give off those flavors described.  Especially if you use fresh Lavender, you tend to get that soapy flavor.  The one thing I would change about this mead is using dried lavender, or even lavender root, to reduce that soapiness.

Overall this is a very nice mead.  Unique in its own right, and makes for a nice, lighter sipping mead.  Because this is a big 750mL bottle I actually drank the bottle over the course of a week, just taking a pour, recorking, and putting it back in my fridge for a few days.  I found that helped to soften the edges of the mead a bit and really integrate the flavors better.