Bloodwood honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

resin, malt, dark caramel, dry wood

Flavour

malt, resin, caramel, astringency

Finish

Long and drying.

Flavour character

• Warm and cooked — malty, caramel
• Woody and resinous — resinous, woody

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
6. Amber85–114 mm — this honey
7. Dark amber114+ mm — this honey

Deep amber to reddish-brown.

On setting: Sets to a dark opaque tan.

Texture

Thick but pourable; Soft set; Crystallised

Crystallisation

Moderate, step 3 of 5, from very slow to very fast

Moderate — granulates over a few months; sets with a medium crystal.

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

• Australia
• New South Wales
• Queensland

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

Typical harvest

January to May (southern hemisphere)

A late summer to autumn flow, irregular between years.

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

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.

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 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.