Volatile Profile of Mead Fermenting Blossom Honey and Honeydew Honey with or without Ribes nigrum

Mead is a not very diffused alcoholic beverage and is obtained by fermentation of honey and water. Despite its very long tradition, little information is available on the relation between the ingredient used during fermentation and the aromatic characteristics of the fermented beverage outcome. In order to provide further information, multi-floral blossom honey and a forest honeydew honey with and without the addition of black currant during fermentation were used to prepare four different honey wines to be compared for their volatile organic compound content. Fermentation was monitored, and the total phenolic content (Folin–Ciocalteu), volatile organic compounds (HS-SPME-GC-MS), together with a sensory evaluation on the overall quality (44 nontrained panelists) were measured for all products at the end of fermentation. A higher total phenolic content resulted in honeydew honey meads, as well as the correspondent honey wine prepared with black currant. A total of 46 volatile organic compounds for pre-fermentation samples and 62 for post-fermentation samples were identified belonging to higher alcohols, organic acids, esters, and terpenes. The sensory analysis showed that the difference in meads made from blossom honey and honeydew honey was perceptible by the panelists with a general greater appreciation for the traditional blossom honey mead. These results demonstrated the influences of different components in meads, in particular, the influence of honey quality. However, further studies are needed to establish the relationship between the chemical profile and mead flavor perception.