Dark honeys

The dark honeys

Why they are dark

Colour in honey tracks two things: mineral content and phenolic compounds, both of which come from the nectar or honeydew source. Higher mineral content raises electrical conductivity, which is why the EU honey directive uses conductivity to distinguish honeydew honey from nectar honey — the dark honeys are dark for reasons that are measurable rather than aesthetic.

Honey also darkens with age and with heat. A pale honey that has been stored warm for years will be noticeably darker than it was, and that darkening is degradation rather than character.

Is darker healthier?

Darker honeys are consistently higher in phenolic antioxidants when measured in a laboratory. That finding is real and it is not the same as a health benefit.

The quantities involved are small relative to ordinary dietary sources — a serving of berries or a cup of tea contributes more — and honey of any colour is roughly eighty per cent sugar. Choosing a dark honey because you prefer how it tastes is sensible. Choosing it as a health measure is not supported by the evidence.

Using them

• Cheese, particularly blue and aged hard cheeses.
• Dark baking — gingerbread, rye bread, fruit cake.
• Glazes and marinades for pork, duck and game.
• Coffee, where the honeydews are especially good.
• Not in tea, not on delicate fruit, not with fresh cheese.

The colour scale, and what it is actually measuring

Honey colour is graded on the Pfund scale, a measurement in millimetres running from water white at the pale end through extra light amber, light amber and amber to dark amber. It is an optical measurement made against a standard, and it is used commercially because colour is one of the few honey properties that can be assessed quickly and consistently without a laboratory.

What the scale is indirectly measuring is mineral and phenolic content. Both come from the nectar or honeydew source, and both rise together, which is why colour is a reasonable first proxy for how strong a honey will taste. The relationship is a tendency rather than a rule — tulip poplar is dark and comparatively approachable, and several pale honeys are more assertive than their colour suggests.

Two things confound the reading. Honey darkens with age and with heat, so a dark jar may be a dark honey or an old one. And honeydew honeys are dark for a different reason from dark floral honeys, being mineral-heavy rather than phenolic-heavy, which is why they taste savoury rather than bitter.