Anzer honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

alpine herbs, wildflowers, thyme, resin

Flavour

herbal complexity, floral, light caramel, faint mint

Finish

Long and aromatic.

Flavour character

• Floral and fruity — floral
• Green and herbal — herbaceous
• Woody and resinous — resinous

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour

1. Water white0–8 mm
2. Extra white8–17 mm
3. White17–34 mm
4. Extra light amber34–50 mm
5. Light amber50–85 mm — this honey
6. Amber85–114 mm — this honey
7. Dark amber114+ mm

Golden to light amber, clear and bright.

On setting: Sets to a fine pale cream.

Texture

Runny; Thick but pourable; Soft set

Crystallisation

Slow, step 2 of 5, from very slow to very fast

Slow — months before it starts to granulate; sets with a fine crystal.

Slow to granulate and fine when it does, which is characteristic of high-altitude multifloral honeys with a broad sugar profile.

Typical composition

Moisture

14–17.5% (typically 15.5%)

Fructose

36–42% (typically 39%)

Glucose

28–34% (typically 31%)

pH

3.5–4.3 (typically 3.9)

Electrical conductivity

0.2–0.6 mS/cm (typically 0.4 mS/cm)

These are typical ranges assembled across published work, not measurements of a specific honey.

What these mean: the sugars and the ratio · moisture · conductivity · how each is measured

Where it comes from

Floral source

The alpine meadow flora of the Anzer plateau in Rize province — several hundred species, with thyme, sage, mountain herbs and a number of local endemics.

Origins

The Anzer plateau in Ikizdere, Rize province, northeastern Turkey, at roughly 2,000 to 2,500 metres.

Origin pages

• Turkey

Resolved from both directions — origins this honey names, and origins that name it.

Typical harvest

July to August (northern hemisphere)

A single short high-altitude window, giving one small harvest a year.

A typical window for the honey type, HoneyHQ synthesis — not a calendar for any one place.

The bees

Produced by Caucasian and Anatolian honey bee stock. Northeastern Turkey is close to the meeting point of several honey bee lineages, and regional subspecies protection areas operate in the area.

Usual processing

Raw, Coarsely strained, Spun (centrifugally extracted)

Production is small — a few tonnes a year from the plateau — against demand and a price that make substitution overwhelmingly attractive.

What to do with it

Bought to be tasted rather than cooked with. At its price, using it in baking would be an unusual decision.

At the tableDrizzlingDessertsIn hot drinks

Pairings

• Kaymak and clotted creamClassic

  The Turkish pairing, and the honey's aromatic complexity needs a plain rich base.

• Fresh walnuts

  A Black Sea combination and a straightforward one.

• Aged sheep cheese

  The herbal character and a sharp cheese work well together.

Similar honeys and substitutes

Three different questions with different answers: a honey that tastes alike can behave differently in a recipe, and the same set texture says nothing about flavour. Each list is chosen from the recorded fields that matter to its question — and, where tasting panels or specifications described both honeys, the terms they share — and every suggestion says which, and what will be different. Compare it side by side or build a tasting flight.

History and traditional use

The plateau's honey has a long local reputation and became a national prestige product in the later twentieth century, with the price rising as its scarcity became commercially visible.

• Widely held in Turkey to have particular health value, and given as a gift and to people who are unwell.

Traditional use records that people have done something, and for how long. It is not evidence that it works.

Claims about this honey