Pure Honey Mead
Strictly, only “pure honey” mead is actually mead. A mead is made from fermenting honey to make alcohol, not when honey is simply added to another fermentable. For example, a Pyment is normally fermented grapes with honey added. Also, many things marketed as “mead” are fermented from sugar syrup with honey added as flavour.
The word “mead” isn’t protected to mean only honey-fermented in the UK however. Therefore while we may colloquially use the term “mead” for a whole range of honey-based, alcoholic drinks, the list below are meads actually fermented from honey and as such are the only “traditional meads” we have found so far: