Kiwi uni students create a buzz in the market with mead RTDs

Wilbur Morrison and Edward Eaton are producing something unique in the RTD market. Photo / Supplied

A couple of university students are taking the craft RTD industry back to the future with one of the world's oldest beverages.

With the market booming throughout New Zealand, many are entering the game with new twists on the classic mixer.

Wilbur Morrison and Edward Eaton, however, are doing something different, and are stirring the honey pot, instead of the drum.

"Traditionally mead is a sort of desert style wine, very sweet and high in alcohol," Eaton said.

"But we're trying to modernise that and bring it into the 21st century by creating a low alcohol sparkling mead, that's low in sugar."

Dating back thousands of years, brewing mead from honey is an age old classic.

Consisting of Native Kamahi Honey and Hawke's Bay lemon, The Buzz Club's Session Mead revolutionises the historic drink, and instead sits uniquely on New Zealand shelves.

"It's a got a light honey nose, a sort of touch of floral," Morrison said.

"A lot of people expect it to be really rich and sweet but actually it's light and refreshing."

After becoming part of his parent's bee keeping business, Morrison said the inspiration for mead came out of pure chance.

The Buzz Club has begun distributing throughout areas of Christchurch. Photo / Supplied

"My parents started beekeeping about three years ago and it wasn't going very well, so I jumped in and used my life savings to buy into the business which I ran while I was at uni."

"I used to get my mates out to come and help keep the bees, and one day one of them said have you heard of mead, to which I said never."

Morrison paired up with longtime family friend Eaton, and they then together began experimenting with their new found fascination.

"So it started out with just a couple of months of us brewing in Wilbur's parents' office," Eaton said.

Mead is desert style wine made from honey. Photo / Supplied

"Lockdown put a bit of a hold on things, but then as we started to get more serious we started creating products that we thought were really good, and it's been a learning curve ever since."

Now marketing their first final product, the friends produce what they believe to be something special.

Eaton said showing New Zealanders that mead and honey can be used for something different, was a key part of what drove them.

"We aren't trying to make another 10-pack that's there to be binged on and just to be drunk."

"It's a mead first and we want to show that, we really want to bring something different to the table."

Wilbur Morrison and Edward Eaton have created a company producing mead-based RTDs.

Filled with rules and regulations, Morrison said alcohol and craft RTDs was an industry that towered high at first.

"It's definitely intimidating. There was a lot of nights sitting on computers and reading Government documents but I think you get your head around it in the end."

However, Eaton said the sense of community amongst the craft market is strong, and competitors aren't afraid to lend a helping hand.

"We've been in contact with a lot of helpful people in the brewing industry and found a lot of mentors that have been a massive part of getting us to where we are."

Auckland University School of Chemical Sciences senior lecturer Dr Lisa Pilkington, is researching honey mead and said The Buzz Club's product is just what we need.

"When I talk to people about mead, it's definitely not a super fashionable drink so there's a wide open market for it to be reinvented," she said.

"It's really taking something that's traditional and turning it into a lifestyle, 21st century product and really in tune with the trends."

Pilkington said mead enables a special position in a booming industry.

"You've seen the recent growth of the craft beer industry and now the movement towards lifestyle drinks and RTDs, so I think this a very new and unique take and there's definitely not anything like it on the market."

"I think it will be very popular."

The Buzz Club has begun distributing throughout areas of Christchurch, and aims to fill shelves throughout the country during the New Year.