Honeydew honeys
Honey that never came from a flower. Bees collect the sugary excretions of sap-feeding insects off leaves and needles, and the result is chemically a different product.
The rule behind this list
Honeys the records classify as honeydew or mixed floral-and-honeydew by nectar source type — a structural classification rather than a sensory one.
What these have in common
Honeydew is not a kind of floral honey — it is a separate thing. Aphids and scale insects tap a tree's phloem, take the nitrogen they need and excrete the excess sugar onto the foliage, where bees gather it. The honey that results has higher mineral content, higher pH, higher electrical conductivity and oligosaccharides that nectar honeys lack, which is why official standards can separate the two by measurement. It tastes savoury, malty and resinous rather than sweet and floral.
Where to start
A German or Austrian forest honey, which is the most widely available. Greek fir honey if you want the pale end of the category, which is unusual and pine-scented. Metcalfa honeydew from Italy for something distinctly different again.
What this group is not for
Anywhere sweetness is the point. Honeydews are the least sweet honeys there are and can read as almost savoury, which is why they suit cheese, dark bread and strong tea and are wrong on a fresh scone.
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.
Moderate — 3 honeys
- Greek fir honeyAmberMildly sweet, resinous and faintly caramelised, with a soft woody character and none of the sharpness of the darker honeydews — considerably gentler than its colour suggests.
- Metcalfa honeydew honeyAmberModerately sweet with a distinct fig and dried-fruit character over a malty base — noticeably fruitier than the conifer honeydews and quite unlike them.
- Sycamore honeydew honeyAmberMalty and mildly sweet with a savoury, faintly smoky depth and a mineral finish — less resinous than the conifer honeydews and more caramelised.
Pronounced — 10 honeys, showing 9
- 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.
- 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.
- Vosges fir honeyDark amberBalsamic and malty with a resinous woody depth and a marked lack of sweetness — closer to treacle and pine resin than to anything floral.
- Forest honeydew honeyDark amberResinous, malty and mineral, with far less sweetness than its darkness suggests. Closer to treacle and pine forest than to anything floral.
- Pine honeydew honeyAmberResinous, malty and markedly less sweet than floral honey, with a woody, slightly salty depth and no floral character at all.
- Silver fir honeyDark amberMalty, resinous and barely sweet, with a balsamic depth and a long woody finish. One of the least sugary honeys there is.
- Spruce honeydew honeyAmberMalty and caramelised with a woody depth and restrained sweetness — warmer and less balsamic than fir honeydew.
- Mopane honeyAmberDark and malty with a savoury mineral depth and a faintly smoky finish — closer to a European forest honeydew than to an African blossom honey.
- Tamarisk honeyAmberDark and mineral with a malty depth and a distinct faint saltiness that reflects the ground — an unusual and genuinely savoury honey.
Intense — 2 honeys
- Oak honeydew honeyDark amberEarthy, salty and barely sweet, with a bitter-mineral depth and a finish more like a stock or a yeast extract than a sweetener.
- 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
- 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.
- Single-source vs mixed forest honeydew — Honeydew honey is sold both as a named species crop and as a general forest honey. The distinction is genuine and it affects both character and price.
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?