Viking-inspired founder of York drinks company Nidhoggr Mead Co vows to prove Dragons’ Den panel wrong

He burst into the Den with two marauding Vikings who fought each other in a battle to the death.

He asked for £80,000 investment in exchange for a five per cent stake in his rapidly-growing British honey mead drinks company.

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Sara Davies and Steven Bartlett were surprised at the “delicious” taste of the Elderflower Mead but questioned the market for Viking-inspired brands and couldn’t see it on a supermarket shelf. The business didn’t get investment but left with insight and a thirst to prove that British Mead is a drink to be enjoyed by all.

Mr Taylor described it as “an enlightening experience which allowed me to introduce the panel to the ancient techniques of mead-making which inspired our range of delicious full flavoured honey mead.”

He first discovered honey mead at Viking reenactment tournaments. In 2020, inspired by his mother-in-law who brewed homemade mead and, in a bid to make some extra cash to buy a new sword, he experimented making his own authentic mead at home using 100 per cent local Yorkshire honey.

It was so popular that he launched Nidhoggr Mead Co and sold 4,215 bottles in its first year. The business now produces eight flavours of Mead and has moved out of Peter’s home into a 4,000 square foot meadery in York.

The team of 12 craft 50,000 bottles a year using locally and sustainably harvested Yorkshire honey and natural flavours. The business is predicted to be valued at £3m this year.

Mr Taylor said: “Since appearing on the Den, Nidhoggr Mead Co has extended its listings in five Morrisons stores, started exporting to the US, become Warhammer’s official mead, and has more than doubled sales with the business now worth £3m.”