Well, after last week’s disaster of a pick I think we all knew the bar for improvement was set pretty low. But that being said, Ted certainly knocked it out of the park just on looks alone.

Ok Ted. Way to class things up.

I mean, I’m sure whoever cooks our food this week wasn’t just drinking at the bar like five minutes before we put our orders in – and where’s the fun in that?

Anyway.

Although the trade off for fancy this week is that we drove to pretty much the exact middle of absolutely nowhere to find it. The comment I made on the way in was that if you took away my phone and told me to find my way home, well, I guess I just live here now.

I mean, way to go Suffield. I never would’ve guessed when looking at a map that anything like this existed there. And in what appears to be in an old church, at that.

Disclaimer as we get started, they only serve their own mead that they produce there – whether just on its own or mixed into beverages with mixers – as well as some local guest taps of craft beer. So if you’re hoping for a Bud Light or White Claw then you might want to sit this option out.

And for food, the menu is only pizzas. Well, and shareable appetizery things like pretzels and nachos. And salads – but for $12.95 I’d rather order something not made of vegetables I can usually find within my own house.

All three of us opted for mead flights, which I’m glad they offer because Shane and I know about as much about mead as we do beekeeping.

Ted’s flight
Shane’s flight
My flight with Ted’s in the background

Luckily the bartender – because yes, you go up to the bar to order, and while a runner will bring your food out to you, there is no table service for refills or questions – was very helpful and explained some of the differences between the session meads (carbonated and chilled) and the still meads (not either of those things).

So it’s kind of like wine, but different.

Because Ted ordered and received his flight while Shane and I were still debating our choices, I took him up on his offer to try a sip of the five meads he had chosen. And affirmed that I do not care for any of the still meads. All session options for my flight, thank you very much.

For pizzas, Ted got the 14 inch Ragnorak, which has all the hot things – hot honey, jalepeno, spicy pepperoni and house sauce.

Shane got the 14 inch crafted deluxe, which is topped with pepperoni, sausage, black olives, onion and green pepper.

I got the 10 inch pepperoni boss. Bet you can’t guess what that has on it.

My little pizza looks like an appetizer personal pan pizza compared to the size of the larger pizzas the guys ordered.

I could make a joke here about how inches matter, but we’re adults. Come on. Also I trust you were all thinking it anyway so why do I need to put it in writing.

Know your audience.

So here’s the thing: if you were debating a visit to this place because the idea of only having pizzas on the menu turned you off, well, let’s just say you should change your mind. Because the pizzas we had were all really, really good. Like so good none of us took to go boxes because we just couldn’t stop eating.

And, I mean, we’ve tried some pizzas, folks. Shane may be somewhat of a connoisseur.

The crust was very light, and the flavors were incredible. Cheese-hater Ted even called the level and taste of cheese on his pizza “tolerable.” Which may not seem like high praise, but when you consider he’s asked for cheeseless pizza at some places, or meticulously picked it off layer by layer at others, well, he may as well have given it a gold medal.

So apparently when you do something well, you don’t need other options. Enough said.

And if you haven’t ever tried mead before, this is certainly the place to experiment. The sheer amount of different flavors may seem slightly intimidating – especially when the descriptions mirror those of the craft beer industry, in which something could claim to have “hints of vanilla, cinnamon and brown sugar” and then arrive tasting instead like five day old coffee seasoned with a pinch of rancid milk.

But I know in my flight – which was all various session flavors – I had one that was pineapple, one that was bananas foster, and one called “planet of the grapes” which claimed to have notes of grape jelly, creamy peanut butter and and white bread minus the crusts. And I’ll be damned if they all didn’t deliver exactly what was promised in the descriptions – including that last one, which tasted just like a PB&J sandwich.

Color me surprised.

Also know that Crafted does put together some flights for beginners, or various flavor combos – so if you’d rather trust them than try to put something together on your own that’s always an option. That was what Shane did, and he was happy about the options he was served with.

Truthfully I think our only gripe with this place is the location. I mean, kudos to them for putting Suffield on the map, because I truthfully could not have even told you that was a town in Ohio before this evening. But if you’re coming in from further away just make sure to check the hours in advance, because you have about zero options as a backup if you come after hours.

Picked by: Ted