Mead is a fermented alcoholic beverage that is made of honey diluted in water and commonly added with other ingredients. The chemical characteristics of mead are closely related to the ingredients and additives that are used in its preparation, especially the type of honey, the yeast strain, and the pre-fermentation nutrients, as well as herbs, spices and/or fruits. These additives can affect not only the fermentation process, in particular the yeast activity, the formation of metabolites and the fermentation time, but also the bioactive potential of the mead, which is mainly related to its profile of phenolic compounds. Scientific studies have shown that meads added with different plant species contain considerable amounts of different classes of polyphenols, which have important biological activities. Within this context, this review study sought to investigate how different ingredients and additives can affect each of the stages of the preparation of mead, as well as its bioactive potential, in order to understand the effects on its chemical composition, and thus add greater commercial value to this beverage.