Here was my favorite spiced mead recipe given to me by a friend. This recipe never made it to bottles, I just tapped from secondary and drank that because it was that good lol.
1 gallon Spiced Chai Mead
3 lb of Honey
10 bags of Earl Grey Black Tea
1 ½ tsp ground Cardamom
½ tsp of Whole black Peppercorns
2 whole cloves
2 sticks of Cinnamon
1 Madagascar Vanilla Bean (Slit in half, seeds scraped, added to the must and the whole pod thrown in)
3tbs of Ground Ginger
1tsp of yeast nutrients
½ tsp of yeast energizer
1tsp of Acid Blend
Water to one gallon
Yeast Lalvin D47 (Make sure to keep fermentation temps bellow 68*F and let sit on the lees for at least 30 days after fermentation stops. If you cant keep temps that low then use the folowing)
Yeast "Lalvin 71b" ( Make sure to rack off the lees once 1/4 in. has formed and rack as often as need to keep off the lees.)
Mix the Honey water & nutrients all together leaving enough head space to add your yeast starter as explained below. The energizer will be added when 1/3 of the fermentation is done. Add the entire spices/tea/vanilla bean to a nylon bag and place in the must. The powered ingredients can be added directly to the must. Then create a yeast starter:
1 cup water
¼ cup of honey
¼ tsp of yeast nutrients
5 chopped up fine raisins
Sprinkle the Yeast on top and cover with a paper towel for 8 hours. Then pitch the yeast starter into the must. There should be a lot of activity in the starter after 1 2 hours. For larger batches of this recipe 3 or more gallons, Increase the water to 2 cups, Honey to ½ cup & 10 raisins.