Baobab honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

citrus sherbet, warm caramel, dried fruit

Flavour

tangy citrus, caramel, light resin

Finish

Medium and bright.

Flavour character

• Floral and fruity — citrus, fruity
• Warm and cooked — caramel

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 warm amber.

On setting: Sets slowly to a medium grain.

Texture

Thick but pourable; Runny; Soft set

Crystallisation

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

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

Slow to set, consistent with a warm-climate honey of moderate glucose content.

Typical composition

Moisture

16–21% (typically 18.5%)

Fructose

36–42% (typically 39%)

Glucose

28–34% (typically 31%)

pH

3.6–4.5 (typically 4)

Electrical conductivity

0.3–0.9 mS/cm (typically 0.5 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

Adansonia digitata, the African baobab, whose pendulous white flowers open at dusk and are dead by the following afternoon.

Origins

The dry savannah belt of sub-Saharan Africa — Senegal, Mali, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Madagascar.

Origin pages

• Africa
• Kenya
• Tanzania
• Zimbabwe
• Madagascar
• Sudan
• The Sahel
• Senegal
• Malawi

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

Typical harvest

October to December (southern hemisphere)

A short flowering at the start of the rains, and the flowers last only one night each.

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

The bees

Baobab flowers are pollinated principally by fruit bats and hawkmoths, opening at dusk and closing by the next afternoon. Honey bees work them in the early morning before they close, taking nectar from a flower that owes them nothing.

Usual processing

Raw, Cut comb, Pressed, Coarsely strained

Baobab regeneration is poor across much of its range, with old trees standing and few young ones replacing them. The honey resource depends on a tree population that is not renewing itself.

What to do with it

Its acidity makes it useful in dressings and with rich food, and it works well with the baobab fruit powder that is now widely sold.

At the tableDessertsDressingsIn hot drinksSpreading

Pairings

• Baobab fruit and tropical fruitClassic

  The honey and the fruit come from the same tree, and taste related.

• Plain yoghurt

  Acid on acid without either flattening.

• Fresh cheeses

  Bright honey against a lactic base.

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 baobab is among the most culturally significant trees in Africa, serving as meeting place, water store, granary and burial site. Its honey is a small part of a very large relationship.

• The baobab supplies fruit, leaves, fibre and shade across the Sahel, and its uses are woven through West and East African tradition.

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