Comb honey

Definition

Cut comb is a square cut from a capped frame; section comb is built inside a small frame and sold whole; chunk honey is a piece of comb suspended in liquid honey. The wax is edible and indigestible, passing through inert. Comb honey costs more because the bees must build fresh wax rather than reusing drawn comb, which costs the colony several kilograms of honey in wax production, and because the beekeeper cannot reuse the frame.

Where the word gets used loosely

Comb honey is not exempt from the infant botulism rule — no honey of any kind before twelve months, in any form. It is, however, close to impossible to blend, filter or fake at scale, which makes it structurally trustworthy in a category with a serious fraud problem.

Honey records that discuss this

• Ivy honeyStrong, faintly bitter and distinctly herbal — closer to a dark honey in character than its pale colour suggests.
• Gallberry honeyMild and clean with a soft floral warmth and a faint bitterness on the finish that the name hints at without quite delivering.
• Heather honeyStrong, smoky and slightly bitter, with a lingering woodfire-and-toffee character. One of the most complex honeys produced anywhere.
• Ethiopian red honeyStrong and warm with a malty depth, a resinous eucalyptus lift and a faint smokiness from traditional harvesting — an assertive honey that stands up to fermentation.
• Karakovan honeyComplex, floral and herbal at once, eaten with the wax. Its character is a mountain and a year rather than a species.

Guide records that discuss this

• Honeycomb: what it is, and how to eat itComb honey is honey as it left the bees, still in the wax they built to hold it. You can eat the wax, it will not harm you, and there is a reasonable argument that it is the most honest product in the category.