Mead in Poland which the 12th-century chronicler Gallus Anonymus described as "flowing with honey". This abundance of honey and a climate ill-suited for grape growing meant that mead was long more popular than wine. In 996, the Sephardi Jewish traveller Ibrahim ibn Yaqub wrote that "besides food, meat and land for ploughing, the country of Mieszko I abounds in mead, which is what the Slavic wines and intoxicating drinks are called". In the 15th century, the Venetian diplomat Ambrogio Contarini observed that "having no wine, [the Poles] make a certain drink out of honey, which intoxicates people much more than wine." The 16th-century
Mead mead may be known by the style represented; for instance, a mead made with cinnamon and apples may be referred to as either a cinnamon "cyser" or an apple metheglin. A mead that also contains spices (such as cloves, cinnamon or nutmeg), or herbs (such as meadowsweet, hops, or even lavender or chamomile), is called a "metheglin" . A mead that contains fruit (such as raspberry, blackberry or strawberry) is called a "melomel", which was also used as a means of food preservation, keeping summer produce for the winter. A mead that is fermented with grape juice is called a