Very sweet honey
Fructose-leaning honeys where sweetness dominates. Useful where a honey should sweeten without contributing a second opinion.
43 honeys · sweetness
Honeys in this group
- Acacia honeyWater white · DelicateClean, light and sweet with almost nothing in the way. The honey to reach for when you want sweetness without a flavour opinion.
- Rosemary honeyWater white · DelicateDelicate and softly aromatic — floral first, with a thin thread of resin behind it that tells you where it came from.
- Tupelo honeyExtra white · MildButtery and clean with a pear-and-green-apple lift, and a long soft finish that never turns cloying.
- Fireweed honeyWater white · DelicateVery delicate, buttery and faintly tea-like, with a clean finish and almost no aftertaste. A honey that rewards attention and disappears if you are not paying any.
- Borage honeyWater white · DelicateVery light and very clean, with a faint cucumber-fresh note that fades with age. Sweetness without commentary.
- Sage honeyWater white · MildMild, clean and slightly herbal, with a heavy silky body that is more of the experience than the flavour is.
- Raspberry honeyExtra white · MildDelicate and lightly fruity with a clean bright acidity — one of the few honeys where a taster unprompted names the right fruit.
- Sulla honeyWater white · DelicateVery delicate and clean, with a soft almond-and-fresh-grass note and almost no aftertaste.
- Sainfoin honeyExtra white · MildDelicate and softly floral with a distinct rose-and-hay note, and a thickness that gives it more presence than its flavour alone would.
- Gallberry honeyExtra light amber · MildMild and clean with a soft floral warmth and a faint bitterness on the finish that the name hints at without quite delivering.
- Pōhutukawa honeyWater white · MildMild and creamy with a faint salt-and-mineral edge from the coast, and a butterscotch note that emerges as it warms on the tongue.
- Ulmo honeyExtra white · PronouncedStrongly perfumed — jasmine and orange blossom over butterscotch, with a creamy weight that carries it. Aromatic in a way very few honeys are.
- Apple blossom honeyExtra white · DelicateDelicate and lightly fruity with a soft marzipan note and a clean finish — recognisably spring, and gone if you are not paying attention.
- Cherry blossom honeyExtra white · ModerateMarzipan first, then a light stone-fruit sweetness — the almond note is the defining character and it is unmistakable.
- Phacelia honeyWater white · MildMild, clean and gently floral with a faint herbal freshness — an easy honey with no rough edges at all.
- Asphodel honeyWater white · DelicateDelicate and softly perfumed with a fresh, almost vegetal lift and a silky weight that gives it more presence than the flavour alone would.
- Huajillo honeyWater white · DelicateVery delicate and clean with a light floral sweetness and almost no aftertaste — a honey that stays out of the way.
- Sweet clover honeyExtra white · MildWarm, sweet and hay-like with a soft vanilla note that is genuinely there rather than imagined — the clearest coumarin character of any common honey.
- Vitex honeyWater white · MildVery clean and mild with a light floral sweetness and a faint fresh herbal lift on the finish.
- Milk vetch honeyWater white · MildSoft, mild and slightly floral with a faint green-bean freshness — an unassuming honey made in enormous quantity.
- Marri honeyExtra light amber · MildMild, sweet and buttery with a soft caramel warmth and only the faintest eucalypt lift.
- Ironbark honeyExtra light amber · ModerateRich, buttery and dense with a warm caramel depth and a clean eucalypt lift at the end.
- Rātā honeyWater white · DelicateVery delicate and creamy with a light butterscotch note and a faint mineral saltiness underneath.
- Ethiopian white honeyWater white · MildClean, sweet and faintly herbal, with a smooth dense texture that dominates the impression more than the flavour does.
- Alfalfa honeyExtra white · MildMild, clean and slightly grassy, with a beeswax note and very little else. A background honey, and good at being one.
- Kānuka honeyExtra light amber · ModerateSweet, clean and lightly aromatic, with a herbal-resinous thread that hints at its relation to mānuka without any of the medicinal weight.
- Star thistle honeyExtra light amber · ModerateLight and clean with a distinct anise-and-cinnamon lift and a fruity sweetness underneath. Delicate but not blank.
- Mesquite honeyExtra white · MildMild and smooth with a faint smoky-molasses note that arrives after the sweetness rather than with it.
- Yellow box honeyExtra white · MildMild, smooth and lightly floral with a buttery weight and a faint eucalypt lift at the very end.
- Longan honeyLight amber · PronouncedIntensely aromatic — caramel, dried tropical fruit and a distinctive musky floral note that is unlike anything in the European catalogue.
- Lychee honeyExtra light amber · ModerateDelicately floral with a distinct rose-and-lychee perfume, and a clean sweetness underneath that keeps it from being heavy.
- Coffee blossom honeyExtra light amber · ModerateStrongly floral — jasmine and orange blossom over a light caramel base, with no coffee character whatsoever.
- Blue borage honeyExtra white · MildClean, delicate and softly floral, with a thick smooth body that gives it more weight than its flavour would suggest.
- Cotton honeyExtra white · MildMild and clean with a faint green-vegetal note and very little else — a background honey.
- Kāmahi honeyExtra light amber · ModerateButtery and caramel-sweet with a faint herbal-resinous edge and a smooth rounded body.
- Rubber tree honeyLight amber · MildMild and slightly vegetal with a light caramel warmth — an unremarkable flavour attached to a genuinely remarkable production story.
- Assa-peixe honeyExtra light amber · MildMild, clean and gently floral with a soft caramel warmth and a slightly herbal finish.
- Ailanthus honeyLight amber · IntenseIntensely aromatic — muscat grape and elderflower with a medicinal edge. It divides opinion more sharply than any other European honey.
- Spring blossom honeyExtra white · MildMild, creamy and clean, with a faint cabbagey note where rape dominates. An easy honey and a spreadable one.
- Pagoda tree honeyExtra white · MildLight, clean and gently floral with a faint green edge — an unassertive honey produced in very large quantities.
- Soybean honeyWater white · MildVery pale and very mild, with a clean light sweetness and almost nothing to distinguish it. Its virtue is neutrality.
- Milkweed honeyWater white · MildExceptionally perfumed for such a pale honey — a clean floral sweetness with an almost tropical lift. Regarded as a delicacy where it can be produced in quantity.
- 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.
Plants behind these honeys
- 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.
- SainfoinOnobrychis viciifoliaAn outstanding forage plant on both counts, and one of the few that performs in a dry summer when white clover has stopped.
- AppleMalus domesticaValuable spring forage, but rarely a surplus crop: the window is short and the colony is still building at that point in the year, so most of what comes in is eaten immediately.
- CherryPrunus aviumImportant early forage arriving when colonies are expanding and bumblebee queens are founding nests. Almost all of it is consumed rather than stored.
- MesquiteProsopisA principal desert forage plant, providing both nectar and pollen in landscapes with very few alternatives.
- Sweet cloverMelilotus officinalisVery high nectar over a long dry-season window, and shallow enough florets that honey bees can work it properly — which alfalfa, growing in the same fields, will not allow.
- AlfalfaMedicago sativaExcellent forage on paper, and the tripping mechanism complicates it in practice: a honey bee robbing nectar from the side of the flower collects no pollen and delivers none.
- Oilseed rapeBrassica napusTop-rated for both nectar and pollen, and delivered at exactly the moment colonies are expanding fastest in spring. Its faults are entirely about what comes after.
Guides covering these honeys
- Why honey crystallisesGranulation is not spoilage, not a sign of adulteration, and not evidence that honey is raw. It is glucose doing what glucose does — and the rate is predictable from the sugar ratio.
- Why honeys taste and look so differentEvery honey is around 80% sugar. Everything that distinguishes one from another lives in the remaining fifth.
- 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.
- Creamed, set and whipped honeyCreamed honey has nothing added and nothing whipped into it. It is ordinary honey whose crystallisation has been controlled instead of left to chance, and the technique is a hundred years old.
- Why honey comes in different coloursHoney runs from nearly colourless to almost black, and the colour is set mainly by the plant. It correlates loosely with intensity, more strongly with mineral content, and not at all with quality.
- What is honey?Honey is nectar that bees have concentrated and chemically altered, then sealed in wax. Every property people notice about it — the sweetness, the keeping quality, the setting — follows from that process.
Other sweetness groups
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- Honey comparison
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- Storage guide
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