Taste Of Honey
As I increasingly smell the aromatic honey in my hives, I’ve realised a lot of this blog goes into the detail of honey production, but of course, what this hobby (passion? obsession? possible cause of divorce?) is actually about is taste.
Honey is about satisfying those 10,000 taste buds of ours (only 5,000 if you’re older). It’s about dipping a spoon into a pot of honey, pulling it out, watching it ooze over our toast and biting in. It’s about that unique, sweetness enveloping our senses. It’s the reason why, for centuries, man has tackled the beehive (without our modern protection) and raided the bees larder.
Describing The Taste Of Honey
When I began beekeeping all I knew was that I liked honey on my porridge and that I’d like a “free” supply even more. These days, I’m really interested in the different tastes of honey – floral, aromatic, delicate, spicey, malty, tangy, peppery, smokey, buttery, hints of vanilla, blackberry front notes, fruity back notes, toffee aftertaste, a touch of mint … the list goes on and as I taste the different honeys I come across I increasingly appreciate the differences.
I’m still on a mission to sample more varieties from different regions across the country and around the world and would love any recommendations you have. From the Talking With Bees perspective I’m very happy with the honey I have been producing which is highly scented and aromatic with a floral flavour, and I’m hopeful that friends and customers comments about it being the best honey they’ve tasted stands up to scrutiny. Undoubtedly this is due primarily to all those lovely flowers which surround the apiary, in the allotment, gardens, hedges, woods and fields – photos of which you can see here.
Help with naming the flowers below appreciated!
Flowers – Late June 2014
Read More
- I Love Honey: More about honey
- Bee Friendly Plants & Flowers
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We are in Australia and the Tasmanian Leatherwood honey is the most aromatic and unique tasting honey I have ever tried. Some describe it as resembling cough mixture but we love it. It is kind of a “top shelf” taste for us, one we savour on those special occasions as the good ones are pricey. I hope you can locate some over in the UK one day just to try it for yourself. Your honey sounds divine, we are hoping to harvest our first lot around November this year!
Now that sounds quite unique. I’ll keep my eye out for some of this.
You “unidentified” pink flower is a dog rose.
Thank you Swarm Catcher Man. Title of photo updated.
Honey, what honey! I have very feisty bees at the moment. Perhaps you could offer a page on how to treat stings? Following a trip to hospital yesterday with multiple (around 15 stings, all through my suit) I can recommend Prednisolone!
Sorry to hear about this Simon. But you are the first beekeeper I know that has been hospitalised. What were you doing to those bees! Is there a story I can blog? 😉
I recommend wellie boots, jeans, thick shirt and a bee suit as a preventative! I’ve also written about the importance of pants.
A month ago, a bee even got her stinger down the hole in the stiching of my glove. If you have a weak spot they will find it!
I’ve just googled your medication. “Prednisolone works by preventing or reducing inflammation”. Do you have some photos I could upload?
When I got stung 15 times I felt exhausted for about a week!
Call me!
Will call soon. I was trying to remove the newspaper following the newspaper method of combing colonies. Thought this would be a five minute job. Turned out to be five hours after the hospital trip. I needn’t have bothered as the newspaper was pretty much removed anyway after 3 days by the bees. They are very angry so I’m going to use lots of smoke and cover them plus wear ridiculous amounts of clothing next time.