About 2 months ago I stopped at a rest area on the New York State Thruway. In front of the entrance, there was a stand that had a bunch of jars of honey for sale. I started talking to the chap next to the stand who started to educate me on “real” honey. He told me that the stuff in grocery stores doesn’t compare to the real stuff. He also told me that it never goes bad. Pretty miraculous if that’s true. He had several varieties and sizes for sale, but I noticed a few had a solid substance in them. I asked about it and he told me that it was a by product that was chewable. I bought that bottle for $25 and gave it to my girlfriend.
Last week I noticed that it was opened and already half way empty. So I took a teaspoon and pulled out a healthy amount of the combined gooey and solid mixture and placed it in my mouth. I must say, after 40+ years of life, I’ve finally had real honey. It’s absolutely delicious and the chewy stuff is a real treat. It minimizes into a small waxy piece that I can just spit out. It has since become my pre-bedtime snack (just one spoonful). But it’s running out fast and I have to figure out where I can find more locally.
It’s too hygroscopic to go bad: Similar to alcohol or salt, it desiccates the little beasties, killing them before they can rot the stuff. If you add enough water for yeast to be happy, you get mead.
Our local supermarket carries a lot of terrible honeys, but also has a few different raw honeys. My favorite is produced by a local beekeeper and sold in unadorned quart jars. It’s strong and rich and wild-tasting.
Pretty expensive, too, at $13 a quart. But a quart will last a month or two, so it’s not an unreasonable luxury.
Our farmer’s market has a couple of stands whose owners keep bees and sell honey and honey related products.I’ve tasted some oe them and hadn’t realized how much difference the tastes can be when the bees have primarily harvested pollen from a particular type of flower.
On was called catalpa honey, and it was very rare. The color was darker than average and it had a distinctly nutty flavor. They haven’t had any since but I keep hoping they will.
The best honeys are monofloral, and often come from wild plants rather than food crops. One of the best-known in the U.S. is tupelo honey, which comes from a tree native to the southeast. Other really good ones are tulip poplar, goldenrod, sourwood (a tree native to the eastern U.S.) and fireweed (a plant that springs up in areas after forest fires).
Some really outstanding monofloral honeys come from New Zealand, including manuka, rata, kamahi and tawari.
Thyme produces an unusual honey with a strong herbal flavor. Buckwheat honey is similar to molasses in color and flavor.
The tendency of honey to crystallize depends on the types of sugars it contains. Sucrose crystallizes easily, while fructose tends to resist it. Some wild honeys (tupelo, in particular) have mostly fructose, and these rarely crystallize. Honey vendors will sometimes beat air into their honeys - this “creamed” honey usually won’t form large crystals.
It is common to see “Local Honey for Sale!” signs around here (along with “Fresh Eggs”). I have always been to shy to follow up. I just wonder what her name is.
Nicest honey I’ve tasted was this summer in Kitzbuhel, Austria. It was locally harvested and the bees were situated on the high alpine meadows which were an absolute riot of colour at the time.
It wasn’t monofloral but it was a chunk of cut-comb honey so you got a little buttery/crunchiness from the wax and a deep, deep flavour. On fresh baked semmerl with unsalted tirolean butter it was outstanding.
Not a bad price either, I think it was about 5 euro for 200g which is pretty cheap for cut-comb honey.
I have a honey problem. Without getting out of bed to check, I have lavender honey, buckwheat honey, Italian chestnut honey, mesquite honey, German forest honey, and others from India, Turkey, Greece and I think Brazil. Ginger honey, vanilla bean honey, and a Christmas creamed one with cinnamon and another ingredient I forget right now.
A local natural foods store had an apiary on their roof and would sell what they collected. Unfortunately, Whole Foods opened across the street and put them out of business.
Honey, I’m home…My buddy worked for a bee keeper and drove the trucks. Harry Crews used him and a truck pulling contest in one of his books. I love honey. IF you ever leave Palatka Fla going south on 100 you will go through a little town called San Mateo. A man sells honey on the side of the road on the honor system. You drop your money in a box. Cant miss it. Has a giant chicken statue there.
Whenever I visit my brother in Manhattan I take him a quart jar of homemade pickled peaches - he loves them. My luggage is ALWAYS searched. Oddly enough, the one time I took him a bottle of bourbon instead it wasn’t.
There used to be a pathologist at the lab where I work who kept bees and brought in honey now and then. It was lovely.