You are expecting the nectar of the gods, and what you get is cough mixture

I have tried meads that taste of urine, and meads that taste of petroleum waste . What I have not tasted are any that are particularly nice. Bad mead is worse than the most mediocre wine, because of the expectations it raises. You are expecting the nectar of the gods, and what you get is cough mixture, if you are lucky.

B. Wilson, The Hive (2004), 159

This has really put me off mead, which instinctively, I feel I would like very much.