So I was at the store needing to buy some honey. There on the shelf was the darkest honey I have ever seen. I won’t claim myself to be any kind of honey connoisseur, usually just Clover, Wildflower, maybe a small pot of Orange honey now and then for mixing into yogurt or oatmeal. All the other kinds are too hard to find, and/or too damn expensive.
But there it was with a price equal to the wildflower, so I grabbed a bottle. Got home took a little taste, seems like a honey, with a medium strength background note of molasses pretty good. Have to wait till morning to see how it performs on the job.
But I googled buckwheat honey and holy shit, page after page of pseudo-medical sites pushing it as the newest superfood cure-all. I’m afraid I will really love it, then by the time I go back to get more it will have quadrupled in price.
The stories of curative properties of honey are as old as, well, as long as people have been gathering honey. I don’t think that what you’ve read about buckwheat honey is some great new discovery. Good 100% unadulterated honey is expensive and will remain so. Usually its worth the price. Especially if it is the star ingredient and consumed in its raw form. If you’re going to bake or cook with it in any large quantity, I’d go for the less expensive versions that have been ‘cut’.
As for medicinal purposes, the only thing honey has ever cured me of is the craving for brie on toasted baguette drizzled with honey and fresh thyme.
Specifically these sites, at least what showed in the top level text of the search, was that it was supposedly so much better than any other honey.
I don’t care about any curative powers it has because buckwheat honey is delicious. Other honeys pale in comparison to it’s rich flavor. I pay extra for it and don’t care.
If you think buckwheat honey is a weird rabbit hole, check out what people are saying about manuka honey.
Out of curiosity, I bought some last year. It came in a really cool looking colorful tin and it was super thick and waxy looking. Like a rich car or wood polish. The smell and flavor was very powerful. Floral to the point of being slightly nauseating. I’m glad I tried it but I probably won’t bother again because it kind of overwhelms the palate.
Actually, my wife just corrected me in that it was Tasmanian leatherwood honey, not manuka. She bought it. I stand by the flavor profile as described.
I had no idea buckwheat honey was so hyped – it’s been a staple in my parents’ household since I remember and the Polish groceries I shop at. It’s a very different honey and not everyone likes it, but I quite enjoy it. I’m a fan of acacia honey for its very clean, classic honey flavor, but it’s pretty much the opposite of buckwheat honey. Different honeys for different moods for me.
Buckwheat honey is a relatively strong flavored honey. Some people (including me) like the flavor; others don’t. I doubt that it has any effect on humans that other honey doesn’t have.
It’s commonly available from local beekeepers in my area because a lot of buckwheat’s grown around here.
We’ve been eating honey produced by a neighbor’s bees. The neighbor also makes maple syrup every few years, using our trees along with his and gifting us a bottle in return. It’s cool to see the swarm in our horse pasture, blanketing the ground. I don’t know if locally produced honey is more healthy, but it feels good to eat it.
I have a friend who is a mead maker in the SCA and he loves playing with different honeys. I picked up some grape blossom honey last tiem we were visiting Fresno CA and combined with a specific yeast made a very sherry like mead.
That being said, I like orange blossom, local mix and buckwheat honeys in different useages. Crepes get orange blossom drizzle with unflavored lightly whipped cream [very soft whip, more like a sauce than a blop] local wild flower is our general use [we have an apiary about 5 miles down the road] and buckwheat as a drizzle for something like buckwheat pancakes/blini or pancakes/waffles made from Kodiak Cakes pancake mix [I needed to get more protein to heal up from chemo and surgery and pancakes would go down and stay down]
I look at the recipe I want to make, and decide light, medium or heavy flavored honey profile to fit. The husbeast likes figs drizzled with buckwheat honey, and I like orange blossom drizzled on apples and cheddar cheese on table water bikkies.