An Up North meadery and the Cheese Lady pair Michigan bee wi

BENZIE COUNTY, MI -- Two Michigan favorites are collaborating to bring a flavor blast Up North with a special pairing event this weekend.

These taste bud heavy hitters, The Cheese Lady and St. Ambrose Cellars, are bringing together decades of experience in their craft for their a mead and cheese pairing event 12-4 p.m. Saturday, March 7 in Beulah.

Guests will experience a guided tasting that includes a flight of four drinks paired with five different cheeses. Each guest will receive a pairing card with details about the cheeses being served, so they can learn more about what they're tasting and why it works.

Both the cheese and mead will be for sale to bring some of the Northern Michigan flavor home with you. The flight of mead and cheese is $20.

Here's a little bit about the hosts and their expertise.

St Ambrose Cellars

The Cheese Lady, an iconic gourmet shop with eight locations and more than 20 years of experience, is bringing the global flavor with cheese from as far away as the island of Menorca in the Mediterranean Sea.

St. Ambrose, a meadery that earned gold and silver medals last year from national sommeliers, is bringing the local fare with mead made from honeybee hives from the cellar's Sleeping Bear Farms, where they've raised bees for 30 years.

A quick recap if you're not familiar with mead. The barn-style restaurant specializes in the alcoholic drink made from fermented honey and water, and pays homage to one of the patron saints of beekeeping, Saint Ambrose.

They also make handcrafted beer, wine from Up North vineyards and cysers - a cross between mead and hard cider.

With so many flavors to play with, what makes a perfect pairing? We asked the experts.

Sleeping Bear Farms

Here's the three elements Kim Fish, the Traverse City Cheese Lady, says are key for a pairing that pops.

1. Find a cheese that has a similar flavor line. They usually don't change each other too much, instead they just amplify each other.

2. Use a cheese that changes the mead on purpose. We can make it taste brighter, sweeter, more sour or even mute the flavors to make it smoother.

3. Go Bold. Sometimes the mead has a very bold flavor and the only thing you can do is pair it with a bold cheese that stands up to it.

That balance is key, said Cory Woessner, marketing director at St. Ambrose.

Traverse City Cheese Lady

They found "honey-kissed cheese" that complemented honey-forward meads and sharp, aged cheeses that contrasted with bold, darker meads, he said.

"Texture, sweetness, acidity and salt all play a role," Woessner said. "Mead's versatility -- from dry and wine-like to rich and honey-forward -- makes it surprisingly dynamic for pairing."

Woessner and Fish both said the pairing they're most excited for is the Bee Bee King mead.

The draft mead brings smooth, floral tupelo honey characteristics that earned it two cheese dates - one to complement and one to contrast.

Bee Bee King "plays beautifully" with Prairie Breeze's nutty depth and little crunchy crystals, Woessner said.

Bee King

Meanwhile the Honey Bee, a goat gouda, "mirrors and enhances the honey notes in the mead."

Check out St. Ambrose's Facebook page for the full list of pairings and more event details.

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Texture, sweetness, acidity and salt all play a role.

Why this lands now

Location, rent and staffing shape restaurant stories long before the food does, and the operators who last are the ones who plan around all three.

Key takeaways

BENZIE COUNTY, MI -- Two Michigan favorites are collaborating to bring a flavor blast Up North with a special pairing event this weekend
Guests will experience a guided tasting that includes a flight of four drinks paired with five different cheeses
Both the cheese and mead will be for sale to bring some of the Northern Michigan flavor home with you
The Cheese Lady, an iconic gourmet shop with eight locations and more than 20 years of experience, is bringing the global flavor with cheese from as far away as the island of Menorca in the Mediterranean Sea
Woessner and Fish both said the pairing they're most excited for is the Bee Bee King mead

Figures worth noting

The flight of mead and cheese is $20
Farms, where they've raised bees for 30 years

What people ask

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