HoneyHQ

Aster honey

Strong and slightly sharp with a hay-and-herb character and a distinct sour edge that fades as the honey ages.

MonofloralModerateFloralHerbaceousSpicy

The last honey of the North American year, and one that sets so fast it has to be extracted almost as it comes off. Asters flower into October across old fields and prairie remnants, often alongside goldenrod, and the honey is pale gold, strongly flavoured and quick to granulate — a genuine crop in the northeast and upper midwest, and one that mostly goes to the bees.

Flavour and aroma

Aroma
dried flowers, cut hay, a faintly sour note when fresh, warm spice
Flavour
hay, gentle spice, a sharp herbal edge, light caramel
Finish
Medium and slightly drying.
Intensity
Moderate
Sweetness
Sweet
Bitterness
Trace
Acidity
Moderate

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour
Extra light amber (34-50 mm Pfund)Light amber (50-85 mm Pfund)

Pale gold, lighter than goldenrod honey and often with a slight greenish cast.

On setting: Sets to a firm opaque cream, and quickly.

Texture
Crystallised; Soft set; Thick but pourable
Crystallisation

Very fast — can set in the comb before it is extracted

Glucose-rich and among the fastest-setting honeys in North America — it can granulate in the comb before extraction, which is the practical reason so little of it is sold liquid.

Typical composition

Moisture
15.5–19% (typically 17.3%)
Fructose
35–40% (typically 37.5%)
Glucose
34–40% (typically 37%)
Glucose-to-fructose ratio
0.92–1.12 (typically 1)
pH
3.7–4.5 (typically 4.1)
Electrical conductivity
0.2–0.55 mS/cm (typically 0.35 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
Symphyotrichum novae-angliae, S. lanceolatum and related species, all formerly placed in Aster and still universally called asters by beekeepers.
Origins
The northeastern and midwestern United States and southern Canada.
Origin pages

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

Harvest
August to October (northern hemisphere)

The final flow of the year, overlapping heavily with goldenrod — the two are frequently mixed and sold together as fall honey.

The bees
Structurally critical rather than commercially valuable. Aster and goldenrod together supply the winter stores of a large share of North American colonies, and a failed autumn flow means feeding syrup.
Usual processing
Spun (centrifugally extracted), Creamed (seeded and controlled-set), Coarsely strained, Raw

Most aster honey never leaves the hive, and that is the correct outcome — it and goldenrod are what the colony overwinters on across much of the northern United States.

What to do with it

A spreading and baking honey. The fast coarse set makes it awkward for anything else, and its character survives an oven.

SpreadingBakingAt the tableGlazing and roasting

Pairings

  • Wholegrain bread

    A firm-set honey on a robust bread, with enough flavour to be tasted.

  • Spiced autumn baking

    Its own hay-and-spice register reinforces the recipe.

  • Aged cheddar

    Enough sharpness to meet the cheese rather than smothering it.

Pairing pages this honey appears on

Selected by this honey’s own recorded intensity, flavour families and uses rather than by anything written above — each page prints the rule that put it there.

Where this honey sits in the catalogue

Sources

  • HoneyHQ editorial synthesis — HEKNO Ltd · HoneyHQ synthesis
  • Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland — Bloomsbury (2015) · Field guide

How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.

Guides that cover this honey

Tools for choosing and using honey

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