Multifloral honey
Whatever was in flower. Wildflower and meadow honeys, which vary by place and by year in a way a monofloral does not — and are frequently better than their lack of a name suggests.
38 honeys · nectar source
Honeys in this group
- Jataí honeyExtra light amber · ModerateSharply acidic and fruity with a fermented tang — closer to a sharp fruit syrup than to what most people expect honey to taste like.
- Mallee honeyExtra light amber · MildMild and clean with a light caramel sweetness and a faint eucalypt lift — approachable and consistent.
- Sugarbag honeyLight amber · PronouncedSharply tangy and fruity with a resinous edge — often described as lemon-and-caramel, and quite unlike honey bee honey in every respect.
- Western Australian wildflower honeyExtra light amber · ModerateComplex and variable, generally warm and lightly caramelised with a resinous myrtaceous lift and considerable site-to-site difference.
- New Zealand bush honeyExtra light amber · ModerateWarm and rounded with a light caramel base and a faint resinous lift, and considerable variation between regions — generally more approachable than any of its monofloral components.
- Wildflower honeyExtra white · ModerateVaries with the season and the landscape. Pale spring crops are floral and light; late-summer crops darker, fruitier and stronger.
- Meadow honeyExtra light amber · ModerateSoft, warm and floral with a hay-and-clover base — recognisably a summer field, and gentler and less resinous than mountain honey.
- Fynbos honeyLight amber · PronouncedComplex and aromatic — herbal, faintly resinous and warmly caramelised, with a character that changes noticeably between producers.
- Melipona honeyLight amber · PronouncedTart, complex and only moderately sweet — a distinct acidic tang over a floral base, closer to a fermented fruit drink than to honey bee honey.
- Corsican maquis honeyExtra light amber · PronouncedRanges from delicate and floral in spring to intensely bitter and resinous in the autumn maquis, which is dominated by strawberry tree and is among the most challenging honeys in Europe.
- Anzer honeyLight amber · PronouncedIntensely aromatic and complex, with a pronounced herbal and floral character and a long finish that many describe as almost perfumed.
- Himalayan cliff honeyAmber · IntenseStrong, dark and complex, with a bitter herbal edge and a slightly astringent finish. Spring harvests are frequently sharper and more bitter than autumn ones.
- Kelulut honeyLight amber · PronouncedDistinctly sour and tangy with a fruity, almost fermented character — closer to a sharp fruit syrup than to what most people expect honey to taste like.
- Alpine meadow honeyExtra light amber · ModerateComplex and aromatic, with a herbal lift over warm caramel and a distinctly clean finish — the flavour of a great many plants rather than of any one.
- Urban honeyExtra light amber · ModerateVaries enormously and is frequently more complex than a rural multifloral, because the flowering succession is longer and the species mix wider.
- Tualang honeyAmber · IntenseSharply sour and dark, with a fermented-fruit tang over a molasses base — genuinely unlike any temperate honey, and an acquired taste.
- Sundarbans mangrove honeyExtra light amber · ModerateLight, tangy and faintly saline with a fresh floral character — considerably more delicate than its dramatic provenance would suggest.
- Siberian taiga honeyExtra light amber · ModerateComplex and warm with a herbal lift over caramel, and a density that comes directly from the low moisture — thick, concentrated and long on the palate.
- Himalayan forest honeyLight amber · ModerateComplex and warm, with a herbal and faintly smoky character reflecting both the flora and the traditional processing — spring honey is lighter and more floral, autumn honey darker and more resinous.
- Ak balWater white · MildMild, creamy and delicately floral with a faint herbal lift — the texture is much of the appeal, dense and smooth and dissolving rather than sticky.
- Tibetan highland honeyAmber · PronouncedDense and strongly herbal with a resinous depth and a faintly smoky finish — a concentrated honey that reflects both a short intense season and traditional processing.
- Ethiopian red honeyAmber · PronouncedStrong and warm with a malty depth, a resinous eucalyptus lift and a faint smokiness from traditional harvesting — an assertive honey that stands up to fermentation.
- Miombo honeyAmber · PronouncedRich and warm with a distinct woody, faintly smoky depth and a caramelised sweetness — the smoke comes partly from the harvest method and partly from the woodland itself.
- Oku white honeyExtra white · MildDelicate and creamy with a light floral character and a faint herbal lift — mild by African standards and distinctly refined.
- Sea buckthorn honeyLight amber · ModerateSharp and fruity where berry juice has been added, and an ordinary golden coastal honey where it has not. The two are quite different products under one name.
- Karakovan honeyLight amber · ModerateComplex, floral and herbal at once, eaten with the wax. Its character is a mountain and a year rather than a species.
- Altai honeyExtra light amber · ModerateFloral, warm and complex, with a hay-meadow character and a long clean finish. A very good multifloral rather than a striking monofloral.
- Garrigue honeyExtra light amber · ModerateHerbal, warm and dry, with thyme and rosemary running through a light caramel body. The clearest example in the catalogue of a honey tasting of a landscape.
- Hedgerow honeyExtra light amber · ModerateWarm, floral and slightly grassy, with a caramel base. A good hedgerow honey is a genuinely complex thing that happens not to have a Latin name.
- Spring blossom honeyExtra white · MildMild, creamy and clean, with a faint cabbagey note where rape dominates. An easy honey and a spreadable one.
- Oil palm honeyLight amber · ModerateVariable by definition. Generally warm and mildly caramel-led, taking its character from whatever grew between and around the palms.
- Prairie honeyWater white · MildClean, mild and creamy, with a light floral sweetness. The reference point for what a great many people think honey tastes like.
- Caatinga honeyLight amber · ModerateWarm, resinous and floral at once, with real complexity from a flora that exists nowhere else. Variability is inherent rather than a defect.
- Jandaíra honeyExtra light amber · PronouncedFluid, sharply acidic and aromatic — closer to a fruit vinegar than to honey as most people know it. That acidity is normal rather than spoilage.
- Uruçu honeyExtra light amber · PronouncedFluid, sharply acidic and floral — closer to a fruit syrup than to honey as most people know it, and the acidity is normal rather than spoilage.
- Mandaçaia honeyExtra light amber · ModerateSofter and rounder than the northeastern stingless honeys — still acidic, but with more caramel behind it and less citrus sharpness.
- Scaptotrigona honeyLight amber · IntenseSharp, resinous and distinctly woody, with a fermented-fruit edge. Among the more challenging stingless honeys and one of the most prized within its region.
- African stingless bee honeyLight amber · PronouncedSharp, fruity and faintly smoky, with the acidity common to all stingless bee honey. Descriptions vary widely because the species and the flora both do.
Plants behind these honeys
- ThymeThymus
- White cloverTrifolium repensOne of the very few plants that is both a top-tier nectar source and a substantial pollen source, over a long season, at landscape scale.
- Wildflower meadowMixed native floraThe highest combined forage value of anything in this catalogue, because of diversity and duration rather than any single plant's output.
- AngicoAnadenanthera colubrinaA principal source of the caatinga honey that northeastern Brazil exports in quantity, much of it organic-certified.
- TepezcohuiteMimosa tenuifloraA major dry-season source in Chiapas and in the Brazilian caatinga, and one that increases rather than decreases with land clearance — which is an uncomfortable thing to be able to say about a honey plant.
- MarmeleiroCrotonA good nectar and pollen source in a semi-arid landscape with limited alternatives.
- EucalyptusEucalyptusProlific in both nectar and pollen when flowering, though the pollen of some species is nutritionally poor for honey bees, and colonies confined to a single eucalypt species can suffer over time despite abundant forage.
- BrambleRubus fruticosusThe combination of a very long season, high nectar value and reliability in variable weather makes bramble the workhorse of northern European summer forage.
Guides covering these honeys
- Honey authenticity, adulteration and testingHoney is among the most adulterated foods in world trade. The tests are good, the evasions are better funded, and almost every home test circulating online does not work.
- 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.
- Honey chemistry explainedHoney is a supersaturated sugar solution with a small and consequential fraction of everything else. Almost every practical question about honey resolves into a question about that composition.
- Honey moisture explainedWater content is the single most consequential number on a honey analysis. It decides whether the honey keeps, how it pours, how fast it sets and whether it is legal to sell.
- 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.
- A history of beekeepingFrom cliff-face honey hunting to the movable frame, the history of beekeeping is a history of one problem: how to take the honey without destroying the colony.
Other nectar source groups
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- Flavour selector
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- Honey comparison
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- Honey substitute calculator
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- Storage guide
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