I am not a fan of honey so I wasn't sure if I was going to like meads. We took a chance while doing wine tastings in the area and what a surprise! This is s great hidden gem with amazing customer service. We loved meads and the staff was so knowledge! Stop in for great tasting meads! read more

A few weeks ago I purchased a living social deal for a tour, tasting, glassware and $10 store credit for the Moonlight Meadery in New Hampshire. So on Saturday, I decided to take the road trip to Londonderry. We arrive around 6pm and are immediately ushered into the production area for a tour of the Meadery with the assistant Mead Maker. He gave us a very in-depth history of Mead, the process of making mead, and the specific history of this meadery, all of which I knew very little about. Here are a few facts: The head mead maker of Moonlight, Michael Fairbrother, started brewing beer at home about 20 years, and mead about 16 years ago. A few years ago, he decided to start a small operation out of his garage, using 5 gallon carboys, and started selling out of bottles immediately. Two years ago, they set up shop in their current location- which they have renovated several times- and now have two large warehouse spaces and a really nice tasting room. They get their honey from a distributor in New Hampshire- but not all the honey is local from NH because the Meadery actually uses more honey than the state of New Hampshire can produce. But honey comes first from NH, then from the Northeast, then from elsewhere in the US. Most of the honey is wildflower honey, which means that the bees pollenate all sorts of different kinds of flowers. But some of their honey is single varietal honey, which means of all the flowers the bees pollenate, 70% of the flowers have to be the same kind of flower. The honey gets shipped in huge containers and then gets pumped into the fermenters, add water, any desired fruit flavors and then yeast. After fermentation, it gets pumped to the bottling tank and is bottled- basically by hand with the help of a few not very high tech machines. Moonlight also has purchased 20 bourbon barrels from Sam Adams's Utopia beer series and some from Allagash' Curieux beer, are aging some of their meads in them. (and selling them for $50/bottle!) After the tour, we head to the tasting room, where we can each taste 6-8 meads of like 30 that they had available to taste (obviously no one was counting because we ended up trying 19). Here they are all lined up ready to be tasted: So we got our glasses filled and drank a lot of delicious mead. Here are the lucky ones that got graced by my palette: Wild- wildflower honey and blueberries- sparkling, good/light blueberry flavor, dry, delicious. 1.25 Blissful- honey, black currant, blueberry, black raspberry- port-like, very sweet, but not to syrupy. 2 Fling- (from the description- "menage a trios between honey, strawberries and rhubarb"), made with orange blossom honey- very good, can distinctly taste the strawberries and the rhubarb. Reminds me of Cape Ann's Sunrise Saison. 1.75 Red Dress- honey and red currants. very tart flavor. 3 Sumptous- honey and mangos. amazing mango flavor, delicious, refreshing. 1.5. Desire- honey, blueberries, black cherries, black currants. nice fruit flavors, again sweet but not too syrupy. 2.25 Kurt's Apple Pie- made from local early harvest apple cider, madagasgar vanilla bean, and Vietnamese cinnamon (the best quality cinnamon apparently). definitely tastes like apple pie, I can almost taste the whipped cream on the pie. 2.5 Coffee in Bed- honey and coffee. way too strong of a coffee flavor for me, very bitter. 3 Paramour- honey, blackberries, blueberries, black cherries, currants. light and sweet, very good. 2 Madagascar- honey and vanilla. woody vanilla flavor. Would be delicious with a creamy dessert. Has a coconut/oaky flavor (almost like Kentucky bourbon barrel ale) 1.25 Flutter- honey and ginger. light ginger flavor, little tingly like ginger, floral scent, just a tiny bit sweet. 2.5 Blossom- honey and apple cider (early season apples). light crisp tartness. 2.25 Deviant- honey, apple, ginger- like a ginger beer- very gingery, and nice apple flavor. 2.25 Mischief- honey, black raspberry. like an after dinner liqueur. very flavorful. 2. Fury- made with 3 different kinds of peppers sweeter and nice spicy flavor. tingly on tongue. very interesting taste. better than spicy beers I've had. 1.75 Mojo- orange blossom honey, mint and lime. modeled after a mojito. Tastes too sweet, like simple syrup in a margarita. 2.75 Frisky- blueberries, maple syrup. tastes like an oaky wine. 2.5 Utopia- made in the utopia barrels. oaky flavor. crazy aftertaste. very flavorful. 2. Virtue- appley deliciousness. 1.5 All in all, I had a lovely experience here. Definitely a great place to spend an afternoon, and I would love to keep coming back to try all their new flavors. read more

This place was amazing. You will not regret coming here. Everyone was so warm and welcoming. I'm not going to lie, it was kind of hard to fine. The facility is located in an industrial looking are. I left with 3 bottle of mead and will definitely be coming back for more! :) read more

NH needs more places like this. Went her with a Groupon but I would have paid the full fee for the tour and tasting. The tour is very short but super informative. The history of the business and the process is really interesting. It also feels good to witness a two person business that has grown like this. Places like this keep the economy strong. The tasting is awesome. Choose from 30 different varieties. The bottles are expensive but for a reason. It ain't cheap to make and the quality is there. Looking forward to my next trip. read more

My husband and I were passing through New Hampshire after an overnight in Bedford. We did an internet search of wineries and were so glad to find Moonlight Meadery. It currently is a small operation and is expanding due to the popularity of their delicious meads and the smart marketing tactics employed by the owners. We experienced a tasting and a tour, enjoyed the experience, and bought three bottles of mead. Highly recommend! We will stop there every time we're near Londonderry or until we can buy their mead in CT. read more

15$ for a tour per person, plus tasting. Most wineries have free tastings/tours, but not this one! Mead purchased at the winery is much more expensive than if you purchased it at Market Basket. read more

We had a tour from the owner, Mike, today. It was informative and fun! The tastings were wonderful. Unlike a brewery or winery tour I've ever been on. Certainly a must visit if you're in the area. read more

I was contacted personally by the owner and given a credit to spend online. Clearly he cares about his business and wants only the best for it. I believe my issues will be addressed with his staff. read more

I bought a Groupon (the Romance Package for 2) as part of my 6th year anniversary weekend getaway with my boyfriend, and although I had never heard of mead before, I thought it would be an inexpensive and potentially fun way to spend part of the day. Fast forward past the confused look when we drove up to the warehouse location and ... holy moley this place is AWESOME and they have solidified a life-long customer! We had an awesome and educational tour with a very energetic and charming staff member, and although the warehouse location may not be the most beautiful to look at, the explanation of the processes and the realization that this is a meadery that does everything by hand (even the bottling) makes it a really neat experience. The owner Mike and all of his staff pour their hearts and souls into their work, and it truly, truly pays off. The tasting session was by far the best part of the tour, and although I would like to say that we had a solid favorite mead that we tasted, we ended up getting a case of 12 because we truly liked almost every single flavor that we tried. The mead is absolutely delicious, and despite the high alcohol content, it is incredibly smooth and flavorful. Each mead has it's own unique and phenomenal taste, and I honestly don't think that I can happily drink wine knowing that I'm missing out on mead. My partner and I live in MA, but I swear that if our local liquor stores do not sell their mead (Sensual,Kurt's Apple Pie, Last Apple, Fling, Desire, Bouquet, Indulge, etc.), I will seriously drive to 40+ minutes to Londonberry to buy it from their location. Definitely worth every cent and it'll rock your world. read more

I'm so thrilled that MM did a Living Social deal, or else I might never have come across it. We were lucky enough to have a tour with the owner/founder, who is truly passionate about his craft and his business. It was interesting to tour the facility and hear about the history of mead. Really enjoyed tasting 8 different varieties (and what a spread of varieties!!) and having each explained. We bought a few bottles, and we appreciated the suggestions for food pairings. Can't wait to see what they come up with next. We were told that the meads are widely carried in liquor stores in Mass. now, so we will look for them closer to home. read more

I was visiting a great friend in Londonberry, NH last weekend and we decided to stop into the Moonlight Meadery. We took the full tour of the facility and learned how mead is made. It was a very knowledgable experience. We sampled about 6 meads after the tour and ended up buying 2 bottles. If you are ever in the area, I would strongly suggest stopping in and checking this place out. read more

Great meadery. I purchased a tour on groupon. The tour was great, the meades were amazing purchased a case of all my favorite. Great tour to take out of town friends who like wines and or meades. read more

Unexpectedly fantastic mead! We bought the Living Social deal for the tour and tasting and the meads did not disappoint! My friend was a bit taken aback by the lack of ambiance as we drove into the industrial office park, but once we got started on the short tour and wonderful tasting, it really didn't matter. Our tour guide said that their upcoming goal is to develop a place of their own with a more picturesque setting, but for now this is where they are expanding their business. You can tell how much hard work is going into the mead here! The tasting was fantastic and they were certainly not counting the amount of samples they were giving us. My favorites were Sensual, Fling, Embrace, and Wicked. They have such a variety and they really seem to enjoy creating unique flavors - yet have a stellar grasp on the creation of the pure meads as much as the flavored ones. Will definitely be going back! read more

Went here through living social. The tour was informative and interesting. The tasting was enjoyable as well. One gripe I had was the price of the product when sold/bought directly from the source. To my disappointment the NH Liquor Store sells their mead for 3-6 dollars cheaper depending on the mead than it was when I bought an entire case directly from the source. One would think the price would have been lower given the lack of overhead to shop to the NH Liquor Store, but no. The mead is excellent but this little price game that is being played has left me thinking twice about any further living social deal. read more

We tried a lot of mead they had, I think there were like 30 different ones. The person giving the tasting and "tour" was pretty passionate about the work he was doing. The place is very small, and they have been expanding. We bought a few bottles to enjoy at home. The whole things takes about 30-45 mins... read more

I visited Moonlight because of the NH Jingle Bell Winery Tour. It is located in an industrial park. The tasting room is clean and has quite a variety of meads that they sell. Even though the tasting associate wasn't very engaging, we enjoyed the mead and bought a few bottles. read more

Their mead products are delicious. They vary a lot in flavor, so it's well worth your while to go for a sampling before you buy. The owner is from Londonderry and we locals want to give him lots of support. read more

First, do use the groupon for the tour and tasting. It is a small location in an industrial park. Fortunately we hit on a quiet day and got lots of personal service. My husband is the beer drinker and I expected the meads to be more like beers. The tasting was fun and I was pleasantly surprised. While this is still a smaller size (& growing) business it is a great testimony of entrepreneurial spirit at work. read more

We bought Groupon for tour and tasting. The tour was very informative and staff was very friendly.

What a fantastic experience and the tasting was amazing!! We met the owner and went on a great little tour with him. He gave the history of how he started and how he makes these great meads. We have never been to a place where every tasting we tried was just out of this world! We will definitely be back. read more

We love visiting the Meadery. They have awesome products and offer great advice for home brewers. I have my signature wine glasses and will be back for samples often! read more

First time visiting today. The selection was great. Also great background on how it got up and running. Now would I have paid full price for the 'romance' package? No. But it was worth the price I paid via groupon read more

Extremely knowledgeable guide coupled with delicious meads-- super interesting!

It is so hard to choose which mead to purchase after tasting several wonderful flavors. Each one has its own unique quality. Every bottle is prepared with pride and craft that can only be found in an owner that loves the process and the product. The tour was informative and ended with the sampling of several different flavors from the sweet to more tart and spicy. It is worth the trip and the price. Go! read more

The tour and buying mead at the source is a huge rip off! We foolishly bought the $50 tour package for $25 from an on-line coupon site. We expected a real tour instead we got to see the inside of their garage! The samples were a couple of drops in a glass. The tour was disorganized and delayed. The topper was finding the $18 mini-bottles of mead in the local grocery store for $11!!!! If you see offers for discounts on Moonlight Meadery tours, do not fall for it!! Totally not worth it. It was a waste of time and money. read more

My wife and I purchased a Groupon for Moonlight Meadery in January 2013. We have visited a number of wineries throughout the US, so we looked forward to visiting this one. It was a mistake. The Moonlight Meadery is nothing more than two side by side garages in a small office park. The 'tour' did not start in any scheduled manner, so we found ourselves waiting until the guide decided that there were enough people to begin. This didn't matter too much, though, because the tour was essentially a stroll through the garages with explanations about how mead is made. At the end of the tour we were allowed to taste test a few drops of some of the various meads. The tiny amounts of mead that were distributed mixed with the previous meads that were tasted in the same glass to provide little or no value in the sampling. Still, we decided to purchase two bottles of the mead. To our surprise, we found the same bottles of mead at a local supermarket for 2/3 the price that we paid at the Meadery. This was a complete and thorough disappointment. There are quite a few real wineries in the New England area that you can tour and enjoy. If you really want to sample Moonlight Meadery's products just go to a local supermarket and buy a bottle at the discounted price. read more

Went for a tour at this meadery, I've never been on a tour at a brewery or winery before. It was Absolutely great, I would highly recommend doing this tour, learned so much about honey! And about bees. The lady that gave the tour was so knowledgable. We got to taste several of these wines made from honey, very good !! read more

Went on the tour. It is small but very interesting! Definitely something to check out in Londonderry if you're looking for something to do.

A good experience (mostly for the novelty of it), but it could have been a much better one. They need to amp up presentation and clarify exactly what they are offering on their groupon. All in all I would return to taste new meads, but I see how much they could improve (tour guide knowledge, tasting area, tastings, etc.) and it wouldn't really be "fun" to go back. read more

Very good tour, but it's a little pricey. Of course the quality is there and they have a huge variety of meads to taste. The only problem is that you can't taste them all and drive out of Londonderry legally. read more

Great meadery! Very knowledgable with a huge selection of meads. Eddie gave us the tour and made it fun, educational and answered all our questions. 28 tastings later and we walked out with enough mead for the year! read more

Interesting tour, nice selection! We drive 90 miles to get there, got a nice bottle of Fury Mead. Just a nice peppery flavor. Used our groupon for the tour and tasting. read more

I really enjoyed my tour and tasting today. The meadery owner gave the tour and I loved hearing his story about his path to becoming a mead maker. He is truly passionate in his work and it shows in the quality of his product. The varities of flavors and complexities is the meads were amazing. It is really nice to be able to meet the small business owners who make the products that you love. I will definatly purchase more Moonlight Mead in the future and I will recommend the tour and tasting to my friends. read more

Berniece and her husband are the owners of Moonlight Meadery... we had been there a couple times before, but this weekend we happened to walk in while Berniece was there (first time meeting her), and she gave us a great tour! One of the best we've been on, and we've done dozens of brewery/distillery/winery tours. Tours become the same after a while (the process of making the product is always the same/similar, with similar equipment, etc.), so we loved that Berniece went into a ton of detail about bees, how they live and function in a hive, how honey is produced and sold, and the importance of tracking your product and its ingredients from the source. She also told us a lot about the history of Moonlight, struggles they have faced, how the business got started, etc. I'm sure she has given this tour hundreds of times, but she still seemed enthusiastic about it, and we appreciated her! Obviously the mead is delicious too :D read more

I've been to meaderies all over the country and a few in Europe and this is the first fake meadery I've ever seen. They are not making mead there, at least not in the volumes they claim, the place is a sham. They'll give you a tour and show a bunch of decommissioned equipment, empty vats and little knobs and levers decoratively strewn about to create the illusion of a functioning brewery but its all just for show. They'll give you a contrived little history of their endeavors and unprecedented success. They'll give you a poorly improvised, completely inaccurate history of mead and even lie to you about the etymology of "honeymoon". Then you'll get to sample their weak, watery, over processed product which is to mead as Green Day is to punk, an over processed, week commodity to be mass produced and sold to posers. I knew that the major beer companies have fake microbreweries where they supposedly make craft beers and that half the wineries out west are vanity vineyards who smuggle their casks in at night but I never would have believed that there would be a fake meadery out in nowhere New Hampshire. There are a lot of good meads out on the market don't be taken in by these shysters. Or just make your own mead, for the cost of two of their pint sized bottles of sugar water, you can make yourself five gallons worth of real mead. read more

So, the first thing I'd like to say is that the mead is good, and there are a lot of different kinds, and they are all really interesting. I liked almost all of them, and I even liked the romance theme that is their marketing focus. But the business is trying too hard to make money, and I walked away feeling taken advantage of. I'm used to going to wineries and having a free tour and tasting, or maybe a nominal charge for a tasting. I was a little surprised to see a Groupon for a "Romance Package" (the slogan of the meadery is "Romance by the Glass". Instead of paying $50 for the two of us to have a "deluxe" tour, tasting of up to 8 meads, cheese and crackers, and "large" keepsake glasses, I got to pay $25, and that included a $10 discount if I bought $25 worth of mead. I thought, well, okay, we'll bite. And wow, did we get hauled in. We drove up to an industrial unit, in a nondescript grey building with other light industry companies sharing the building. There was a small sales room in front, and two small warehouse-like rooms in the back, all well-lit and extremely clean. There wasn't much to see; the tour was interesting enough, but mostly we heard about how fast the business was growing, and how they could charge more and more for their product because people were willing to pay more and more. I'm all for local business, and I'm glad they're doing well, but on a "romantic" tour, I would rather have heard more about the love of good mead, bees and honey, and less about the quarterly reports. They did talk about honey, but mostly to explain why they have to import their honey from foreign beekeepers. I'm glad they do that, incidentally, because they clearly know that Chinese honey adulterated with HFCS would ruin the mead. That seemed to be their reason for watching the sourcing, by the way--not because it was important to support legitimate beekeepers. Maybe it's not. I think they miss a chance to play up the romance of honey. It's just an ingredient to them. Anyway, to make a long story short, there was nothing romantic about the tour except the names of the meads. It's a business; when we got to the tasting, there were lots of people coming in who all got greeted individually by the guy who was also trying to do our tasting at the same time, and the production manager (who managed to use the word "literally" in almost every sentence) really seemed more like an MBA sales guy than someone who loved the business. Ironically, I think he did really love the business. He just obviously loved the money they were making as much as the mead. Oh, and there was, as advertised, a little plate of cheese that had clearly been visited by a lot of people already, along with the remains of broken crackers and two closed jars of jam that they also sold. At one point he said, "We're here to make money!" as he was explaining that since they are not allowed by the state to charge for tastings, they instead charge for the tour and the glass. Funny, I had thought they were there to make mead. Another guy explained that if we brought our glasses to another visit, we could have a free tasting, and "as long as you keep buying, we'll keep giving you free stuff." Romantic, huh? I think charging $50 for a standard tour and tasting is a rip-off. I felt ripped off even at $25, which got me two typical glasses (I didn't notice that they were particularly "large"), and $10 off two splits of mead, which ran $35 before the discount. So I spent $50 for two splits, two glasses, samples of many different meads (more than eight, since I shared tastes with my date), and an education on a new and flourishing business. Fine, but they certainly didn't add anything to the experience of a standard tasting that justified the price. I was willing to pay for it because they really did market it as a deluxe romantic package. Instead, I felt gullible, and as if they were trying to squeeze every penny they could out of the suckers who came through the door. Iro My recommendation, because I think the product is good and it's a new business still trying to find its feet: Ditch the expensive version of the tasting. Charge $5 apiece, maybe $7 if people want the glasses. Don't call it a "romance package" and advertise it as having cheese and crackers and a deluxe tour when what we get is cheese on a plate in a sales room. Add some jars of local honey to the cheese and crackers, keep it stocked, have a selection of different cheeses and several stations so the whole tour doesn't have to huddle around one plate, and make sure the jars of jelly are opened. Maybe sell some local honey, and have a little bit about bees and honey production--and if you really want to go that way, even demonstrate that different honeys have different flavors, and sell honey samplers. Bees are all over the news these days, after all. I wouldn't even mind not having the $10 discount if I didn't have to pay so much up front- read more

Little tricky to find but what a treat. Learned all about mead and sampled several. All were good. Our group left with a case. Had fun sharing with relatives and bring some home. Thanks a bunch read more

Quiet place in a "strip mall" type building in Londonderry NH (about 5 minutes off the highway). You don't need to make reservations which is nice. We went on a Sunday around 1130am and were given a tour (15 to 20 minutes) and then had a tasting and walked away with two bottles. Very interesting (and different) to learning about the process. If you are in the area, definitely stop by it's a fun afternoon experience. read more

Great experience! We had a Groupon for a tour and tasting. We got to sample 8 meads. There were so many to choose from- it was hard to pick just 8! The gentleman giving the tour was very passionate and was able to answer all our questions. We bought a few bottles to take home. He mentioned that if we bring our souvenir glasses back we can have a free tasting so I'm looking forward to going back! read more

My husband and I first tasted Moonlight Meaderys Mead while having dinner at the Woodstock Inn and Brewery in the White MT Region. We loved the mead so much it peaked our interest and we wanted to learn more about it, and learn about the process. We had a wonderful time at the Meadery, the people were really easy going, more than willing to answer questions and to be allowed to sample many different meads was amazing! This might be a smaller scale business, however visiting their meadery also made me feel like I was supporting my fellow man. I love to see small business' succeed! I am so happy for the owner and his partners/staff that through hard work and dedication they have produced an unbelievable product and have a great business and they dont mind sharing their stories, time or mead!! If your looking for something better than wine,..(I know,..who'da thought..),..or beer (yet again..) you must have Moonlight Meaderys Mead! read more