My name is Patrick and I trained in beekeeping and winemaking at the CFPPA in ARRAS around twenty years ago. In 1997, I set up as a beekeeper in Guadeloupe with nearly 200 hives. Then, in 1999, I set up the farm La RUCHE ANSOISE in Anse-Bertrand, a commune in the north of Grande-Terre in Guadeloupe. That was the start of the adventure. I run beehives all over Grande-Terre and on the leeward coast.

I started out producing honey, then quite naturally decided to diversify into mead. In the years that followed, I built my laboratory and launched my first mead production. The first production was relatively modest. But I gradually improved.

Making mead requires a great deal of care. The risks of producing vinegar or sour wine are high. To produce mead, you first have to harvest a very good honey, then calculate its density, choose the quality of your water and select good yeasts. The colour of the mead comes exclusively from the honey. Our honeys can be light or dark, made from the nectar of wild plants found in the forests of Guadeloupe.

Patrick LAUG