Today’s National Mead Day. Who knew? Actually, I should have known. I recently visited a place that brewed and served different kinds of mead.

Although I’ve heard of people making and drinking mead occasionally, I thought that the drink’s popularity had peaked during the times of Beowulf. Apparently I was wrong, because mead seems to be having a moment.

What is mead? I wasn’t exactly sure myself. My good friend the Internet tells me that mead is a type of alcohol that you can make by combining honey, water, and yeast. You can also add different kinds of fruits or spices to make different flavors of mead.

Mead clearly looks as if it’s gaining popularity. I don’t know if this popularity will last, but I do know that it’s still alcohol. Even though it’s trendy and fruit-flavored, too much mead can still be dangerous.

I have to remind myself of that fact often. The truth is, I like sweet drinks more than other types of drinks. I like margaritas and piña coladas, coffee-flavored drinks, drinks mixed with soft drinks, and drinks with schnapps or orange juice (or both). They don’t really taste 100% like alcohol.

That’s why I know that I need to be careful. I don’t want to forget that I’m drinking alcohol. Drinking too much just creates too much trouble, hassle that I don’t need:

• If I drink too much, I could become drunk
• If I get drunk, I could get hurt
• If I get drunk, I could hurt others if I drive drunk
• If I drive drunk, I could be arrested
• If I’m arrested, I might have to pay legal fees or attend classes. I could lose my license, go on probation, or even spend time in jail.

A few sips of a sweet drink doesn’t seem worth all that hassle. While I’m not encouraging people to give up all drinks, I just hope they pay attention to what they drink.