The most unusual honeys
Bitter, savoury, mineral, smoky or medicinal. These are the honeys that make the point that honey is a category rather than a flavour.
The rule behind this list
Honeys carrying phenolic, mineral, smoky or animal character, or with noticeable or pronounced bitterness — the registers furthest from what people expect honey to be.
What these have in common
There is a group of honeys that most people would not identify as honey blind. Chestnut is genuinely bitter; the fir and pine honeydews are savoury and mineral and come from aphid excretions rather than from nectar at all; strawberry tree is bitter and phenolic; some myrtles read as medicinal. Calling any of these a defect is how a catalogue flattens the interesting end of its own subject, and each of them is prized somewhere specific.
Where to start
Chestnut, which is widely available in Europe and is the easiest way to encounter deliberate bitterness in honey. Then a fir honeydew for the savoury end. Strawberry tree if you can find it, which is the most divisive honey in the catalogue.
What this group is not for
A first jar, a present for somebody whose tastes you do not know, or anything where an ordinary honey is expected. These are also the honeys most likely to be sent back as faulty by somebody who has never met them.
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 — 1 honey
Mild — 2 honeys
Moderate — 9 honeys
- Black mangrove honeyExtra light amberLight and clean with a distinct saline-mineral edge and a faint smoky note — the salinity is genuine and reflects the tidal ground the trees grow in.
- Eucalyptus honeyExtra light amberWoody and faintly medicinal, with caramel and a cool eucalypt lift. More savoury than its colour suggests.
- 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.
- Sundarbans mangrove honeyExtra light amberLight, tangy and faintly saline with a fresh floral character — considerably more delicate than its dramatic provenance would suggest.
- Himalayan forest honeyLight amberComplex and warm, with a herbal and faintly smoky character reflecting both the flora and the traditional processing — spring honey is lighter and more floral, autumn honey darker and more resinous.
- Chiuri honeyAmberRich and slightly smoky with a nutty depth and a warm caramel base — one of the more distinctive Nepali honeys and considerably less known than the cliff honey.
- Oil-tea camellia honeyWater whitePale, thin and distinctly bitter, with an astringent tea-like finish. Not a beginner's honey and not really a pleasure honey.
Pronounced — 39 honeys, showing 9
- Ivy honeyExtra whiteStrong, faintly bitter and distinctly herbal — closer to a dark honey in character than its pale colour suggests.
- 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.
- 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.
- Messmate honeyAmberStrong and resinous with a malty depth and a faintly medicinal eucalypt lift — assertive and unmistakably Australian.
- 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.
- Dandelion honeyLight amberSharp, pungent and unmistakably strong for a spring honey — a chamomile-and-hay aroma with an animal note behind it that fades as the honey ages.
- Saw palmetto honeyLight amberSmoky and peppery with a warm resinous depth — an unusual and slightly savoury honey that divides opinion sharply.
- Bell heather honeyAmberRich, warm and fruity with a caramel base and a distinct red-fruit note — sweeter and rounder than ling heather, and without its smoky bitterness.
Intense — 20 honeys, showing 9
- Himalayan cliff honeyAmberStrong, dark and complex, with a bitter herbal edge and a slightly astringent finish. Spring harvests are frequently sharper and more bitter than autumn ones.
- 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.
- Chestnut honeyAmberAromatic, woody and unmistakably bitter — sweetness first, tannin second, and a long dry finish.
- Heather honeyAmberStrong, smoky and slightly bitter, with a lingering woodfire-and-toffee character. One of the most complex honeys produced anywhere.
- 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.
- Sidr honeyAmberRich, dark and layered — caramel and dried fruit first, then a faintly medicinal bitterness and a long savoury finish. Complex in a way few honeys are.
- Avocado honeyDark amberDark, buttery and molasses-rich with a savoury, almost salty edge. Nothing about it suggests the fruit.
- 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.
Deciding between two of them
- Chestnut vs strawberry tree honey — The two great bitter honeys of Europe. One is widely available and a good introduction; the other is the most bitter honey in production and divides people completely.
- Heather vs manuka honey — The two thixotropic honeys — both form a gel at rest and loosen when stirred. One is priced on a chemical marker and the other on the difficulty of getting it out of the comb.
- 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.
- Buckwheat vs chestnut honey — The two honeys people reach for when they want something assertive. Buckwheat is malty and barnyard; chestnut is tannic and bitter, and the difference decides which food each belongs with.
- 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?