Honey aroma explained

Almost all of it is smell

The tongue detects sweet, sour, salt, bitter and umami, plus physical sensations such as astringency and warmth. Everything else in a tasting note arrives through the nose. When honey is in the mouth, warmed and diluted, volatile compounds travel up the back of the throat to the olfactory epithelium — retronasal olfaction — and the brain files the result as taste.

Where the compounds come from

1. 1From the flowerNectar carries the plant's own volatiles. Linalool and its oxides in citrus and lavender honeys, methyl anthranilate in orange blossom, and phenylacetaldehyde in a range of floral honeys are all inherited more or less directly.
2. 2From the bee and the hiveEnzymatic activity and the hive environment generate compounds that were not in the nectar. Gluconic acid is the clearest case — it is made in the honey, not collected — and it sets much of the perceived acidity.
3. 3From timeMaillard reactions between sugars and the small amount of amino acid present run slowly at room temperature, producing darker colour and heavier, malty, caramelised notes. An old honey is not spoiled, but it is a different honey from the one that was jarred.

Some compounds are distinctive enough to serve as markers of floral origin. Benzaldehyde is associated with almond-scented honeys, abscisic acid with heather, and methyl syringate with manuka. Chromatographic profiling of these is one of the working techniques for confirming what a honey is.

Why aroma is so easily lost

Volatility is the whole point and the whole problem. A compound light enough to reach the nose is light enough to leave an open jar, and heating accelerates its departure. The lightest and most floral compounds go first, which is why gently warmed honey loses its top notes before anything else changes and why a delicate honey in a hot drink becomes generic sweetness.

• Add honey to tea once it has cooled below about 60 °C to keep most of the aroma.
• Keep jars closed and cool. A jar left open on a warm shelf loses character measurably over weeks.
• Use robust honeys for cooking and delicate ones raw — the aroma of a good acacia will not survive a bake, and it costs more than the honeys that will.
• Warm a honey slightly in the hand or mouth before tasting. Volatility works for you as well as against you.