People often use tea leaves as a nutrient when making mead and it works well. It is a great off the shelf alternative to buying nutrient from a wine supply store. I don't use it very often but it is effective. Anyway I got an email from a mead maker (Mark) who offers some great advice on how to get the maximum benefit from tea leaves. My thanks to him for this terrific advice. He also sent us a great picture of the fermenting mead with tea dust at the bottom of this page.

Here is what he has to say:

My grandmother told it to me. back in 1995.


As you let your "must" "sit" wait for it to get cool just a bit. Then take tea leafs, chop them, or blend the heck out of them till they are a total powder. When the must has set for about six hours and a bit cool add in the tea leaf "dust". Two thing happen. As we both know tea leafs help ever thing. Plus is give a massive surface area of the tea powder and the yeast to take a strong host stance. This both adds to the and makes the yest very very happy.

It is about total surface area. Try it and see how you do. I have just made a must today, and it is doing well. I had to wait. My state has had a massive dry and heat spell, above 90. Now we are cooled off again. Just in time for making mead. I am also
a beekeeper, so I know where the honey comes from.

Of the five gallons I will add blueberry to three gallons of it when the time comes.
The other two I will add a bit of lemon, and let it be.

New: The Ultimate Easy Guide to Successfully making one gallon of mead. - I have put together a video that shows you an almost fool proof method to make one gallon of mead

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