Mead is known to be the world’s oldest drink. More recently, Mead is on the rise again and it is finding a new foothold in the liquor market. Stump Meads is a young and enthusiastic mead brand that was founded in 2021 by Himavath, Tejasvi and Chandrakanth. They are Karnataka’s first meadery located in Hassan – the gateway to western ghats. More importantly, Hassan as a location also gives the meadery an access to some of the best honey, water, fruits & coffee.

Although launched in 2021, Stump Meads production began in 2022 with a humble capacity at their meadery in Hassan. After experimenting and testing their products in the market, they’ve launched two variants – Apple Mead and Coffee Mead. Their Coffee mead is made with 100% locally sourced finest Arabica beans grown in some of the oldest coffee estates in the country! It’s also a stronger mead with 8.5% ABV, but this is masked very well with coffee notes. The other variant, Apple mead, is made using all natural apples meticulously selected to have the right degree of sweetness to compliment the base flavor from the honey. It’s slightly milder (but still potent) with 6.5% ABV.

Apple Mead & Coffee Mead

Owing to a great response, Stump Meads have raised funding from current partners, family and friends to 10X over their current capacity. The increased production capacity will be operational soon and it will give Stump Meads the capability to launch 3 new products in the next few months. To dig further deep into this, we had the opportunity to interview one of the founders, Chandrakanth. Here’s what he had to say..

What was the story behind the name ‘Stump’?

This is a two-fold reason, firstly we want to baffle/bewilder our consumers with the taste and simplicity of our products, in a good way of course! Hence we thought Stump was an appropriate tag for that. Secondly, the more interesting reason is, during the prohibition era in the US, Stump hole whiskey was a term used for illegally made whiskey that was hidden in holes of tree stumps in order to hide the stills. Hence tree stumps were hiding places for some amazing alcohol, hence we reference Stump to imply amazing alcohol hidden within each bottle.

What’s the production capacity of Stump Meads?

We were at 1,600 liters a month when we started our production but we are currently scaling capacity up to 18,000 liters a month with the last round we raised.

Considering that mead is a niche and new market in India, what is your approach to educate new age consumers?

Consumers are becoming more and more aware of the items they consume and interact with. A few trends like the preference for organic, going gluten-free and supporting social impact businesses are definitely helping consumers discover us as our products are all that. Plus mead as a drink also has been referenced in a number of movies and shows like harry potter, lord of the rings etc, so there is some natural awareness from there too. The rest of the consumers (which is still the largest chunk) needs to be reached out for sure. Apart from social media campaigns we will be setting up interactive “meet our meads” events in key locations as well as opening “mead tours” in our plant.

Co-founders of Stump Meads. L – R: Himavanth, Thejaswi and Chandrakanth

Where are the ingredients sourced from? Type of honey, Apples, Coffee Beans etc.

Our honey comes directly from the beekeepers societies located in the western ghats. Honey is multi-floral, organic and sustainably harvested. For coffee we use the highest grade Arabica beans sourced from some of the oldest coffee estates in the country, these estates are located in the Chikmagalur region. The other partner – Himavanth is a 5th generation coffee grower with an estate in Hassan so he knows his coffee very well and is very picky when it comes to coffee. Lastly apples too are sourced locally around the Hassan region itself. We always lean on using local ingredients thereby helping local farmers and their communities.

A sneak-peek on upcoming variants?

We will be adding at least three more flavors in the next few months, a super fresh lemon mint mead, an even crispier + sweeter apple mead and a caramel rum honey mead.

Stump Meads

Stump Meads are all natural and gluten free. Both variants (Apple & Coffee Mead) come in 330ml bottles priced at Rs. 180 for coffee and Rs 160 for Apple in Karnataka. Checkout their Instagram for more updates!