Buckwheat has some taste to it thats for sure. Its an aquired taste. Mine turned out great.
As to aeration, I found that vigorous swirling did the trick quite nicely. Like shaking a soda, the CO2 bubbles out. If you leave the air lock on while swirling youll see tons of bubbles being released. I didn't aerate my first few meads but I did the latest two. I found that the areatede meads finished dmuch more quickly. Both also have "rounder" taste and feel, if that makes any sense. Not as tart or astrengent. One was a pinapple/mango mead and the flavors really came ot very clear as opposed to the blackberry/raspberry mead which did not get aerated.
Ii need to get the drill attachment for the next mead. Swirling is a pain.