The best set and creamed honeys
Set honey is not spoiled honey. It is honey whose sugar ratio was always going to do this, and for spreading it is straightforwardly better than runny.
168 of 263 honeys · starting from a taste
The rule behind this list
Honeys sold soft-set, creamed or crystallised whose crystallisation tendency is moderate or faster — sugar chemistry rather than processing.
What these have in common
Whether a honey sets is decided by its glucose-to-fructose ratio. Glucose is far less soluble and comes out of solution first, so a high-glucose honey — rapeseed, clover, sunflower, ivy — granulates within weeks while acacia can stay liquid for a year. Creaming is the one processing decision in this group: seeding a honey with fine crystals and stirring it as it sets produces a smooth spreadable texture with nothing added but honey.
Where to start
Clover, which sets almost white with fine crystals and is the standard base for commercial creamed honey. Rapeseed for the extreme — it can set in the comb before it is extracted. Ivy honey if you want something set with real character behind it.
What this group is not for
Tea, drizzling, pancakes or anything needing a pour. Set honey also tears soft bread if it is used straight from a cold cupboard.
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 — 11 honeys, showing 9
- 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.
- Rātā honeyWater whiteVery delicate and creamy with a light butterscotch note and a faint mineral saltiness underneath.
- Kiawe honeyWater whiteVery mild, clean and faintly vanilla-like, with a texture that does most of the work — smooth, buttery and dissolving rather than sticky.
- Ohia lehua honeyWater whiteDelicate and clean with a distinct fresh-butter quality and a light floral lift — one of the mildest honeys with genuine character rather than none.
Mild — 53 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.
- Rapeseed honeyWater whiteVery sweet, very mild, faintly cabbage-like when fresh and cleanly bland once set. Texture is what it has instead of flavour.
- 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.
- Pōhutukawa honeyWater whiteMild and creamy with a faint salt-and-mineral edge from the coast, and a butterscotch note that emerges as it warms on the tongue.
- 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.
- Milk vetch honeyWater whiteSoft, mild and slightly floral with a faint green-bean freshness — an unassuming honey made in enormous quantity.
- Marri honeyExtra light amberMild, sweet and buttery with a soft caramel warmth and only the faintest eucalypt lift.
Moderate — 52 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.
- Brazilian pepper honeyLight amberWarm and peppery with a distinct resinous spice and a faint tartness — genuinely reminiscent of the pink peppercorns the plant produces.
- 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.
- 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 — 47 honeys, showing 9
- Lavender honeyExtra light amberOvertly perfumed — lavender flower, warm hay and a soft fruity sweetness underneath. Aromatic in a way most honeys are not.
- Ivy honeyExtra whiteStrong, faintly bitter and distinctly herbal — closer to a dark honey in character than its pale colour suggests.
- 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.
- Almond blossom honeyLight amberDistinctly bitter with a marzipan aroma over it — one of the few honeys where bitterness arrives before sweetness, and an acquired taste even among people who like bitter honeys.
- 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.
- Purple loosestrife honeyAmberStrong and tangy with a distinct green herbal note over dark caramel — an unusual profile that some tasters find sharp and others find refreshing.
- Mountain laurel honeyExtra light amberReported as bitter and sharp with a burning sensation in the throat, though the toxin is not reliably detectable by taste — which is the single most important fact about it.
- Rabbitbrush honeyAmberStrong and resinous with a bitter herbal edge and a distinctly medicinal note — one of the more challenging American honeys and an acquired taste at best.
- Huisache honeyLight amberStrongly floral with a distinct violet and orange-blossom perfume over warm caramel — one of the most obviously perfumed American honeys.
Intense — 5 honeys
- Tree heath honeyAmberStrong, malty and slightly bitter, with a burnt-caramel depth and a woody finish — assertive in a way that divides opinion sharply.
- Buckwheat honeyDark amberMalt, molasses and wet straw, with a savoury, almost animal depth. The most polarising honey in general production.
- Strawberry tree honeyAmberAggressively bitter — coffee grounds, artichoke and burnt sugar, with the sweetness arriving late and briefly. Nothing in food prepares most people for it.
- Carob honeyAmberDark, malty and distinctly savoury with a fermented, almost cheesy note that people either find fascinating or cannot get past.
- Ailanthus honeyLight amberIntensely aromatic — muscat grape and elderflower with a medicinal edge. It divides opinion more sharply than any other European honey.
Deciding between two of them
- Lavender vs orange blossom honey — The two great perfumed honeys of the Mediterranean. Both carry their flower's aromatics almost intact, which is rare — and they are wanted for opposite reasons.
- Thyme vs rosemary honey — The two great Mediterranean herb honeys. Thyme is warm, savoury and assertive; rosemary is pale, delicate and sets fast — and they are used for opposite purposes.
- 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.
- Orange vs lemon blossom honey — Two citrus honeys from the same orchards, and the difference is sharper than the shared category suggests: one is perfumed and the other is bright.
- Lavender vs thyme honey — Two Mediterranean aromatic honeys that end up in the same conversation and belong at different ends of a meal.
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?