Multifloral

Definition

Defined by an absence rather than a presence: no one plant dominates the pollen spectrum or the flavour. Most honey produced worldwide is multifloral, and its character varies genuinely with place, season and year.

Where the word gets used loosely

Because there is no expected flavour profile, there is nothing that can taste wrong — which makes blended multifloral honey the easiest category in which to sell adulterated product. A label reading 'blend of EU and non-EU honeys' is a legal formula that tells you nothing about origin at all.

Honey records that discuss this

• Orange blossom honeyUnmistakably floral and citrus-scented — orange blossom in the glass, with the fruit itself somewhere behind it.
• Lavender honeyOvertly perfumed — lavender flower, warm hay and a soft fruity sweetness underneath. Aromatic in a way most honeys are not.
• Lemon blossom honeyBright, sharply citrus and clean — lemon zest and blossom rather than the softer neroli of orange blossom, with a genuine acidity behind it.
• Brazilian pepper honeyWarm and peppery with a distinct resinous spice and a faint tartness — genuinely reminiscent of the pink peppercorns the plant produces.
• Chinese tallow honeyMild and clean with a light floral sweetness and a faint waxy note — an unremarkable flavour attached to a very remarkable ecological situation.
• Snowberry honeyMild and clean with a soft floral sweetness and a faint green note — pleasant and unassertive.
• Mallee honeyMild and clean with a light caramel sweetness and a faint eucalypt lift — approachable and consistent.
• Salvation Jane honeyMild and clean with a soft floral sweetness — pleasant, unassertive and produced in enormous quantity.
• Bottlebrush honeyStrong and malty with a resinous depth and a faint medicinal lift — assertive, and a surprise to anyone who expects a garden shrub to make a mild honey.
• Western Australian wildflower honeyComplex and variable, generally warm and lightly caramelised with a resinous myrtaceous lift and considerable site-to-site difference.
• New Zealand bush honeyWarm and rounded with a light caramel base and a faint resinous lift, and considerable variation between regions — generally more approachable than any of its monofloral components.
• Wildflower honeyVaries with the season and the landscape. Pale spring crops are floral and light; late-summer crops darker, fruitier and stronger.