HERBACEOUS & 810 MEADWORKS LIQUID SUNSHINE

Hello and welcome to yet another wine and game pairing! I'm really satisfied with this week's pairing. It's not too often that you get to play a game about planting herbs while drinking a mead that tastes like a sunny garden.

First of all, I want to tell you about how I came across Herbaceous. I've attended PAX East (a big video game festival/convention held in Boston) and had an amazing time on both occasions, but last year I found out there was going to be a new PAX event in Philadelphia. The new event would be called PAX Unplugged and it would be completely focused on board games! I immediately made plans to go, and it was so much fun. My favorite part was getting to talk to all of the board game designers, something that you don't get to do very often. Herbaceous was one of the first games that I demo'd and I immediately knew I had to have it. It's a quick small game, and it has a very unique theme. It's wonderfully designed, with beautiful botanical illustrations of all sorts of herbs. The gameplay is slightly competitive, but its also pretty relaxing. I mean, come on, you're planting an herb garden! It's the perfect little game to share with some friends while sipping a cup of tea. Oh and if you play your cards right, you can earn the coveted biscuit! Adorable.

Now, on another note, I was doing some research in the summer about meads because...well...I really enjoy mead! Mead is not something that's super common, in fact I can usually only find 2 different types of mead in my local liquor stores. To my delight, my research revealed that there's a meadery just an hour away from where I live! 810 Meadworks produces a variety of uniquely flavored meads, and after tasting their Liquid Sunshine I'm so excited to try more. Liquid Sunshine tastes like it sounds. It's made with honey, lemon, lavender and tea and you can really pick up on each of those notes in every sip. It's wonderfully flavorful and fragrant. It's also delicately carbonated, which makes it refreshing and delicate on the palate compared to other heavy meads I've tried. When sharing the mead and game at a board game night, one of my friends even remarked about how perfectly the two paired. I think the only way we could have had a more enjoyable evening was if we were actually playing and drinking in a sunny herb garden. What a welcome reprieve from these wintery blues.

Do you have any favorite meads? Have you been to PAX Unplugged? Let me know in the comments below!