Heather honey for sale in Scotland
Good raw unpasteurized honey tastes very different from the plastic clover honey bear that you purchase at the supermarket. I compare it to processed cheese vs. a homemade varietal cheese. Honey bears are simply an accumulation of many types of honey that have been mixed together, heated, and made into a homogeneous mixture which lacks any hint of ‘terroir.’
Selection of honey and creamed honey in Leipzig
Raw honey taste has a sense of place of where the honey bees gathered and deposited the nectar. As complex as chocolate, wine, and olive oil, honey deserves a greater appreciation with many layered notes or flavors. Honey tasting is like wine tasting — you wait for the bouquet and flavors to cascade over you. Honey is not just ‘sweet’, there are floral notes that are hard to describe. Butterscotch, caramel, florals, dried fruit, mineral….you name it, honey has it all. The flora, climate, and nature of the terrain determine the flavors of local honey.
I recently attended a varietal honey tasting
In my area of Maryland, in the mid-Atlantic region, Black Locust heralds the honey flow start of the beekeeping year. Go to my post on Early Spring Nectar Sources for more information. Black Locust produces a fruity, fragrant honey that ranges from water white to lemon yellow. The lexicon of honey flavors are as varied as the floral sources that it comes from. It can smell fresh as grass or tarry and dark as molasses. Honey varietals are becoming increasingly popular with honey tasting events of local and not so local honey on the menu. These varietal honeys come from primarily one source of nectar such as clover or orange blossoms. More than 300 varietal honeys are produced in the United States. Worldwide, it is in the thousands.
Late season honey just extracted; late season honey is darker and more robust than early spring honey
Many beekeepers use the blanket term “wildflower” for a honey gathered from different kinds of flowers, but what “wildflower” means, varies by region. In my Maryland climate, that means- goldenrod, clover, berries, and sumac; the western Rocky Mountains have cactus, yucca, agave, alfalfa, and mesquite. So a Maryland and a Western wildflower honey will be very different.
My wildflower honey
Changing seasons also affect a honey’s taste, texture, and color. A plant only has so much sugar that goes to its blossoms. In spring, when those blossoms are just budding, the resulting honey tastes less sweet, more diluted. Later on in the season, when plants are competing like mad for pollinating bees to pay them a visit, they disperse more sugar and nutrients into fewer flowers, producing darker, more full-bodied honeys, like the late-season buckwheat and goldenrod. Buckwheat honey is almost black and I can only describe the flavor and aroma as ‘earthy’. It is an acquired taste but it promotes healing in the body, supports immune function, and boosts antioxidants. It’s also great for soothing sore throats and coughs.
Buckwheat honey is very dark and earthy
Here are some common flavor notes of honey:
- Floral: Flowers like violet, rose, peony, honeysuckle and jasmine
- Fruity: Tropical fruits like pineapples and mango; berries; citrus and dried fruits like raisins, prunes and apricots
- Warm: Burnt sugars like caramel, marshmallow, and butterscotch; creamy notes of yogurt or butter; deep flavors of vanilla and chocolate
- Fresh: Crisp flavors of herbs like thyme and mint.
- Vegetal: Fresh plants, raw vegetables, wet grass, hay and straw.
- Animal: Sweat, manure, leather.
- Woody: Cedar, oak, pine, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg.
- Funk: Yeast, fermentation, must, moss, fungi
Chunk honey with a chunk of honeycomb
My favorite tasting choice is ‘Chunk Honey’, fresh honey with a chunk of honeycomb floating. Just cut off a chunk of the honeycomb and chew it like chewing gum to get all the goodness out.
8 Comments
Love your newsletters, and info. I am a beekeeper in sula, mt. I bought some honey from fellow keeper in virginia. Darker, stronger flavor, but surprisingly not as sweet as my honey. But always love trying new honey from distant keepers, different flavors.
thanks for reading and commenting. Honey is as different as beekeepers are different!
I agree. Beekeeping does attract people from very different backgrounds. I had no knowledge or interest and I don’t know what stimulated my interest. I suddenly knew I wanted to be a Beekeeper. The longer I have them, the more I learn and realise how much I still don’t know. They are fascinating.
The Newslatter articles are interesting reading. Thank you.
Thanks for reading and commenting! Who knows what drew me to beekeeping and a lot of people wonder why I go to the trouble!
I am interested in knowing
● Safe handling of bees
● Harvesting honey
● Amateur yet near professional approach.
I am a members of the ArkLaTex Beekeepers Association, (now with 97 members).
If you would like to know about keeping Honey Bees drop me a line or two.
The club meets on the 2nd Tuesday of each month in Shreveport, La.
Joseph
whisp1827@gmail.com
Been keeping bees for over 20 years. Thanks for commenting!
I really enjoy your articles! I’m in my second year of beekeeping and it’s such an exciting hobby for me! Just learning about the bees is a joy but now that my friends, family and neighbors are all wanting to buy honey and I’m struggling to learn about packaging and pricing and I want a unique label for my honey that makes it “mine”. Any suggestions on where I can get help with personal labeling?