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Honey Mania
January 29, 2007 | by Wayne | Filed under Heidi's Favorites
New Zealand is known around the world for having a large population of sheep, those boring elf and crossbow movies, and the kiwi bird. One thing New Zealand should be more famous for is its honey. The honey-loving population of New Zealand consumes more honey per capita than any other country in the world. This new Zealand honey isn't devoid of personality, this isn't the sold-in-a-plastic-bottle- shaped-like-a-bear-that- Brad-Pitt-uses-as-a-bong honey. They might be known for having Marmite on their toast each morning, but just as many are spreading clover honey, thyme honey, kamahi honey or manuka honey.
Tasting honey can be much like tasting wine. You start by observing the color, move on to the nose, have a taste and then think about the flavor and finish. Tasting honey offers a full cycle of variables that can be taken into consideration. Each honey will be a slightly different color - some are bright and yellow, others can be almost as dark as molasses. They have a range of clarity - some are nearly transparent while others appear creamy and opaque.
To yield different types of honey, bees are left in proximity to different types of flowers. The flower is something like the grape varietal in wine. Each type of flower leaves a distinct residual flavor in the honey. Mass-produced, 'generic' honey (the largest producers are China and the United States) is made by mixing several flowers (polyfloral) from many areas. Beyond the different flowers, which blossom at different times of the year, the environment and conditions in which a honey is produced influences the flavor. From New Zealand, Tuscany, Chile or Hawaii, if you sample honey from around the world, it is easy to taste the terroir of the different honeys. Look for single-floral (monofloral) honey from smaller producers.
Creamed honey is made with a crystallized starter that introduces small crystals that results in creamy opaqueness and a thicker consistency, which is less messy. Certain flowers promote quicker crystallization than others. As you keep honey for months (or even years) beyond when it was produced, it can become more crystallized. This affects the consistency and how it tastes when you eat it raw. Honey that is heavily crystallized dissolves in your mouth with a mineral-y crackle, like a subtle version of Pop Rocks.
Each year at the NASFT Fancy Food Show, I avoid being overwhelmed with too many samples by selecting one or two things I'm interested in at the start. Last year it was olive oil. This year I decided to see what types of honey were being promoted. Because the show is a trade show and retailers around the country are there trying to find new products to sell, it's possible to find these fine examples of honey in your local gourmet shop now or in the near future.
On the domestic front, there is plenty of interesting honey being produced in the United States. The Savannah Bee Company in Georgia makes a full line of bee-related products, including soaps, lotions, waxes and lip balms. But their most popular product is a classic tupelo honey. It's not overpoweringly sweet, which makes it good for drizzling on yogurt or flavoring subtle herbal teas. They also produce other Southern honey varietals, including black sage, raspberry and sourwood.
The unfortunately named MoonShine Trading Company sells a wide range of American honey, from Florida Tupelo to Northwestern Fireweed. Check out Yellow Star Thistle-Creamy.
Big Island Bees is a honey producer based in Hawaii and their honey is made from local flowers like the ‘Ohi’a Lehua, which is only found in Hawaii, and the wilelaiki blossom. Both have a more floral taste than most other honey, with a very tight sweetness that doesn't overwhelm the senses.
A company called GourmetSardinia (based in Texas of all places), imports one of the most unique honey products from Sardinia, called Miele Amaro. They call it a 'bitter honey' and they say it is based on the flower of Arbutus Unedo (I've never heard of it, either) and is collected three months after pollination. It lives up to its name, because after an albeit concentrated and dense sweetness, the taste finishes with an extremely rich and bitter bite. Since it's easy to get online, get it and experiment with it. I'm sure somebody is going to find an insanely perfect recipe for this product, let me know. They also carry a product called Abbamele, which is a honey and pollen reduction sauce - thick, syrupy and caramelized, yet still retaining an undercurrent of honey flavor.
Ritrovo is another Italian importer that brings in the honey of Paolo Pescia. The range of their quality honey shows the difference in crystallization. The Wild Heather Macchia honey is perfect for anyone seeking out dense crystallization. The Rovo honey has a medium crystallization and is produced from blackberries ripening in the fall sunshine on rolling Tuscan hills. Just add your favorite Andrea Bocelli album. Finally, for a honey that can be poured, Pescia's Chestnut Miele di Castagno is a rich, earthy honey that can go head to head with strong cheeses.
Blue Hills Honey of Tasmania produces another unique floral honey called leatherwood honey. The plant is only found in Tasmania and grows in a temperate rain forest. They also sell a tasty blackberry honey.
Perhaps my favorite honey of the show comes from Chile. Chileangourmet sells two wonderful types of honey. The first is a polyfloral variety a blend of many plants we've never heard of, including Robles, Rauli, Arrayanes and the Canelos. It has a perfect golden color, consistency that sits between liquid and whipped and a sharp sweet taste that ends with a delicate floral finish. Even better was the ulmo honey which comes from the ulmo tree, native to Chile. It smells like flowers and has a buttery smooth sweetness that could be paired with mild cheese.
Heidi's favorite honey was a dark, broody number produced by Big Tree Farms - a mango blossom honey from the island of Java. It was amber in color, smooth, buttery, not overly sweet with slight smokey notes. Amazing, complex honey perfect for drizzling, smearing, glazing, and quite frankly, for sampling straight from the jar.
Finally, a honey round-up wouldn't be complete without New Zealand honey. Airborne Honey was at the show and had a wide range of creamed honey. They sell the most popular of the New Zealand floral varities, including tawari, manuka and thyme. They also have varities I haven't yet tried, including nodding thistle and vipers bugloss. They have a very informative website that is one of the best resources for details about each of the floral varieties.
A sidenote for those of you travelling to New Zealand - north of Auckland there is a small sign on the main highway in Warkworth for the Honey Centre and it's well worth stopping. Beyond the requisite bee hive behind plexiglass for the kids, they have every kind of honey product available for tasting, including the less-sweet slightly salty pohutukawa, gingery rewarewas, and the tawari with its butterscotch and caramel-flavors. Finally, in the Hawke's Bay region one of the larger honey companies in New Zealand, Arataki, has their honey headquarters with tasting and information. Most of the honey they sell comes in ubiquitous plastic tubs that you see in every shop, but they also have high-quality honey. My favorite of the trip is a manuka honey. It was on the sale rack, with a sign that said it was two years old. It's heavily crystallized to the point of being crunchy and has an earthy, root flavor that recalls a warm, flat homemade Amish root beer that we had years ago in Pennsylvania.
This brief trip around the world of honey touches on just a handful of the countless floral varieties found in most countries in the world (dont' miss David Lebovitz's great post about French honey). Whether traveling to another country or shopping for something unique and flavorful, find you own favorite variety of one of the best tasting and healthiest natural sweeteners.
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Your Comments
Mara said:This may just inspire me to look beyond the bear!
There are tons of honey varietals here in N.C. - it seems to be a specialty of the mountains. (And wine is growing here in the Piedmont, too, you know!)
And moonshine isn't so bad. Ahem. I've known people who take a spoonfull as needed for colds and such. Ahem, again.
This post just inspired me to enjoy some toast with creamed honey :) It wasn't terribly fancy honey, but it sure hit the spot on top of homemade cracked wheat bread! Mmm...
you sell our own products short we have honey as good if not better.go to the bee hive in north fort myers and try at least 100 diffrent kinds of honey produced right on the premisses,i also love clover honey and pineapples baked over a virginia ham.thats our own clover honey.chef leonardo formerly from portland maine.
I have always wanted to try the honey-in-the-bear-jar. It is possibly something to do with there being a big kid stuck inside me! Thanks for the informative post on honey. I have been to the honey centre you mentioned. It was well before I developed my interest in all things food. All I remember was that the coffee in their cafe was not to my liking! I will have to plan another visit - fortunately I drive past on my way to visit family. Did you also visit Koanga Gardens - a sustainable living centre that promotes heritage vegetable varities? It is in the same part of New Zealand.
My grandfather has been a beekeeper for over 60 years in Switzerland.
I'd encourage you all to enjoy the exotic honeys, but to also buy locally!
Thanks for this great article. It caught my eye because I've just been doing some work for a college Australian gourmet food project that involved me using and discussing Tasmanian leatherwood honey. I love informative posts like these from food bloggers and I try to do some myself, although I'm not at this standard. Really great!
My grandfather has been a beekeeper for over 60 years. He looks after those bees like they were his children, and his love for his work most definately shows in his finished product. But perhaps my favorite part of his honey isn't actually the golden stuff itself, but the "schaum" (cream) that floats to the top of the container he collects the honey in. The texture is distinctly different (lighter than honey proper) and not as sweet. Delicious on fresh bread with a thick layer of butter.
Perfect timing. Recently received a jar of raw orange blossom honey (this is Florida) and have been indulging in thick slices of freshly baked whole wheat bread with a slathering of fresh peanut butter and a liberal drizzling of honey. A feast fit for a king! Glad to see you promote this fabulous healthy food!
Beekeeping, and honey making, is becoming increasingly popular here in Rhode Island. One neighbor, who comes here for cooking classes, harvested her first batch of honey last summer, and we've been enjoying it all winter. There's even a statewide beekeepers' association that provides technical assistance.
I admire your ability to get through that food show, able to concentrate on just one thing...which is a much better way to do it (rather than spending your time avoiding the samples of blueberry-chile-flavored salami snacks, etc...)
Once I discovered really good honey, it was hard (no...impossible!) to go back to the bland, ordinary stuff. I share your love of dark, bitter honey too.
Great post!
This is a wonderfully written and useful post. I not only saved it, I actually printed it. We do have some delicious varieties here in Southern California; after reading this, I am going to stop by the honey table at the farmers' market this weekend.
Thank you.
The Arbutus Unedo (Unedo is latin for (I eat one, only) is a lovely tree. Here's one link:http://www.pfaf.org/leaflets/straw_tree.php and a link with pictures: www.apinguela.com/Plantas/A/Arbutus-unedo/Arb. I have seen it growing in the Pacific NW. Beautiful red bark and wonderful smelling flowers that, I imagine, might make some_very_ tasty honey!
sounds great,in south africa we dont get so many diffrent kinds of honey.
Heidi - My absolute favorite NZ honey is that derived from the pohutakawa tree. These trees are scattered along the New Zealand coastline, hanging treacherously it seems over cliffs, bathing in the saltspray. What this does is impart a unique, salty aftertaste - not too salty, mind you. The Honey Centre at Warkworth provides some of the best pohutakawa honey I've ever tried in the country. Good on you for really looking at honey, uncovering this much taken-for-granted delight that is always flavorful and restorative.
My dad is a beekeeper, you'd be surprised how many great foods can be made with honey when you substitute the sugar! Muffins, cookies... Last night I made honey porkchops (with a clementine champagne sauce). Just drizzle honey in with the olive oil when you sear the chops. Yum! (Good with chicken too!)
Thanks for this! I adore honey. My favorite comes from a local company here in Maryland (the Bee Folks) who I discovered at our Renaissance Festival. I'm fond of the lighter, sweeter honeys and adore their orange blossom though I like getting the "killer bee" honey, just to see people's faces when I tell them what it is. :)
This is a wonderfully written and useful post. I not only saved it, I actually printed it. We do have some delicious varieties here in Southern California; after reading this, I am going to stop by the honey table at the farmers' market this weekend.
Thank you.
Thanks so much for all the great info. I moved to the Portland (OR) area about a year ago and have been exploring (among other things) local honey's. I've been impressed by how clearly the different flowers come through, and the variety of textures. For one stop tasting, there's a guy at the Saturday Market who usually has 15 or so different varieties to sample. Now I have one more reason to visit NZ.
Good honeys, but those small independent producers need to package their honey in a vessel as useful as the insta-bong honey bear. Anyone ever wonder why honey is stored in a plastic bear? Granted bears EAT honey but bees produce honey. Shouldn't it be stored in a plastic bee?
I have spent many days with the Efe Pygmies searching the rain forest for honey (from the wild form of the honey bee, as well as the other bees that live there).
Some of your readers may be interested in these tidbits:
- An Efe Pygmy man can drink a liter or two of honey without ill effects. Most people can't
- Most (maybe all) species of bee produce honey, but only one bee has a stinger (most things that sting you are not bees). The honey of these other bees tastes very different.
-The Efe "smoke" the bees in thier hive to pacify them (other bee keepers do this too). It works, it is thought, because the bees think their hive (or the tree it is in) is on fire so they get busy gathering up honey to move out. In this way, the guy taking the honey gets stung only a few dozen times rather than a few thousand times!
My in-laws have beehives and we get fresh honey from them all the time. It is amazing the difference in the honey that is fresh vs those that are found on regular supermarket shelves.
Very educating post! Thank you!
Heidi,
I don't know if you have observed or not but the Cooking Channel is becoming a sterotype struggling to innovate. So I'd like to suggest to you that you get a web-cam, make these dishes, talk about them using as your script the same material that you publish. Perhaps two dishes per episode and written onto DVD's when filming is done. When you have 50 shows on DVD offer to sell them to the network as a bundle. Failing them to go for it - then sell to PBS. If all else fails then put them on the website as streaming video.
I'll bet a younger person might want to elp film and edit the episodes.
Cooking is the greatest and people who are food artists like you need to allow others to appreciate the completed canvas. Your website is great and now its time to expand.
Keep up the good work.
Paul
Honey is such an underrated artisan product! When I was in Germany last year meeting my boyfriend's family, I learned that it is a favorite and common hobby among the Germans. It's not at all unusual for a family to keep some bees and make their own honey. I certainly smuggled a few wonderful jars back in my suitcase (does honey count as an "animal product?"). There really is a huge flavor differential between the different kinds. Thanks for posting about this, sounds like you found some good ones!
My father was a small time businessman selling honey. We grew up eating honey with everything.We Indians love eating honey with chapattis (pancakes made of wheat flour)or dosas(made of rice & blackgram) or idlis(again made of rice and black gram but different proportions) or bread.The taste of honey is great. I love honey.
My grandfather was a beekeeper - I have 3 hives (located in a small town in central NC). My honey is wonderful and each year has a different taste, flavor and color - I have what you would call "local honey". They work hard and I work hard to keep them healthy. The bees are fascinating and a lesson in work ethics for all of us. Thanks for a great article.
Heidi,
What a great post on honey. So informative. We have so many varieties of Greek honey in our house. I'm inspired to start using them in my cooking rather than just plopping some into a cup of tea. I was also thrilled to receive this month's copy of Food & Wine and to see your smiling face within its pages. I've been a devoted reader for such a long time but have never posted. Just wanted to say that I enjoy your sites so much and it was great to see you in the magazine. Keep up the great work! :)
Thanks for your post about honey. I bought some lavender honey last year in Portugal and it's outstanding. I've been looking for something similar in the U.S. so your suggestions will be a great source!
Arbutus Unedo is fairly abundant as an ornamental right here in San Francisco. It's also known as Strawberry Tree due to its spiky, red, berry-like fruit.
S said:The Honey Hive near Taupo is another great New Zealand honey destination. They make lots of great artisan honeys, and also blend about anything you can think of with honey. Their honey-kiwifruit blend is particularly great.
Thanks for the comments everyone - S, yeah we drove past that place in Taupo, but unfortunately it was pouring down rain and we were eager to get off the road (lots of big trucks near there and its a narrow "highway").
Sean, ah yes, I am familiar with this tree and see it around. I guess I should pick up a local flora book to know the actual names of things.
I agree Chilean honey is very good, with special flavors.we have produced honey in Chile for 60 years.
I love honey and bought some delicious varieties lately. But I'd like to learn about more recipes that use honey, do you have any suggestions?
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