Medovukha is a honey-based alcoholic drink – stronger and stouter than beer and weaker than wine. It consists of honey and yeast. Berries, hop, herbs, spices and roots may also be used as additives. It was originally popular with the nobility – and later with ordinary folks – in the many European cultures where it was known under the name of “mead.”Some of the best medovukha producers in Russia were monks. At the beginning of the 16th century the Moscow Prince Vasily III assigned medovukha production strictly to the church and the state; private production was prohibited. It was one of the first examples of a state monopoly on alcohol.