Bloodwood honey
Strong and malty with a resinous depth and a distinct woody astringency — one of the more assertive Australian honeys.
A dark, strongly flavoured Australian honey from the bloodwoods, eucalypts now placed in the separate genus Corymbia and named for the dark red kino that bleeds from wounds in the bark. It flowers in late summer and autumn across eastern Australia and produces one of the more assertive honeys the country makes.
Flavour and aroma
- Aroma
- resin, malt, dark caramel, dry wood
- Flavour
- malt, resin, caramel, astringency
- Finish
- Long and drying.
- Intensity
- Pronounced
- Sweetness
- Moderately sweet
- Bitterness
- Trace
- Acidity
- Moderate
Colour, texture and crystallisation
- Colour
- Amber (85-114 mm Pfund)Dark amber (over 114 mm Pfund)
Deep amber to reddish-brown.
On setting: Sets to a dark opaque tan.
- Texture
- Thick but pourable; Soft set; Crystallised
- Crystallisation
Moderate — granulates over a few months
A moderate set with a medium grain.
Typical composition
- Moisture
- 15–19% (typically 17%)
- Fructose
- 34–40% (typically 37%)
- Glucose
- 29–35% (typically 32%)
- pH
- 3.8–4.6 (typically 4.2)
- Electrical conductivity
- 0.5–1.2 mS/cm (typically 0.8 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
- Corymbia gummifera and related bloodwoods, in coastal and inland forest and woodland across eastern and northern Australia.
- Origins
- New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory.
- Origin pages
Resolved from both directions — origins this honey names, and origins that name it.
- Harvest
- January to May (southern hemisphere)
A late summer to autumn flow, irregular between years.
- The bees
- Bloodwood flowers heavily and is worked by an exceptional range of insects and birds — the large open brush flowers are accessible to nearly everything, and honeyeaters and lorikeets take a substantial share.
- Usual processing
- Raw, Coarsely strained, Spun (centrifugally extracted)
Bloodwoods flower irregularly and heavily, and a good bloodwood year is a substantial event for beekeepers in eastern Australia.
What to do with it
A cooking honey more than a breakfast one. It holds up in savoury glazes and dark baking.
At the tableBakingGlazing and roastingWith cheeseMarinades
Pairings
- Strong cheeses
Astringency and salt.
- Dark cakes
Malt on malt.
- Barbecued meat
Resin and smoke together.
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
History and traditional use
The bloodwoods were separated from Eucalyptus into the genus Corymbia in 1995, one of the more consequential recent revisions in Australian botany, and the honey trade has largely kept the old name.
- Bloodwood kino, the dark red gum that bleeds from the bark, was used by Aboriginal peoples as a medicine and a tanning agent.
Traditional use records that people have done something, and for how long. It is not evidence that it works.
Sources
- HoneyHQ editorial synthesis — HEKNO Ltd · HoneyHQ synthesis
How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.
Guides that cover this honey
- Strong honeys: a guide to the assertive endA shortlist of the honeys that demand attention, sorted by which kind of strength they have — because aroma, bitterness and mineral weight are three different problems.
- Dark honeysDark honeys are higher in minerals and phenolic compounds than pale ones, which makes them stronger, more savoury and — in laboratory terms though not in clinical ones — more antioxidant-rich.
Tools for choosing and using honey
- Honey finder
Which honey should I buy for what I actually want to do with it?
- Flavour selector
I like this taste — which honeys have it?
- Honey comparison
How do these honeys actually differ, beyond colour?
- Honey substitute calculator
How much honey do I use instead of sugar, and what else has to change?
- Storage guide
How should I store honey, and what do I do when it sets?