Spicy honey
Pepper, warm spice and — in one case — genuine heat. Small, distinctive and useful in savoury cooking.
28 honeys · flavour family
Honeys in this group
- Ceanothus honeyWater white · MildDelicate and clean with a light floral sweetness and a faint spicy edge — mild, and rather more interesting than a pale honey usually is.
- Brazilian pepper honeyLight amber · ModerateWarm and peppery with a distinct resinous spice and a faint tartness — genuinely reminiscent of the pink peppercorns the plant produces.
- Catclaw honeyWater white · MildDelicate and floral with a light sweetness and a faint spicy warmth — one of the gentler American varietals and quite distinct from the darker mesquite honey of the same country.
- Persimmon honeyAmber · PronouncedRich and fruity with a dried-date depth and a warm caramel base — one of the more distinctive minor American varietals and genuinely reminiscent of the ripe fruit.
- Leatherwood honeyExtra light amber · PronouncedPowerfully perfumed and slightly spicy — musk, warm blossom and something faintly balsamic. Distinctive to the point of being polarising.
- Sourwood honeyExtra light amber · PronouncedSpicy and aromatic — anise and clove over a caramel base, with a dry, almost tannic finish that stops it being merely sweet.
- Goldenrod honeyLight amber · PronouncedStrong, warm and spicy, with a hay-and-clove character and a slightly astringent finish. Assertive in a way that surprises people expecting an ordinary golden honey.
- Saw palmetto honeyLight amber · PronouncedSmoky and peppery with a warm resinous depth — an unusual and slightly savoury honey that divides opinion sharply.
- Star thistle honeyExtra light amber · ModerateLight and clean with a distinct anise-and-cinnamon lift and a fruity sweetness underneath. Delicate but not blank.
- Longan honeyLight amber · PronouncedIntensely aromatic — caramel, dried tropical fruit and a distinctive musky floral note that is unlike anything in the European catalogue.
- Thistle honeyExtra light amber · ModerateWarm and herbaceous with a hay-and-spice character and a faint bitterness at the end.
- Ber honeyLight amber · PronouncedWarm and rich with dried dates and caramel, and a faint herbal bitterness on the finish — recognisably a Ziziphus honey, and lighter than Yemeni sidr.
- Aster honeyExtra light amber · ModerateStrong and slightly sharp with a hay-and-herb character and a distinct sour edge that fades as the honey ages.
- African acacia honeyLight amber · PronouncedWarm and spiced with a caramel base and a dry, faintly smoky finish — considerably more assertive than European acacia honey, which it is named after and resembles in no way.
- Savory honeyLight amber · PronouncedIntensely herbal with a distinct peppery, almost oregano-like bite over a warm sweetness — one of the more assertive Mediterranean aromatics.
- Dittany honeyLight amber · PronouncedIntensely aromatic and herbal with a distinct medicinal lift and a warm oregano character — closer to a herbal infusion than to a floral honey.
- Thyme honeyLight amber · PronouncedWarm, herbal and savoury — thyme and dry stone, with a peppery lift and a very long finish.
- Sidr honeyAmber · IntenseRich, dark and layered — caramel and dried fruit first, then a faintly medicinal bitterness and a long savoury finish. Complex in a way few honeys are.
- Jamun honeyAmber · PronouncedDark, tannic and astringent with a dried-fruit depth and a dry finish — noticeably less sweet than most honeys of similar colour.
- Coriander honeyLight amber · PronouncedWarm and spicy with an unmistakable coriander-seed aroma over a caramel base — one of the most immediately recognisable honeys there is.
- Euphorbia honeyLight amber · IntenseOverwhelmingly pungent — a sharp peppery burn at the back of the throat that builds for some seconds after swallowing and dominates everything else. Beneath it there is a warm caramel sweetness that most people never get to.
- Tulsi honeyExtra light amber · PronouncedDistinctly clove-scented over a light caramel body — one of the few herb honeys that genuinely smells of the herb.
- Ajwain honeyExtra light amber · PronouncedAromatic and faintly medicinal, with a clear thyme-and-caraway note over light amber sweetness.
- Moringa honeyExtra light amber · ModerateGreen, peppery and faintly vegetal over a light sweetness — recognisably related to the mustard-oil chemistry running through the whole plant.
- Cardamom honeyExtra light amber · PronouncedGenuinely spice-scented — eucalyptol and a sweet resinous lift over pale amber sweetness. One of the clearest spice signatures of any honey.
- Manzanita honeyExtra white · MildDelicate and faintly spicy, with a clean short finish. Interesting mostly for when it is made rather than for how it tastes.
- Xtabentún honeyExtra white · ModeratePale, aromatic and faintly aniseed, with a clean floral lift. The liqueur made from it leans directly on that anise note.
- Wilga honeyLight amber · ModerateWarm and faintly spicy with a clean finish, and without the camphor edge that runs through the eucalypt honeys of the same landscape.
Plants behind these honeys
- ThymeThymus
- MarjoramOriganum vulgareRepeatedly ranks at or near the top of controlled garden trials for total insect visits, and unusually it scores well for both bees and butterflies — few plants do both.
- Black sageSalvia melliferaAn outstanding nectar source in a good year, and the backbone of the chaparral forage sequence.
- RockroseCistus ladaniferAn outstanding pollen source and a good nectar one, and a plant that also supplies resin for propolis — an unusual triple contribution.
- Brazilian pepperSchinus terebinthifoliaA good autumn nectar source at a point in the Florida year when colonies would otherwise be consuming stores.
- MesquiteProsopisA principal desert forage plant, providing both nectar and pollen in landscapes with very few alternatives.
- American persimmonDiospyros virginianaA good nectar source where the trees are numerous.
- LeatherwoodEucryphia lucidaThe principal summer nectar source of the Tasmanian rainforest, and the basis of most of the island's honey production.
Guides covering these honeys
- What makes a honey strongStrong honeys are dark, mineral-rich and usually lower in sweetness than pale ones. Understanding which axis a honey is strong on tells you what to do with it.
- What makes honey expensivePrice tracks scarcity, harvest difficulty and certification cost far more than it tracks quality. Understanding which of those you are paying for is most of the skill in buying honey.
- Why some honeys are rareRarity in honey almost always comes down to botany and weather rather than to deliberate restriction. Understanding the mechanism explains why supply swings so violently from year to year.
- Which flowers make honeyBeing good for bees and producing a honey crop are different things. A honey crop needs a plant that flowers in enormous quantity, in one place, at one time — which most good bee plants do not.
- Honey adulteration explainedHoney is among the most adulterated foods in world trade. The methods have become more sophisticated as the tests have improved, and the arms race is the reason testing is now a specialist discipline.
- Autumn plants for beesAutumn forage decides how well colonies enter winter. It is also when one plant does more work than everything else combined, and most people regard it as a nuisance.
Other flavour family groups
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