Life is pretty sweet at Gosnells mead bar.
Rum bars, whiskey bars, gin bars: we’ve seen them all in plentiful supply. But until London meadery Gosnells unveiled their new venture, we hadn’t seen a mead bar in London before. Housed above Coal Rooms in Peckham, the Gosnells mead bar heroes this unusual honey-based spirit – which extends to the inspired idea of serving frozen mead cocktails.
If you’ve never happened across mead before, here’s your primer: it is, essentially, honey fermented with water, and flavoured with fruit, spices, and grains. Aside from meaning Winnie the Pooh was just one small step away from crippling alcoholism (yeah, let that sink in), it makes mead a rather sweet spirit, albeit one with a still-potent kick.
With the opening of the bar, founder Tom Gosnell has taken his obsession with mead and let his imagination run wild. The menu features mead in classic, vintage, and barrel-aged varieties, along with wackier riffs including hopped mead, pink hibiscus mead, and gooseberry mead. Meanwhile, a ‘mead of the month’ option will keep the menu looking fresh on your inevitable repeat visits.
Why inevitable? Well, that’s because Gosnells have concocted a range of frozen mead cocktails, perfect for the long hot summer that’s definitely waiting for us. You can have your frozen mead with rum and pineapple, gin and candy lemon, vodka and tea syrup, or with tequila and lime (a drink they’ve dubbed the Meaderita). The bar also serves non-frozen mead cocktails, which I’m sure are also lovely, but don’t sound nearly as fun.
Between this and Vauxhall’s axe-throwing range, South London is becoming a proverbial Viking playground (seriously, if sacking cathedrals suddenly becomes in vogue again, I can tell you where it started). Better start planning your visit im-mead-iately!
Location: 11a Station Way, Peckham, SE15 4RX. Nearest station is Peckham Rye. See it on Google Maps.
Opening hours: 5-10pm (Wed – Thu), 4-10pm (Fri), and 12-10pm (Sat). Closed Sunday to Tuesday.
Price: Mead tasters start from £5, frozen cocktails are £7.50.
More information: head to their website.
Featured image: @gosnellsmead