Honey is the oldest sweet known to man, and for thousands of years..
It was the only unrefined natural sweet available. The history of honey is therefore closely linked to the history of human kind. Honey is an easily digestible, quick energy source containing a variety of important vitamins and trace elements. It has antimicrobial effects and has been used in medicine from ancient times. 

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History Records that many Ancient Cultures & Civilisations Produced Beverages made with honey...
The history of honey wine often referred to as honey mead and other alcoholic drinks is the history of honey. Ancient cave drawings show that honey has been used as a food by man for at least 20,000 years. It is recorded in written history dating back to 2100BC where it was mentioned in Sumerian and cuneiform writings, the Hittite code, and the sacred writings of India and Egypt.
Indeed in Indian, Greek, Roman, Celt, Saxon and Viking cultures honey was seen as dew that came from heaven. The oldest known existence of honey beverage is about 8000 years ago in Persia and the Indian sub continent. Early records of mead are found also in Asia, Scandinavia, and the British Isles and in early aboriginal cultures in the Americas. In the Old Testament of the Bible, Israel was often referred to as ‘the land of milk and honey’ and was often in Israel and ancient Greece being referred to as nectar of the gods on Olympus.

In the Viking heaven called Valhalla the Valkyries gave mead to the new comers while in the Celtic heaven ran a river of mead. In Greek culture mead was either called nectar or ambrosia depending on the source of the honey. Often in these cultures it was produced and drunk very young or even while still fermenting particularly by the commoners. Even so in Viking mythology it was considered that honey mead that was aged was of higher quality as the Viking Gods drank mead that was aged.

In antiquity water supplies were often not drinkable and alcohol having antimicrobial properties made beverages safe to consume. Only in Asia was water boiled to make it safe to drink. Early meads and beers were heavily spiced to mask off flavours resulting from contamination of the fermenting process partly as a result of the fact that ‘honey’ would have been more a mix of bees wax, honey and pollen containing a great flora of microbes.

Often Viking mead was described as in Beowulf as a ‘frothy ale’. Yeast as a vital ingredient of fermentation was not understood until Louie Pasteur described it in 1841. Before this mead making was considered an art that delved into the mystic often with only certain individuals being trained in the magical process of turning honey into honey wine.

As European population increased their followed a corresponding decreases in bee hives and an increase in cheaper wine produced by grapes particularly in countries where grapes grew. Added to this the reformation in Western Europe meant that less beeswax was required for Protestant church candles as opposed those previously used in Catholic churches with the result that to survive beekeepers who’s main income previously was beeswax had to raise the price of honey as less beeswax was being sold. Hence the price of mead rose making it not affordable to most people any more apart from rich nobles. The only countries not producing grape wine that did not turn Protestant are Poland and Orthodox Russia. Here honey mead has been produced and drunk right through their history to the present day.
This is but a very brief history of a fascinating subject that of honey and honey beverages that are deeply entrenched in many of the worlds cultures.