The founder of a York-based 'meadery' has been inundated with orders for his alcoholic honey mead after he burst into Dragons’ Den with two marauding Vikings last week.

Since the show aired, Peter Taylor has sold 10 times more bottles of mead than usual, as viewers were inspired to recreate their own Viking feasts at home.

He didn’t leave the Den with investment but that hasn’t stopped his Nidhoggr Mead Co business going from strength to strength since he pitched.

He has more than tripled production to 50,000 bottles a year and has proved the Dragons wrong by winning a coveted listing in Morrisons.

The Northern Echo: Viking re-enactor Peter Taylor says sales of his alcoholic honey mead have soared since his

Peter first discovered honey mead at Viking reenactment tournaments. In 2020, inspired by his mother-in-law who brewed homemade mead and in a bid to make some extra cash to buy a new sword, he experimented making his own authentic mead at home using 100 per cent local Yorkshire honey.

As a Viking re-enactor himself, Peter explained how staff from York's Jorvik Centre tried some of his homemeade mead at one of his live shows and asked if he was selling it.

He said: "I told my then fiancée (now wife) it would be a small side project - I ended up selling the dining room table and we had honey in the bathtub, it was everywhere.

After starting the business out of his home in Acomb - and then moving to a small commercial space in Skelton - Nidhoggr has since expanded to a 4,000 square foot facility in Pocklington, with plans to grow even further.

He appeared on Dragons Den on Thursday, April 4. On the show, he asked for an £80,000 investment in exchange for a five per cent stake in his company.

Despite receiving positive reactions after the Dragons tasted the honey-based drink, challenges such as investment strategy and the company's heavy Norse branding led them to opt out of the proposed investment.

In response to the Dragons' rejection, Peter had one simple message to prospective drinkers of Nidhoggr Mead: "Try some, it will change your life."

He added: “Dragons’ Den was a surreal experience and it felt very much like going into battle. The Dragons thought mead and its Viking history was niche which is why they didn’t invest - but it just spurred me on to prove them wrong.

“Since appearing on the Den, Nidhoggr Mead Co has secured listings in Morrisons, started exporting to the US, become Warhammer’s official mead, and has more than doubled sales with the business now worth £3m. The Vikings certainly won this battle, and I’ve bought myself five new swords.”

Stafford-born Peter moved to York because of his wife, a fellow Viking actor who came to the city as a student.

"I actually met my wife at the battle of Stamford Bridge, I killed her dad on the battlefield," he said.

"She had already fallen in love with the city, and I fell in love with it too."

Nidhoggr Mead Co is a York-based meadery founded by Peter 2020. The traditional nectar of the gods,mead is brewed with just three ingredients - the finest local and sustainably harvested Yorkshire honey, Yorkshire mineral water and yeast.

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Nidhoggr Mead Co’s commitment to tradition runs deep with a revery to the ancient techniques of mead-making as a tribute to Norse mythology.

This dedication results in a range of refreshing, delicately sweet and wonderfully smooth drinks which can be drunk neat or used to create thoroughly modern cocktails.

It produces a range of eight traditional honey meads which include flavours such as traditional mead, elderflower, lemon and lime, sour cherry, raspberry and lemon, apple and rhubarb and Ginger (700ml/350ml 15 per cent ABV).