Ireland has its own native honey bee — Apis mellifera mellifera, the native dark bee — found almost nowhere else in Europe in its pure form. It’s under real pressure, from imported bee strains and habitat loss alike. Through the Inishturk Native Irish Honey Bee Sanctuary, we’re working to conserve it: protecting a genetically pure population on Inishturk Island and supporting its future across Irish beekeeping more widely. This isn’t a side project — it’s the reason the honey tastes the way it does, and the reason the mead has a story worth telling at all.This isn’t a drinks brand that happened to find a good story. The story — the bees, the land, the history — came first. The mead is what we’re making of it.