I made one 6 gallon batch of Joe's Ancient Orange and personally, am not a big fan of it. I think it finishes way too sweet, and (as Ifound out)am not a big fan of spices in ANY alcoholic beverage. I still have 6or so bottles of that batch which was made in February of 2006 laying around. Perhaps I need to try it again?
Really? Did you follow the recipe closely? I've found that if I follow it, I have a nice tasting mead that is great within 6 months. If I use wine yeast instead of bread yeast, then I have a mead that I have to let age at least 18 months. The original recipe was tried and tested over a long period by Joe Matioli to make an early drinking mead, and deviations only seem to bring the aging back to a normal mead timeframe.
I used wine yeast and am not thrilled with it so it sits in bottles in my cellar and will give another try in like 6 more months. Ill let it sit there until its good or goes bad!