The best honey for drinks
Two separate problems. In a hot drink the question is what survives heat and tannin; in a cold one it is whether the honey will dissolve at all.
180 of 263 honeys · starting from a situation
The rule behind this list
Honeys the catalogue lists as suited to hot drinks that stay pourable — the ones that dose from a spoon and dissolve into a syrup cleanly.
What these have in common
Hot and cold drinks want opposite things. Hot: volatile aroma leaves above about 40 °C and tannin competes with whatever structure is left, so a robust honey is audible and a delicate one is not. Cold: honey is a supersaturated sugar solution at around eighty per cent sugar and will not disperse into a cold liquid at all — it needs making into a syrup first, and after that dilution stretches it, which again favours an assertive honey.
Where to start
For strong tea and coffee, something dark and robust. For delicate tea, acacia and nothing else. For cold drinks, make a one-to-one honey syrup with warm water and keep it refrigerated — that single technique opens up the entire category.
What this group is not for
Spending money. Aroma is what you pay for in a fine honey and heat removes most of it, so a hot drink is a poor showcase. The exception is a herbal infusion, where there is no tannin and the aroma genuinely comes through.
The honeys, by intensity
Grouped by how much a honey asserts itself, which decides more choices than origin, colour or price. Within a band the order is catalogue order — there is no ranking here and none is implied.
Delicate — 15 honeys, showing 9
- Acacia honeyWater whiteClean, light and sweet with almost nothing in the way. The honey to reach for when you want sweetness without a flavour opinion.
- Rosemary honeyWater whiteDelicate and softly aromatic — floral first, with a thin thread of resin behind it that tells you where it came from.
- Fireweed honeyWater whiteVery delicate, buttery and faintly tea-like, with a clean finish and almost no aftertaste. A honey that rewards attention and disappears if you are not paying any.
- Borage honeyWater whiteVery light and very clean, with a faint cucumber-fresh note that fades with age. Sweetness without commentary.
- Sulla honeyWater whiteVery delicate and clean, with a soft almond-and-fresh-grass note and almost no aftertaste.
- Apple blossom honeyExtra whiteDelicate and lightly fruity with a soft marzipan note and a clean finish — recognisably spring, and gone if you are not paying attention.
- Asphodel honeyWater whiteDelicate and softly perfumed with a fresh, almost vegetal lift and a silky weight that gives it more presence than the flavour alone would.
- Huajillo honeyWater whiteVery delicate and clean with a light floral sweetness and almost no aftertaste — a honey that stays out of the way.
- Rātā honeyWater whiteVery delicate and creamy with a light butterscotch note and a faint mineral saltiness underneath.
Mild — 57 honeys, showing 9
- Clover honeyExtra whiteWarm, mild and rounded — sweet with a faint cinnamon-and-hay note underneath. The taste most English-speaking readers picture when they read the word honey.
- Tupelo honeyExtra whiteButtery and clean with a pear-and-green-apple lift, and a long soft finish that never turns cloying.
- Sage honeyWater whiteMild, clean and slightly herbal, with a heavy silky body that is more of the experience than the flavour is.
- Raspberry honeyExtra whiteDelicate and lightly fruity with a clean bright acidity — one of the few honeys where a taster unprompted names the right fruit.
- Sainfoin honeyExtra whiteDelicate and softly floral with a distinct rose-and-hay note, and a thickness that gives it more presence than its flavour alone would.
- Gallberry honeyExtra light amberMild and clean with a soft floral warmth and a faint bitterness on the finish that the name hints at without quite delivering.
- Phacelia honeyWater whiteMild, clean and gently floral with a faint herbal freshness — an easy honey with no rough edges at all.
- Sweet clover honeyExtra whiteWarm, sweet and hay-like with a soft vanilla note that is genuinely there rather than imagined — the clearest coumarin character of any common honey.
- Vitex honeyWater whiteVery clean and mild with a light floral sweetness and a faint fresh herbal lift on the finish.
Moderate — 54 honeys, showing 9
- Orange blossom honeyExtra whiteUnmistakably floral and citrus-scented — orange blossom in the glass, with the fruit itself somewhere behind it.
- Meadowfoam honeyExtra whiteToasted marshmallow and vanilla, unmistakably. The one honey most people identify blind on the first spoonful, because it tastes like something they already know.
- Cherry blossom honeyExtra whiteMarzipan first, then a light stone-fruit sweetness — the almond note is the defining character and it is unmistakable.
- Lemon blossom honeyWater whiteBright, sharply citrus and clean — lemon zest and blossom rather than the softer neroli of orange blossom, with a genuine acidity behind it.
- Ironbark honeyExtra light amberRich, buttery and dense with a warm caramel depth and a clean eucalypt lift at the end.
- Red maple honeyExtra light amberWarm and lightly caramelised with a faint woody note — a straightforward honey, and one that surprises people expecting it to taste of maple syrup.
- Blackbutt honeyLight amberWarm and caramelised with a light resinous edge — one of the milder eucalypt honeys and a good introduction to the group.
- Grey box honeyExtra light amberClean and lightly caramelised with a faint buttery quality — mild for a eucalypt honey and highly regarded for its density and smoothness.
- Spotted gum honeyLight amberWarm and caramelised with a light resinous lift and a rounded finish — a middle-weight eucalypt honey and a very usable one.
Pronounced — 49 honeys, showing 9
- Ulmo honeyExtra whiteStrongly perfumed — jasmine and orange blossom over butterscotch, with a creamy weight that carries it. Aromatic in a way very few honeys are.
- Basswood honeyWater whiteIntensely aromatic with a mentholated, faintly medicinal lift over a clean sweetness — one of the most distinctive American honeys and among the most divisive.
- Huisache honeyLight amberStrongly floral with a distinct violet and orange-blossom perfume over warm caramel — one of the most obviously perfumed American honeys.
- Beech honeydew honeyAmberRich and malty with a resinous depth, a low sweetness and a distinctly savoury mineral finish — a serious honey, and quite unlike anything else New Zealand produces.
- Sourwood honeyExtra light amberSpicy and aromatic — anise and clove over a caramel base, with a dry, almost tannic finish that stops it being merely sweet.
- Mountain honeyLight amberAromatic, complex and warm, with a herbal-resinous depth and considerably more going on than a lowland multifloral. It tastes of a landscape rather than of a flower.
- Goldenrod honeyLight amberStrong, warm and spicy, with a hay-and-clove character and a slightly astringent finish. Assertive in a way that surprises people expecting an ordinary golden honey.
- Rewarewa honeyAmberMalty and burnt-caramel with a dry astringent finish — closer to a dark ale than to a floral honey.
- Longan honeyLight amberIntensely aromatic — caramel, dried tropical fruit and a distinctive musky floral note that is unlike anything in the European catalogue.
Intense — 5 honeys
- Tualang honeyAmberSharply sour and dark, with a fermented-fruit tang over a molasses base — genuinely unlike any temperate honey, and an acquired taste.
- Chinese jujube honeyAmberRich and dark with dried dates and burnt caramel, and a genuine bitterness on the finish that sets it apart from its Middle Eastern relatives.
- Neem honeyAmberDistinctly bitter with a herbal, faintly medicinal character over a restrained sweetness — one of the least conventionally pleasant honeys in the catalogue, and deliberately so.
- Euphorbia honeyLight amberOverwhelmingly pungent — a sharp peppery burn at the back of the throat that builds for some seconds after swallowing and dominates everything else. Beneath it there is a warm caramel sweetness that most people never get to.
- Holm oak honeydew honeyDark amberDark, savoury and barely sweet, with malt, liquorice and a genuine salt-mineral depth. As far from what people expect honey to be as anything in the catalogue.
Deciding between two of them
- Acacia vs clover honey — The two default mild honeys. They taste more alike than they behave, and the practical difference is texture rather than flavour.
- Tupelo vs acacia honey — The two honeys that genuinely do not crystallise, from opposite sides of the Atlantic. Same chemistry, very different flavour, and a very different price.
- Pine vs fir honeydew honey — The two great conifer honeydews of Europe, from opposite ends of the continent. Both are made by bees collecting insect excretions rather than nectar, and they are the closest thing honey has to terroir.
- Acacia vs linden honey — Both are pale central European tree honeys with short intense flows. One tastes of almost nothing and the other is among the most aromatic honeys there is.
- Clover vs alfalfa honey — The two great mild legume honeys of North America and northern Europe. They are genuinely similar, and the differences are small enough to be worth stating precisely.
This is a filter over the 263 honeys in this catalogue, which is a fraction of the hundreds of named honeys produced worldwide — a honey not appearing is not a judgement on it. Sensory fields are editorial assignments rather than measurements, and two people tasting the same jar will not always place it in the same band.
Narrow it further
- Honey finder
Which honey should I buy for what I actually want to do with it?
- Pairing finder
I am eating this — which honey goes with it?
- Flavour selector
I like this taste — which honeys have it?
- Honey comparison
How do these honeys actually differ, beyond colour?