Does purple honey exist in nature?

[phreesh]

My wife just finished a book by Sue Monk Kidd called “The Secret Lives of Bees”. Within it, apparently, mention is made of purple honey. She was wondering if such a thing really exists. Does it?

[hlanelee]

I once saw a sample of honey from North Carolina that had a bluish tint at a beekeepers convention in the 79’s. It was tupelo honey and I believe the tint was due to aluminum content in the soil. It was the only time I had seen or heard of this and there was not a large enough sample to really matter.

[Larry_Mudd]

I’ve seen honey with a very light reddish tint, produced by a hobby apiarist here in B.C.

I’m pretty sure it has more to do with the flora that the bees have access to than the soil composition – just look at the dramatic difference in the taste and appearance of buckwheat honey.

[Lyllyan]

I Googled it, but didn’t find any purple color honey. I did find mention of Lavendar Honey and Purple Sage Honey, but these referred to the flowers rather than the color. All I have ever seen is the pale pale gold (or cream colored if it has been whipped) to the reddish gold color.
But no purple.

[yabob]

Here’s her apparent source:

http://www.apis.demon.co.uk/beekeeping/newsletters/Spring-2002.html#TheSecretLifeofBees

I just finished reading “The Secret Life of Bees” by Charleston writer Sue Monk Kidd, who visited us to get background on keeping bees, which is one theme of the book.

… We felt we had a little stake in the book, because she had come to us for info. Every now and then, something she added popped out at us, as something we had introduced to her, such as the comments on purple honey. …

Take it up with that beekeeper, I guess.

You will also find a lot of references to “purple loosestrife” honey, again referring to the type of flower it was derived from.

[moriah]

Order Form
…bees used grape scented kudzu flowers to make purple honey). Because of a shortage of honey this spring it is…
http://www.krazykudzu.com/order%20form.htm
Gigablast (1)

A search on ixquick.com found this tidbit, although, the quoted passage archived on gigablast does not appear on the linked page (obviously they no longer offer purple honey).

And so, perhaps purple honey got its name from grape-scented honey from grape-scented kudzu flowers.

Peace.

This post has been graped by the gray past.

[phreesh]

Hmmm. So we’ve got a couple of mentions of purple honey, but no hard evidence. Can anybody actually give me solid proof?

[phreesh]

The wife mentioned that the book says that elderberry, er nector, is responsible for the purple colour.

What would be the mechanism for honey to be coloured? Why is it usually ‘honey’ coloured, anyhow? What happens to make honey?

Forget the birds, explain the bees!