Howdy folks! Been reading this thread with interest. I bottled 5-6 gallons of prickly pear mead a few years back, and my experience was quite similar to Brandon's. The must started out a brilliant maroon, and as it aged in the bottles, faded to a clear pink. The final product, once aged for a year, was sweet but not cloying. The prickly pear fruit had a mild, almost melon-like flavor.
All of it is long gone. It was one of the few meads I've made that was an unqualified success among wine drinkers I know. I wanted to start up another batch last year, but we were in the middle of a drought and not even the cactus were producing fruit! I've kept an eye out this year, and with out abundant spring and summer rains in Texas, it looks to be a bumper crop.
Linear Mode
