In my review of “Sing,” I talked about the “Secret Boots” from Castlevania Symphony of the Night. These are an extremely obscure item most people never find. They don’t affect the game at all. When you equip the boots they stretch Alucard’s sprite to make him a single pixel taller.

There are short kings out there polishing a Red Wing mock toe waiting for the other Iron Ranger to drop. Sometimes a whimsical lack of utility, says more about the creator.

Second City Meadery certainly has a voice and a purpose. The fingerprints of accessibility undercut the Pips prestige but also present as more jocular than Schramms. They aren’t as bonkers as a Maniacal or a Sonorous but fit into this space of approachable, affordable, quality without being overly serious. I appreciate that.

This mead feels like an intentional Secret Boot into the realm of heft and jammy substance that will make the Superstition honeyboys get all Shia LaBeouf’ed. It is the heaviest meads I have had from SCM and clings harder than a Hinge date who finds out someone has generational wealth. He literally pays mooring fees, my honeypot is smackereled right now.

The berry salad of indicators are unhelpful to what most melomels will taste like. They all have raspberry or boysenberry. It’s as if the starting point of every mead is a bunch of those tiny hotel jars of Bonne Maman. Red and white crosshatched caps, mandatory. However this flips the old SCM castle on its head. There seems to be this intent to forsake the modest attenuation for a more concentrated tannic intensity.

I tend to like leaner vascularity in my berry bulges. This is bulking in a Lost Cause way without the intense pastry additives. I like the variety in the SCM catalog and welcome it. The rev limiter is still in place and it doesn’t GRENAD-ine the engine with some icarian attempt. The swallow is long and sticky while never falling in an ihop syrupy morass.

In embracing the Secret Boots, SCM shows the playful side of excess. Every mead claims to be 6’ tall on those honeycomb apps.

Please note I wrote this before being diagnosed with stage IV cancer.