- [Narrator] "A Fork in the Road" was brought to you by: (gentle music) From produce to people.

The best things are grown and raised in Georgia.

Even in tough times, we come together, work hard and grow strong.

When you purchase Georgia Grown products, you support farmers, families, and this proud state we call home.

Together we will keep Georgia growing.

(gentle music fades) ♪ Picture perfect ♪ ♪ Hang the picture on the wall ♪ (light R&B music) ♪ I see you shine ♪ ♪ From afar ♪ ♪ Yet to me you are a star ♪ ♪ All right baby ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Feels good feels right ♪ ♪ Get the feeling pass it on ♪ ♪ Just pass it on ♪ (upbeat music) - [David] The fascinating and ever-changing world of agriculture.

Let's hit the road here in Georgia and meet the farmers, producers, makers and bakers who keep us all fed and keep us coming back for more.

Straight ahead at "The Fork in the Road".

("I Came From The Mud") ♪ I came from the mud ♪ ♪ There's dirt on my hands ♪ ♪ Strong like a tree ♪ ♪ There's roots where I stand ♪ Georgia farmers, artisans, merchants and producers.

We depend on these men and women every day of our lives through the choices we make and the food we consume.

Their strategy and approach is always shifting, but the endgame remains the same: Results.

("I Came From The Mud" continues) (warm music) The wondrous world of bees, the life they live, the company they keep, and the incredible contributions they make for humankind and the earth as a whole.

The bees bring life to the world, which in turn creates beauty.

But their hard work also delivers a seemingly magical substance that a few creative men and women have made it a lifestyle to share with our little corner of the world and beyond.

(upbeat electronic music) Let's begin our bee-filled journey down in Wilmington Island near Savannah, where a creative beekeeper works hard to keep growing his company and finds a way to give back to the bees he loves.

(gentle music) What began in coastal Georgia has spread its wings around the world; a man and his beloved bees.

There's an understanding between them that's obvious when you see them together, but what's most impressive about this humble beekeeper isn't so much how he operates this company, it's the why.

(gentle music) - Beekeeping started out, really, 1980.

There was an old beekeeper that put bees on my family's land and introduced me to bees and taught me about really extracting honey.

And I fell in love with the honey right off the bat.

I honestly kept bees and would have landlords that had bees, and I joined the Peace Corps and they asked me to teach beekeeping in Jamaica.

So it was always in my life, but I never wanted to have a business or make money on it.

But in the late '90s I started peddling a few jars of honey and it's, yeah, I got outta hand, I guess (chuckles).

(bright bluegrass music) - [David] Some of the honey from the Savannah Bee Company does in fact come from Georgia.

However, there are specific flavors from specific regions and from a variety of different blooms.

But they also obtain flavors and honey expressions from several different states, several different countries.

All the honey from Savannah Bee Company does not come from these three hives.

- Yeah.

(David laughs) No, these hives are here for education, for sure.

You know, we've transitioned now entirely to using other beekeepers.

If we divided up the honey we sell in a year by 365 days, that would be about close to 4,000 pounds of honey, two tons of honey every day.

And then one measurement is the bees have to visit 2 million flowers just to produce one pound of honey, and so that amount of honey would be 8 billion flowers visited to make the honey we sell each day.

So that's a lot of pollination.

- [David] That's a lot of flowers.

- So yeah.

- [David] And as we discover, it's not just the honey itself that can be found in these Savannah Bee Company shops located all across the country from Arizona to Georgia.

- When Savannah Bee Company started, I was making all the honey and I would go make sourwood honey, I would make Tupelo honey.

Those are two different trees that bloom.

But over the years as the company grew, I couldn't keep up the supplies, so I started working with other beekeepers.

So now we have beekeepers in Italy or Romania or Spain or Michigan or Montana and all over Florida and Georgia.

A lot of different places.

(upbeat music) - [David] What's also very neat is how Ted and his team realized that special and rare honey could be just as desirable as a fine wine, and their shelf presentation matches the brilliance of the honey itself.

- So here we are in the back room, we could call it, of the Savannah Bee Company warehouse.

This is a 40,000 square foot warehouse, but we've grown into it and then now out of it, but we're still producing here all the time.

(upbeat music) Over here, this is a Tupelo honey gold reserve.

You can see it's greenish in tint.

That's how you know it's like the good stuff.

We only have 1,500 so far this year that are good enough to be a gold reserve out of 50-something tons of honey.

They get hand labeled, sealed, dipped in beeswax.

They get put into one of these black walnut veneer wooden boxes.

We also do one that is an orange blossom.

This is a hot honey in a flute bottle, dipped in a red wax.

I love the flaming winged bee.

- [David] That's what the bee looks like.

- Yeah.

(David laughs) That's awesome.

It's like you give somebody some wine or something.

It's like the gift to give to somebody that's got everything.

How good is this, honey?

- It's delicious, absolutely.

- This stuff is the most beautiful orange blossom honey I've seen in my entire life.

- [Floor Worker] It is gorgeous.

- I mean, it's gorgeous.

(upbeat jazz music) Another project, it's a special project.

We have these babies that are coming outta Kentucky.

It's a port wine barrel that whiskey gets put in it.

And then we get the empty barrels, we fill them with that orange blossom honey, and I like just letting the honey and the whiskey and the barrel all kind of mix together, then we bottle it.

We don't do a whole lot of this, but when we do, man, they sell out like that.

It's nice.

The empties go in here, they come through here.

This turns them upside down.

They get vacuumed out, turned right side up.

They send around here, this stops them, fills them, allows them to finish dripping and then sends them on their way.

Then they come through the wall after they get capped and get labeled, and then that shrink seal gets put on top.

Then a date code gets put on to the bottom of the bottle so we know exactly the day it was filled, who filled it, what beekeeper that came from, and then it goes into the boxes and gets shipped out.

(upbeat bluegrass music) Pun intended, this is our hottest selling product right now.

It's 99% honey and then it's got like a habanero oil with some scotch bonnet pepper powder.

I'm a little bit embarrassed to say that it's a pumpkin spice honey.

(Ted laughs) - [David] It's all right, it's all right.

- And I did resist it for a year, but then we had some strong voices of support within the company for this, and it is good.

So I grudgingly like this honey.

- [David] Lot of action behind it.

- Yeah, people love pumpkin spices and hot, but they like alcohol better.

And hey, can you make alcohol from honey?

Yes.

That's what mead is.

Traditional mead is just three ingredients.

It's water, honey, and yeast.

That was the first alcoholic beverage.

We can do anything, man.

That's what's so great about honey.

(bright bluegrass music) - [Kenneth] So I basically am in charge of the Savannah Bee mead experience.

I wanna make sure that people learn the most about one of the most ancient forms of alcohol on the planet.

And we do that by providing educational experiences in 13 of our stores nationwide.

And we give a little bit of the history on it, the different styles of mead, 'cause the styles change when you add other ingredients to it.

You got the first meadery in Georgia, which is Monks Meadery.

They just released their Dragon Blaster mead for Dragon Con.

It actually has glitter in the mead, which is just like, I mean, come on.

Like, who doesn't like sparkly stuff?

That's just so cool.

Plus it tastes good too, which is a plus.

(bright bluegrass music) - [David] From the Wilmington Island store over the river to the downtown Savannah shop where Ted and I explore all things honey.

This golden elixir, this nectar of the gods.

(upbeat bluegrass music) So I learned through listening, now I wanna learn through the experience.

- [Ted] Let's start with my favorite honey, which is the Tupelo honey, so it's made of the flowers of the Tupelo tree.

And that tree grows in the rivers pretty much between Savannah, Georgia, and West Florida.

They bloom for about 10 days in April, and the nectar has got this, well, you gotta taste it.

- [David] It's gotta be the most famous, right?

- [Ted] It is one of the most famous, certainly in this country.

And it has this bubble gummy, yummy pumpkiney, soft sweet.

- [David] You never get sick of it, do you?

- [Ted] I never, no.

- Yeah.

- You wanna try the brand new pumpkin spice honey?

- [David] Yes, since you were raving about that.

- [Ted] It'll convert you.

- [David] That's like cake icing on a good- - [Ted] Put that all together.

Every single one of these is gonna taste extremely good.

- And the colors are all different.

- [Ted] Colors are different, the taste is very different.

- [David] And is it rude to keep licking?

- [Ted] No.

(David laughs) No, it's not.

(swanky jazz music) We have a beauty bar and we have a mead bar with the honey wine.

- [David] That's in the back, right?

It's like a speakeasy.

- That's in the back.

This is everybody's favorite place.

- [David] Yes, I knew this was coming.

- [Ted] I know honey, like in the bottle.

The older it gets, it starts to change in color and taste and it's not necessarily better.

Typically honey is better the fresher it is, but mead is one of those that it just gets better and better and better.

- It still lasts about longer than a bottle of wine.

There's also hardly any negative side effects when drinking mead, at least in my experience.

(Ted laughs) - Well, let's go.

- Well, let's get drinking!

What are we waiting for?

- I've never had a hangover.

I think it tastes a lot better.

Your alcohol content's a lot higher as well.

Mead ranges anywhere between 5 and 22%, so.

- All right.

- It's pretty amazing stuff.

- [Ted] In order to be called mead, it has to have, the primary fermenting sugar has to be honey.

- [Barkeep] Has to be honey.

- [Ted] So more than half the sugars that are fermenting have to be honey.

And then you can add, like in the case of this, fruit.

Fruit makes it a subcategory called melomel.

Spices or herbs make it a metheglin, and it keeps on going.

The Mayan civilization used to make a capsicumel, or a hot pepper mead, using the honey from their stingless bees.

- Man.

- I didn't know that.

- [Ted] It goes way back.

- [David] I have learned a lot today and no hangover, yeah.

- [Ted] No hangover and you can walk to your hotel.

(warm music) - [David] So now that we've learned about the shops and the honey and mead variety created by the bees, we now learn about this company's cause, or should I say their Beecause.

Founded in 2013, the Beecause project works to engage students of all ages about the importance of bees and their environment through observation-based learning.

There are over 800 schools and organizations in the US, Canada, the Bahamas and Puerto Rico that have received educational beehives installed in the classrooms and community buildings, like this school in coastal Georgia, that aim to connect children to the natural world through educational pollinator programs, inspiring the next generation of environmental stewards.

- [Ted] If you like to eat, you better love your bees, right?

(upbeat music) - [David] And once you listen to these kids and see how truly amazed they are about the world of bees, you immediately understand the effectiveness of the cause.

(gentle music) - Can you tell which honey is which?

- Generally.

You know, I get tricked though, sometimes, but Tupelo honey, the one I eat every day and had this morning in my tea already, that's my favorite and I know that one very well.

You can have a lemon honey from a lemon tree that's similar to orange blossom.

I might get tricked on that one.

Ultimate goal is to have a world where bees don't need saving, but we're not there yet.

And so we're raising awareness which we think is the most meaningful and lasting way to make change, and so we're teaching students in different communities and using our stores, our retail stores, to teach them a little bit about bees and why they're so important.

And once you learn about bees, you can't help but love them.

I mean honestly, you learn about them, you love them and then you're gonna want to protect them.

That's the idea.

- [Children] Thank you!

- [Ted] Hey!

Thank you.

You're the ones, thank y'all.

- [David] So swing by the stores, take a tour of the hives, try a scoop of honey, a bite of comb, a glass of mead and contribute to the cause, because the more who grasp and contribute to the Beecause, the better off the world becomes.

(gentle music fades) (upbeat electronic music) From the coast, we travel to the town of Comer in Madison County, Georgia, where a soldier of the sea uses honey to create several expressions of Georgia-born whiskey.

(intense instrumental music) It's a couple with a dream.

Former Marine Mark Davis and his wife Jennifer Berry, have taken this old building and turned it into a buzzing hive of good times and fine whiskey.

But it's this couple and the combination of their life experiences that make this operation so unique.

- Soldier of the Sea.

My mother will be watching this.

She's 93 years old and I started making wine in the eighth grade, much to her chagrin.

She's still with us and laughs about that, but I cannot explain my interest in fermenting.

I'm fascinated by plants, grains, the process and the yeast and what happens, and it is a balancing act.

You can have the perfect anything and miss one step and it's not what you want it to be.

We're playing around with flavor profiles and spices and the effect the grains have and what percentages that they're in.

It's fun.

(intense instrumental music) - [David] Everything Mark and his distilling team does is calculated to perfection.

That's a character trait that is necessary in this field, but it's Jennifer's 22 years in the UGA Bee Program that helped inspire a different approach to the world of whiskey.

(bright bluegrass music) - What's so cool about my husband, Mark, he loves to take this and turn it into that.

He's a blacksmith, so he loves to take a piece of steel and break it and transform it into a beautiful piece of art.

And when we met, he started talking about, man, I would really like to distill, even though he doesn't drink whiskey.

So he got a still and started playing around with it, and then of course with the honey, he's like, what would this do?

How would this affect the whiskey?

And the first one that he made, we both were like, whoa!

Because you could actually smell the flowers from the type of honey that he used, and that's when we're like, we're onto something.

Then we would let people taste it.

They would taste the whiskey and then we would have them taste the honey as well that had been used, and they're like, we can taste it.

You can taste the actual difference in the honeys that are used in how they make the different whiskeys.

- [David] It is very neat, you were very specific.

These are not flavors, the flavor's not being put into it.

- [Mark] Correct, we don't infuse or put any kind of artificial flavor in.

We ferment with honey and the yeast take care of the sugars and of course turn that into ethanol, and you're left with a flavor profile.

- [David] The folks in Comer and the Madison County region as a whole are thrilled about this new addition.

Not just the whiskey and the bar area known as The Hive, but also the halo effect an operation like this can have on this old Georgia town.

(mellow music) - The farm-to-table market's developing both locally and statewide, so much so that we began the MADICO MADE brand.

On that list is, of course, historic downtown Comer, Georgia with a lot of exciting projects and momentum.

We're here today and very excited to talk about Soldier of the Sea Distillery, and what we really love about what they've done is they have partnered to use local honey and local grains that are MADICO MADE and Georgia Grown to create a product that not only is something delicious, but is something that will actually help people come and experience rural Georgia.

- [David] So after exploring the town and the hive itself, I was off to the tasting room to bring on the buzz in more ways than one.

(mellow music) Now, you have something special in this beaker.

- This is the White Dog from the bourbon run.

Smell it, taste it, but it's gonna have the florals of the honey in it.

(mellow bluegrass music) - Oh wow, that is different.

Like that went down smooth.

About 90, 100 proof?

- It's 122.

(Jennifer laughs) - See, you feel it here.

It's almost creamy.

- Mouth feel, we call that.

- Mouth feel, yep.

- [David] That's fascinating.

- We had some friends that we did a little kind of improv tasting a few weeks ago, and they compared it to Captain Crunch.

(both laugh) But it's not sweet.

- (laughing) I had Captain Crunch this morning.

(all laugh) That's why it's so familiar.

- You get that burst of the sweetness, but not on the taste, which is so unique about it.

- This is not a bourbon grain bill, but it's certainly a whiskey.

It's got corn wheat barley in it.

- There's a difference.

Little more traditional whiskey flavor in there.

- [Mark] It's the oldest.

- We probably shouldn't say the total age on this one, 'cause you mentioned- - [David] People don't like their age revealed.

- I know, especially, look at her.

She's very thin and very, you know.

Very- (David laughs) - Tell me what you taste in it.

- Okay.

- Especially the finish.

(mellow bluegrass music) - That's my favorite.

(Mark chuckles) I'll tell you that.

This is a winter one, by the fire taste in this one.

- And it's got a little hint of butterscotch in it.

- [David] Yes, yes, that's it.

I was going, it was something Christmasy.

It's butterscotch.

- And that's all from the barrel.

- Really?

So let's salute this couple who serves the Soldier of the Sea, their excellent whiskey that's MADICO MADE, and the community that has embraced this Comer creation.

(mellow bluegrass music fades) (upbeat electronic music) Let's now journey from Comer up to the mountain town of Dahlonega, where another bee-inspired operation is serving up fine mead along with tasty homemade brews.

(bright traditional music) The golden town of Dahlonega is home to a classic downtown square, cute shops and great restaurants, along with several award-winning wineries and breweries, many of which you'll actually find in one happening hotspot.

- Etowah comes from the river that starts in Dahlonega, Georgia, and Etowah is actually a Muskogee word, which means a place.

And so growing up here in Dahlonega, it was a place of the Cherokee nation.

They had encampments here prior to the Trail of Tears.

My wife, Cherokee family as well, was part of that Trail of Tears movement.

On my side, I was part of that movement as well, but not as prominent as my wife.

And so when I decided to start brewing beer initially and making mead, I was trying to come up with what should I call this place?

And it always came back to me kind of a family thing about being Etowah, and Etowah means a place.

And so maybe it's the place that we sort of wanna have where we can create things.

As of today, we're the first and only craft brewery and farm winery in the state of Georgia.

(mellow music) - [David] Mead is indeed a honey-based wine and the oldest form of wine.

Blair and his team have taken this ancient concoction and have put several different twists on it, and just as fun as what is happening in the exact same space.

You see, this same destination is also home to Dahlonega Brewery, opening a whole new realm to the tasting experience I was about to engage in with my new friend Blair.

It was so cool walking through there, seeing everything, seeing how the process works.

It makes it so much more rewarding when you're drinking and trying it when you're at the place where it happens.

- [Blair] Right, a lot of people are surprised.

It's like you make all this here?

It's like, yes, made just right there in our fermentation area.

I guess they're used to going into a lot of bars or restaurants and none of the alcohol at least is made there, so it's kind of unique.

Even if you go into some local breweries or wineries, especially brew pubs, it's always from somewhere else.

So we always tell people, it's like, no, we wanna make everything here 'cause that's the way we can control quality and we get to try different flavors.

- [David] I love it.

I've had beer a lot and I'm excited about trying yours 'cause it sounds like there's some really unique flavors.

I kinda wanna start with the mead.

- You bet.

- I want a fresh palate going into this 'cause I have not tried it as much and I see bees everywhere and now it comes here.

So where do we start?

- [Blair] So we're gonna start with number 19, which is the one that's closest to you.

The four that you're gonna try here is considered on the traditional line, which means that it's medium in alcohol, like 12%.

That's actually medium.

- Okay.

- For mead.

- Yeah.

- And it's made without carbonation.

So in other words, it's not a sparkling mead or sparkling wine.

So number 19 is made strictly with Georgia wildflower honey.

There's no spices, no fruit, it's not barrel-aged.

It's just simply traditional mead.

- [David] And the temperature is chilled.

- [Blair] I like to serve it a little chilled.

Sort of like with a white wine you would normally serve a little chilled.

We just like everything a little bit chilled.

We're up here in North Georgia, we like to be a little bit different.

So even if it's red wine, we're gonna give it to you chilled, just 'cause we we're kind of cool like that.

(Blair laughs) (mellow music) - I love it.

It's the consistency.

It's a smooth, almost creamy in a way.

- Some of the hints you'll get may be a little peppery.

- Okay.

- That depends on where the wildflowers, actually, the honey's come from.

Like if you think about the wildflowers in North Georgia versus just the wildflowers in South Georgia, it's gonna be different flowers, different trees, that the bees pull from, so you can have different flavor notes from the different flowers or trees in two different regions.

So the next one is called Stone Pile Peach.

So it's named after Stone Pile Gap, just right up the road here.

It's made with fresh Georgia peaches.

They're July princesses that we get from Dickey Farms.

We put over 700 pounds of peaches in that batch.

Next year we'll have to make a little more 'cause we're almost out already.

There'll be about a 1,000 pounds of local Georgia peaches that goes into making that.

- [David] Nice.

(upbeat bluegrass music) Oh, there's that peach.

Yeah, that one.

That's very obvious.

I think in a blind test, I would know exactly what that is.

Okay, 22.

- [Blair] So 22 is gonna gonna be a little bit different.

We released that one on Cinco de Mayo.

Wildflower honey, limes and lemons, and then a orange blossom honey finish on the back, so it's like a margarita-style mead.

This one's called Sword of Cortes because we took it and we aged it in tequila barrels.

- All right, cheers.

Sword of Cortes.

(mellow bluegrass music) Oh, completely.

- Yeah.

- Yes!

It's that tequila flavor, but it doesn't hit you like a shot of tequila.

- [Blair] Right.

This glass is all sparkling meads.

- Okay.

- [Blair] They're lighter in alcohol.

They'll range anywhere from say 5% to 6.5% versus, say, the 12s over here.

Your first one up is number 18, that's called RB&B.

That is a raspberry, blueberry and blackberry fruit in it.

It's our number one seller and we won an international award for that.

- [David] All right.

(mellow bluegrass music) Oh yeah, a little sparkle.

- [Blair] Yeah.

- [David] Yeah, that's one for the pool or the beach.

- Yep.

- Hanging out all day.

Staying outta trouble.

All right, now we get to more familiar territory.

- Some of our beer, yeah.

- Okay, all right.

- So number one is our standard IPA.

It's our flagship, if you will.

It's called Little Buzzer.

It's got two things that brings.

It's a little buzzard mountain and also got a little honey in it so it'll get you a little buzz, so Little Buzzer.

- [David] Okay, okay.

IPA's my thing.

- There you go.

- All right, let's see.

(mellow bluegrass music) - Ooh!

I like it.

I like it.

- [Blair] It's a little different.

Not necessarily a full honey taste like you would think with the meads, but just enough in there to change it.

- Yeah, yeah, that's fantastic.

(warm music) So I'll be leaving Dahlonega a happy and well-educated man when it comes to the world of honey, mead and a few brews in between.

An homage to the ancients and in honor of his Cherokee history, Blair Housley and his family are a gift to this mountain community and the visitors to this golden elixir town of Dahlonega, Georgia.

I'm David Zelski, see you at the next "Fork in the Road".

(gentle bluegrass music fades) - [Narrator] "A Fork in the Road" was brought to you by: (gentle music) From produce to people, the best things are grown and raised in Georgia.

Even in tough times, we come together, work hard and grow strong.

(gentle music) When you purchase Georgia Grown products, you support farmers, families, and this proud state we call home.

Together we will keep Georgia growing.

(gentle music fades) ♪ Picture perfect ♪ ♪ Hang the picture on the wall ♪ (light R&B music) ♪ I see you shine ♪ ♪ From afar ♪ ♪ Yet to me you are a star ♪ ♪ All right baby ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Feels good feels right ♪ ♪ Take the feeling ♪ ♪ Pass it on ♪ ♪ Just pass it on ♪ (upbeat music)