Strong honeys: a guide to the assertive end

The shortlist by kind of strength

Where to start

There is a sensible order. Chestnut and tulip poplar are the entry points: assertive, clearly different from an ordinary honey, and not difficult. Buckwheat and the honeydews are the next step. Strawberry-tree, neem, aloe and euphorbia are at the far end, and euphorbia in particular is bought as an experience rather than as food.

What to do with them

• Cheese, above all. Salt suppresses bitterness and makes difficult honeys enjoyable.
• Cured and grilled meat, where smoke and salt meet the honey halfway.
• Dark baking — gingerbread, rye, fruit cake.
• Coffee, where the roast is already assertive.
• Not tea, not yoghurt, not fruit, not children.

A note on the honeydews

The honeydew honeys — fir, spruce, pine, oak, beech, metcalfa, mopane — are strong in a different way from the dark floral honeys. They are low in sweetness rather than high in it, mineral rather than fruity, and savoury enough that several of them work better in cooking than at the table. They are also the group most people have never tried, which makes them the most rewarding place to look for anyone who thinks they have exhausted honey.

Why strong honeys divide opinion so sharply

No other food category produces quite the same split. People who like leatherwood honey seek it out across continents; people who do not describe it as tasting of medicine. Strawberry-tree honey is a Sardinian delicacy and, to many first-time tasters, simply unpleasant. The disagreement is real and it is not a matter of one side being wrong.

Part of the explanation is genuine variation in bitterness perception, which differs substantially between individuals for well-documented genetic reasons. Part is expectation: honey is culturally coded as sweet, and a food that arrives labelled sweet and turns out to be bitter and resinous produces a stronger negative reaction than the same flavour would in a food where it was expected.

The practical response is context. A strong honey tasted alone from a spoon is being asked to succeed on the hardest possible terms. The same honey on a salty cheese, in a dark cake or beside a strong coffee is doing what it was made for, and the number of people who enjoy it rises sharply.