Blue borage honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

light blossom, clean wax, warm hay

Flavour

gentle floral, clean sweetness, a buttery body

Finish

Smooth and medium-length.

Flavour character

• Floral and fruity — floral
• Warm and cooked — buttery

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour

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

Very pale straw with a faint green cast, and noticeably thick in the jar.

On setting: Sets slowly to a fine pale cream.

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 fine crystal.

Moderately fructose-leaning and slow to granulate, generally holding liquid for six months to a year and then setting finely.

Typical composition

Moisture

14.5–18% (typically 16.3%)

Fructose

39–44% (typically 41.5%)

Glucose

29–35% (typically 32%)

Glucose-to-fructose ratio

0.68–0.86 (typically 0.77)

pH

3.6–4.4 (typically 4)

Electrical conductivity

0.1–0.35 mS/cm (typically 0.22 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

Echium vulgare, and in some districts the related Echium plantagineum. Both are European introductions and both are regarded as weeds in Australasia, which sits awkwardly beside the honey's quality.

Origins

The Mackenzie Country, Canterbury and Marlborough regions of New Zealand's South Island above all.

Origin pages

• New Zealand
• South Island, New Zealand

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

Typical harvest

December to February (southern hemisphere)

Southern-hemisphere summer, and unusually long for a single species — echium flowers in succession up the spike over many weeks.

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

The bees

Echium's exceptional nectar replenishment rate is the whole story — it refills quickly and keeps producing through the afternoon heat when most plants have stopped, which makes a stand of it extraordinarily productive per hectare.

Usual processing

Spun (centrifugally extracted), Coarsely strained, Creamed (seeded and controlled-set), Raw

An uncomfortable position comparable to Californian star thistle: echium is a listed weed across Australasia, toxic to horses and cattle in quantity, and simultaneously one of the most valuable nectar resources in the South Island high country. Both facts are true and neither cancels the other.

What to do with it

A very good everyday honey — mild enough for tea, thick enough for toast, and cheap enough in New Zealand to cook with.

At the tableSpreadingIn hot drinksBakingDessertsDressings

Pairings

• Toast and butter

  Thick, mild and smooth — everything an everyday spreading honey should be.

• Fresh fruit and yoghurt

  Adds sweetness and body without a competing flavour.

• Herbal tea

  Mild enough not to erase a delicate infusion.

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.