The best honey for breakfast

The everyday jar

Most honey buying advice concerns the interesting end of the catalogue, and most honey eating happens at breakfast with something plain. Those are different problems. A breakfast honey needs to be pleasant every day for a month, spread or pour cleanly, and cost little enough that using it generously is not a decision.

That points at the mild monoflorals and at good multiflorals rather than at anything with a reputation.

Matched to what is under it

Set or runny

This is a bigger decision than the floral source for most people. Runny honey pours and drips; set honey spreads and stays where it is put. Creamed honey does the latter with a smooth texture that never gets gritty.

Several countries default to set honey — Russia, Finland, Kyrgyzstan, much of Germany — and several to runny. Neither is more authentic. If you eat honey on toast, a set or creamed honey is a genuine practical improvement and one that very few people ever try.

Buying for the household

• Buy the larger jar of a mild monofloral rather than a small jar of something famous.
• Have two: a mild one for everyday and one interesting one for cheese and tasting.
• If children are eating it, mild is not a compromise, it is the correct answer.
• Keep it in the cupboard, not the fridge. Refrigeration accelerates crystallisation.