"Nectar of the gods" found hidden away in Orangefield

Another hidden treasure has been found tucked away in Orangefield. Kevin and Jenni Bryant have been offering tastings of mead aka "nectar of the gods" in the Oilla Community of Orangefield for two years. Mead is the oldest known fermented product on the planet and predates wine by several thousand years. According to Bryant, it began in China and Africa, was later romanticized by the Greeks and the Vikings.

The Hammered Honey Farms and Mead tasting room is located at 2801 Linscomb Rd., Orange, TX 77630.

"We are a veteran owned, family run and operated, small business," said Keven Bryant. They only use honey, water, yeast and fresh fruit in their meads and as much as possible is sourced locally. "Our honey comes from about six miles down the road. It's our signature honey. That's the only honey we use." They use raw, unprocessed, unpasteurized honey. Bryant says raw honey still has all the healthy enzymes.

"I'm very partial to not using chemicals that I don't have to. I'm very adamant about the fact that we don't get fruit that has herbicides, pesticides, insecticides or anything like that."

He started making mead several years ago as a camaraderie/team building event for some of his "joes," his soldiers.

"I did 18 years in the army, this was a way for us to come together, making alcohol together. Of course we drank it. When we started it was rocket fuel... It was really rough stuff, but through years and years of making it, now our recipes have become much more refined."

They now have 39 recipes and typically have around 20 available. Typically, it is just honey, water and yeast and whenever you want to flavor it, you put in either fresh fruits or fresh spices.

"Here at Hammer Honey, we only use fresh fruit. We don't use any artificial colors, flavors, dyes, or artificial sweeteners; nothing of that nature. I'm just about the only alcohol manufacturer that I know that says that I will bet the business that no matter how much of my product you drink, you'll never have a headache or hangover." He credits the use of all natural ingredients that prevent headaches.

Besides his wife, only two other people participate in the business: his son Kade and daughter, Abby.

"We pick the fruit ourselves whenever we can. Some of the fruit we grow on our own, but again if we can get it local that's what we do. We get our peaches from the orchards in Fredericksburg, watermelons from Sugar Town. blueberries from Brown's Berry Farm in Kirbyville. We're very adamant about getting as much local fruit as we can. That way we get a great product and it's nice to help the local economy."

For years, people asked to buy the mead, but since that would be illegal, he gave it away. People finally convinced him to open a brick-and-mortar location. He started working on the licensing in 2019, then COVID shut everything down.

"We didn't get our full licensure between federal and state until December 1st of 2022 so we just had our second-year anniversary," said Bryant. He said the local community has been good to him, but it has not been good to many.

"We've lost seven alcoholic establishments in Southeast Texas in the past two years, the latest being Neches Brewing Company in Groves. They're closing on December 31st so we're just hoping that we're not gonna be one of those." Bryant said, "Thank goodness we own the building and we don't have any overhead with employees. That's what's keeping us open at the moment. The alcohol industry has not been kind to Southeast Texas recently." Other casualties locally include Clifford Distilling, Pour Brothers, Cotton Creek Winery and Hop Avenue.

When the tasting room first opened, they didn't advertise a lot because they kept selling out.

"We would open and then we'd be open for 2-3 months and sell out completely and then we'd be closed for a month and a half to two months, waiting for our new batches to come," he said. "It takes six months for everything we do. It's a minimum of six months aging process so time is the most expensive thing that we have to deal with. It's a really good product."

The Bryants are both of Scandinavian heritage so they decided to go with a Viking theme for the tasting room.

"It started with the logo," said Kevin Bryant. "Mjolnir (Thor's hammer), then in the center of it has what's called a vlknut. It's three triangles that are intertwined. A valknut represents fallen warriors and that's real important to me, two percent of all our gross sales, including tips, goes directly to TAPS which is the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors. It's basically Gold Star families who have lost service members in combat."

All the meads are named after either Aesir or Vanir gods and goddesses which are in the Norse myths and legends.

Their apple spice mead is named Idun, the goddess of fertility and health. She's known to carry a basket of apples. It is Jenni's personal favorite. Skadi is known as the goddess of hunting and frost. They gave her name to the blueberry flavor, because blueberries frequently have a white film on them that looks like an early morning frost.

"We really try to match the names with things that would make sense," said Kevin.

Their number one seller is Bifrost, a three-berry mixture of strawberry, blueberry and blackberry. Bifrost is the rainbow bridge between the nine realms of the Norse Pantheon. Kevin's overall favorite is Loki, named for the god of mischief. It is a ginger-lime combo. Their traditional mead is named Odin, the king of the gods. They even have one made with coffee named Mimir.

They offer tastings in a variety of ways. Their "Fairing Flight," which is a choice of four meads is $15 per person, while the "Longship" offers six flavors of $20 per person, the "Whole Fjord" is 10 flavors for $30 per person and the "Berserker Uber Home" is 15 flavors for $45 per person. They can do tastings for as few as two people all the way to 24.

"If you have six or more in your group then you get the entire Meadery for your event. The typical tasting can take anywhere from an hour and a half up to four hours. If you have multiple people who are doing the berserker, I'm very very adamant that no one will leave here in an inebriated state. I've lost way too many soldiers in my time to drunk driving."

Alcohol content varies by flavor, with the coffee being the least at about 12.5% and the banana flavor running at the highest at more than 15%. Most of the bottles average 13-14% by volume.

"We block plenty of time and we've got time wasters," said Bryant. They have card and board games, giant Jenga and Karaoke to spread it out. You also get a history of mead and an education about how Hammered Honey mead differs from other meads.

The tastings are by reservation only. They offer tastings Thursday and Friday, 5-8 p.m., Saturday, tastings can be scheduled 10 a.m.- 8 p.m. and on Sundays, they offer reservations between noon and 5 p.m.

Bottle sales are available anytime during the week they are available, but you do need to call first for an appointment for bottle sales as well. Currently bottle sales are $32. Bryant said bottle sales may increase to $34 in the next couple of weeks due to the rising cost of supplies.

"The bottles that we're putting everything in have really gone up, as well as the corks and labels," he said. "Everything's more expensive."

Mark Walles, who lives in the Oilla Community stopped by earlier in the week and purchased a few bottles to share on Christmas with his family.

"Three bottles gone by lunch. It was good, everybody enjoyed it. The wine people enjoyed it and the beer people enjoy it," he said. Walles purchased Njord (pineapple), Freya (Strawberry) and Loki (lime and ginger). He didn't purchase the coffee, but he did taste it. "It was strong coffee," he said. Walles said the family is interested in doing a wine tasting and will schedule one in January for his birthday.

The Bryants also offer some pop-up special events. They partnered Saturday with War Wagon Cigar Lounge on State Hwy 87, in Mauriceville to offer their mead as part of War Wagon's porker event.

They do also carry merchandise such as T-shirts, engraved mugs and drinking horns.

Now if you're trying to find Hammered Honey Farms and Mead, maps will take you there, but you must make sure you are on the right of Linscomb Road, because Orange County has three. There is one in Vidor, one off 1442 north of Interstate 10, but the one you want is in Orangefield proper off Oilla Road. If you turn down Oilla from Farm to Market 105, you need to continue driving straight when Oilla turns left immediately after crossing the rice canal. You will then be on Linscomb Road. It is a little way down Linscomb on the right.

Call 409-313-2001 to reserve your tasting slot or to arrange bottle sales.