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.

Strength is three separate things

People use one word for three different properties, and separating them is the whole trick to buying honey you will actually enjoy.

• Aroma intensity — how much the honey smells, and how long the smell persists. Chestnut and leatherwood are intense on this axis.
• Bitterness — a genuine taste, not an aroma. Strawberry-tree, neem and aloe honeys are bitter.
• Body and mineral weight — honeydew honeys have this in quantity: malty, savoury, low in sweetness.

A honey can be strong on one and not the others. Buckwheat is intensely aromatic and not bitter. Strawberry-tree is bitter and not especially aromatic. Fir honeydew is heavy and mineral and only mildly sweet.

Why dark usually means strong

Darker honeys tend to be higher in minerals and in phenolic compounds, both of which come from the nectar source. Higher mineral content raises electrical conductivity, which is measurable, and phenolics carry both colour and much of the bitter and astringent character. The correlation is real but not a rule — buckwheat is dark and intense, tulip poplar is dark and comparatively approachable.

Getting used to strong honey

Almost nobody starts with buckwheat. The usual route into strong honeys is through the middle of the range — chestnut before strawberry-tree, a dark eucalypt before a fir honeydew — and through pairing rather than eating them alone. A spoonful of chestnut honey on its own is a challenge; the same honey on a piece of aged pecorino is a pleasure, because the salt and the fat give the bitterness something to work against.

It is also worth separating dislike from unfamiliarity. A great many people who say they dislike honey have met exactly one, usually a strong dark supermarket blend, and generalised from it. Strong honeys reward attention in the way that strong cheese and black coffee do, and the same people frequently come round to them.

• Start with chestnut or a dark eucalypt rather than with strawberry-tree or neem.
• Always taste a strong honey with food before deciding about it.
• Buy the smallest jar available until you know.
• Expect the finish to be long — strong honeys keep going after you have swallowed, which is part of the point.