In my opinion there is one really good starting point - and with apologies for the length of this post. Sorry - I am garrulous.
Others may disagree and that's OK but the really good starting point is a traditional mead. That is the term used for a mead made from honey, water, yeast and nutrients. There is no recipe involved (more about that in a moment) and when you have mastered a trad mead you can make any mead. The secret is that there is nothing to hide behind. No fruit, no spices, no tannins, no acids..nothing just the honey. It's the late Spaulding Grey alone , on stage , no set, no make-up - talking just to you, in the audience.
1. How much honey to use? How long is a piece of string? Let's use 1 gallon as the base unit: 1 lb of honey to make 1 gallon will have a starting gravity of 1.035 and so a potential ABV of about 4.5% - not much alcohol and not much flavor (all the flavor and all the alcohol coming from the honey). Double the volume of honey (2 lbs ) and you double the ABV (9%) - All other things being equal, there should be more flavor too. Add another lb of honey - and the SG goes to 1.105 and the ABV now should hit more than 13.5% and a lot more flavor. If you add another pound of honey (4 lbs in this gallon container) the SG is 1.140 and the potential ABV is more than 18%. No yeast can deal with so much alcohol so this mead will finish sweet but will very alcoholic. So, how much honey? You decide.
2. What kind of honey might you use? Well, clover or wildflower (IMO) are best used as vehicles for fruits and spices and herbs but varietals like orange blossom or raspberry, honeysuckle or Tupelo or meadowfoam can hold center stage without any problem.
3. Yeast - what kind of yeast should you use? Any wine yeast will work, but some yeasts produce lots of glycols and those add more mouthfeel (make the mead more viscous) so the lower the starting gravity the more glycol you might want; Other yeasts may be more aggressive and so blow off flavors and aromas - and the less honey you use the more precious each flavor and aroma molecule might be. Some yeasts ferment very cleanly at lower temperatures and others produce esters at higher temperatures... If the amount of honey is unlikely to produce a flavor rich mead might fermenting at higher temperatures add to the flavor profile of this mead? How much yeast to use? Packs generally say that they are good for 1-6 gallons .. but that may be because the lab is basing their findings on wine - you might nevertheless go with what they suggest - or you may assume that you need to use their claims as minima and not as typical - You cannot over-pitch. But you can under-pitch and under-pitching often results in real stress for the yeast. If you smell an odor of yeast you have under-pitched!
4. Nutrient - honey has none. There are organic compounds that the yeast needs to repair cells and create the machinery it needs to transport sugars through cell walls and there are inorganic chemicals the yeast needs - such as nitrogen and zinc and magnesium, I think. Lab processed nutrients will have instructions about how much to feed the yeast but how much yeast need depends as much on the size of the viable yeast colony and the strain of yeast as it does on the amount of sugar in the must. Developing a feel for what your preferred yeast need is part of the skill of developing mastery.
So... Bottom line - if you can make a really good traditional mead, the world is your oyster because you can make a great mead. Me? I am still learning but that is why my basement "make room" is filled with quart (1 lb in a quart is the same as 4 lbs in a gallon) and gallon carboys all bubbling away with traditionals and with metheglins (spices, herbs, and flowers) and melomels (fruits) and bochets (caramelized) and braggots (with grains).
