What makes a honey strong

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.

The strongest honeys, by axis

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.

What to do with a strong honey

• Pair it with something that can answer back — aged hard cheese, blue cheese, cured meat, dark bread.
• Use it in cooking where it will be diluted: glazes, marinades, dark cakes.
• Do not put it in delicate tea, on plain yoghurt or anywhere its job is to be unobtrusive.
• Buy a small jar first. Strong honeys are the ones people most often fail to finish.

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.