Beginning meadmaker, advice needed

Hello,
I've been browsing the boards for a while now and decided to post a topic and ask for some advice. I've been experimenting with mead making doing a little reading here and there, but mostly trying to just learn by trial and error on the process and such.

But here recently I made some straight show mead I believe it is called, a recipe with no other ingrediants but honey, and it tastes alright. I have bought some cherry flavoring for wine and beer at my local brewshop and I am intending on making some more mead today.

My question is, should I go ahead and make the mead and ferment first before adding the flavoring or would it be ok to add the flavoring from the get go? Would it make any difference?

It will make a difference in the taste whether you add it to the beginning of the ferment, or at the end. If you want to retain more of the flavoring you'd add it to the end, in a secondary or tertiary.

That's not to say it will taste awful, just that you'll change the cherry flavor letting it be fermented out.

If you have the means, you could try splitting your batch in half, doing one have with some cherry added, and half at the end and see which one you prefer.