Honey Safari

This year, as I’ve been on sabbatical, I’ve taken the opportunity to buy and eat some exotic honeys. Normally the idea of buying honey appalls me as somehow being disloyal to my own bees, but at the moment I’m free to guiltlessly savour the products of other hives.

This Christmas Eve post is for my Dad, who will discover tomorrow that I’ve given him 3 exotic honeys for Christmas. I’ve tried them all (not the same jars…I splashed out and bought 2 of each) and am recording my tasting notes here for him to consider and compare.

These are 3 resinous tree honeys, all different from one another and all very different from English garden honey.

1. Greek Oak Tree Raw Honey

This oak honey describes itself as:

“A robust raw honey with a deep caramel like flavour produced for us by Alexandros Gousiaris. Harvested at the end of July [2019] from hives placed in Oak forests near to Mount Olympus. Produced only in limited quantities to ensure a honey of exceptional quality.”

I was initially sceptical of this honey because, as far as I know, oak trees do not produce nectar. How could you get “oak honey” if bees don’t harvest nectar from oaks? The description of the honey as “raw” was also off-putting - a meaningless marketing term suggesting that the product was targeted at consumers with more money than sense.

But I’ve come round. I googled it, and learned that oak honey comes from honeydew, rather than nectar. And it’s quite tasty. It’s a dark honey, tasting to me of liquorice, treacle, marzipan and - yes - oak.

2. Madagascan Eucalyptus Honey

What a beautiful label - if I were judging a book by its cover, I would give it high marks.

This one says:

“Madagascan bee-keeping is a long-held tradition thanks to rich treasures of flora and fauna; in this case producing a typically malty honey with sweet and spiced notes.”

This honey surprised me in many ways. First, its scent. I suppose I thought it might smell a bit like eucalyptus, or at least that it would smell recognisably like honey. It smelt waxy and mildly antiseptic, like a first aid kit. Next, the texture - it looked like a set honey so I was prepared to have to chisel my way in with a sharp spoon, but it was soft, very soft, almost like a mousse. Then the taste - I look forward to hearing how Dad manages to describe this one - to me it was slightly reminiscent of lemon curd.

3. Zambian Organic Forest Honey

I chose this one because it carries a “Bees for Development” label, and BfD is a fantastic organisation. I have been a member for some time and I recently heard their founder, Dr Nicola Bradbear, give a talk, and both she and her talk were inspirational.

A lot of thought has evidently gone into the branding on this jar - just look at those hexagonal Os in the name of The London Honey Co. And that bee in the top hat - I’m sure no self-respecting London honey bee would leave its hive without one. But this honey is of course not from London bees, but from Zambian ones. The label tells us that “wild honeybees move into bark hives tucked high into the tree canopy to escape the honey badgers”. The honey itself is described as having “notes of treacle, whisky and dried fruits”.

I could see a gradient in this honey and thought it had begun to crystallise, but it was runny - remarkably runny in fact. To taste, it’s smoky, like one of those peaty scotch whiskies, and it’s even bitter…in a sweet way.

I wrote brief tasting notes for all three honeys and I thought they would be easy to tell apart, all being so distinct. But in a blind tasting, my husband scored 0 out of 3 in matching the tasting notes to the honeys. Which just goes to show that taste is subjective. I hope you enjoy them, Dad.

Merry Christmas.