A Sweet Flight

By Christina Chittenden

Family owned and operated by David, Becky and Travis Powell, Trazo Meadery, is the first Meadery in Tennessee. Their family’s mead origins run deep, dating back to the beekeeping adventures Travis had as a child with his grandfather.

Travis and his grandfather’s first attempt at beekeeping – when he was only nine years old – failed miserably. Half of their bees died during shipping and the rest took out their hostility on Granddaddy, stinging him on his face and hands. A short week later, the bees had abandoned the hive. Ironically, Travis’ science project that year in school was entitled, “How NOT to Keep Bees”. He didn’t let that stop him, though. With the guidance of the Williamson County Beekeepers Association, Travis managed to not only grow one – but five – hives before he left for college. His love for bees was the inspiration his family needed to support him, and they became the bees’ caretakers while he was away for college.

The family’s sourdough bread yeast strain has been around for decades and has been fed and nurtured by David’s mother, Zola, throughout the years. One of Travis’ favorite days to spend time with his grandmother while he was growing up was Tuesday; “bread making day” in Zola’s kitchen. When she was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, she entrusted Travis with her bread recipe, passing on to him the responsibility of keeping the yeast alive. He fed the yeast religiously and made bread from it until he went off to college, at which point Becky took over. Though most of the yeast is now used for making mead, there is always enough left over for the occasional loaf of bread tradition!

Many hours have been spent by Travis and David devising business plans with the by-products of the bees. In fact, during high school, Travis’ entrepreneurial skills took the first leap when he began selling organic lip balm. By using water harvested at a nearby limestone spring found deep in the woods of Montgomery County, Tennessee, he and David began experimenting with brewing the perfect mead. From the very beginning, the idea of mead stood out. As a history major, Travis was drawn to mead’s ancient origins and impressive, storied history with references as early as 8000 BCE. Older than beer or wine, mead was quite possibly the first alcoholic beverage ever consumed. Initially, naturally fermented honey would have been consumed, but it was only a matter of time before humans figured out how to initiate the fermentation process on their own by way of reverse engineering the process.

Mead can be found all over the world, including Central Africa and Egypt. Over the last few centuries, mead lost popularity mostly due to competition from other alcoholic beverages, all of which had the perk of being produced more affordably and consistently. However, mead has persevered thanks mainly to the efforts of beekeepers who have kept the art alive and passed down their knowledge. Trazo Meadery hopes to bring the rich tradition of mead back into the mainstream with their line of high quality, all-natural meads.

Formulating the perfect recipe was no overnight success. It took quite a while to figure out how to take the three ingredients and make them into a delicious mead. Their first batch turned to vinegar, and one bottle even spontaneously popped its cork because they bottled it before the fermentation process was complete. But, after much trial and error experimenting, David came upon the perfect combination of honey, water and yeast. His first successful batch won a gold medal from the Tennessee Viticultural and Oenological Society.

“We decided to open up a tasting room in Downtown Clarksville this year to add to the growth and excitement that was already happening here,” said Travis. “It’s really awesome to be a part of the growth of this city. In regards to opening during a pandemic, well let’s just say that’s been very unusual to say the least,” Travis laughed. “As we were getting ready to open our tasting room, of all the things I could have ever planned on potentially slowing us down, a global pandemic was definitely not on the list!” Though this caught them by surprise, the family is so thankful for such a welcoming and supportive community.

“We were offering take out and togo orders for a month or so, and so many people were coming in and supporting local business instead of buying wine from the grocery stores,” he added. “It was very reassuring to see during such a difficult time, and now that things are starting to open back up, we are seeing even more people come in because they are anxious to get out of the house. Last week, a couple came out for their first date night since the pandemic started.”

“We are happy to be there to give people a safe environment to come and enjoy themselves after being cooped up for so many weeks,” Travis said. “We really try to go above and beyond in terms of safety and sanitization, and are trying not to contribute to the curve going back up again. Part of our values is taking care of the community, and having these things in place is such a big part of doing that right now.”