HoneyHQ

Carob honey

Dark, malty and distinctly savoury with a fermented, almost cheesy note that people either find fascinating or cannot get past.

MonofloralIntenseMolasses and treacleAnimal and barnyardMalty

Miel de algarrobo

A dark, savoury Mediterranean honey from a tree that flowers in autumn and smells, frankly, of nothing anyone would want in a jar. Carob blossom carries a distinctly unpleasant odour — the flowers are pollinated by flies as well as bees, and they advertise accordingly — and yet the honey it produces is a rich, malty, faintly cheesy thing that has a devoted following across Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Malta.

Flavour and aroma

Aroma
malt, aged cheese, molasses, damp earth
Flavour
treacle, a savoury fermented note, burnt caramel, muted sweetness
Finish
Very long, savoury and slightly funky.
Intensity
Intense
Sweetness
Moderately sweet
Bitterness
Trace
Acidity
Low

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour
Amber (85-114 mm Pfund)Dark amber (over 114 mm Pfund)

Dark brown to near-black, thick and opaque.

On setting: Sets to a dense dark grain.

Texture
Thick but pourable; Soft set; Crystallised
Crystallisation

Moderate — granulates over a few months

Granulates over a few months to a dense dark set.

Typical composition

Moisture
14.5–18.5% (typically 16.5%)
Fructose
35–41% (typically 38%)
Glucose
30–36% (typically 33%)
Glucose-to-fructose ratio
0.78–0.96 (typically 0.87)
pH
4–5 (typically 4.5)
Electrical conductivity
0.6–1.4 mS/cm (typically 0.95 mS/cm)

These are typical ranges assembled across published work, not measurements of a specific honey. High conductivity for a floral honey, reflecting a substantial mineral content consistent with the colour and the savoury character.

What these mean: the sugars and the ratio · moisture · conductivity · how each is measured

Where it comes from

Floral source
Ceratonia siliqua. Carob is dioecious, with male and female trees, and it is the male flowers that carry the notorious smell and much of the nectar.
Origins
Spain, Portugal, Italy, Cyprus, Malta, Greece, Morocco and Turkey.
Origin pages

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

Harvest
September to November (northern hemisphere)

An autumn flow, and a genuinely valuable one — carob flowers when the Mediterranean landscape has otherwise shut down for the year.

The bees
One of very few substantial autumn nectar sources in the Mediterranean, which makes it disproportionately important for colonies going into winter. Bees work it heavily despite the smell.
Usual processing
Spun (centrifugally extracted), Coarsely strained, Raw

What to do with it

A cooking honey and a cheese honey. Its savoury funk is genuinely useful in a marinade, and it is a hard sell on toast to anyone who has not met it before.

Glazing and roastingMarinadesWith cheeseSaucesBakingAt the table

Pairings

  • Aged and washed-rind cheesesClassic

    The honey's own fermented note is in the same family as the rind's — a continuity rather than a contrast.

  • Slow-roasted lamb

    Behaves like a savoury reduction, adding depth rather than sweetness.

  • Dark chocolate

    Both are built on bitterness and roasted depth.

Pairing pages this honey appears on

Selected by this honey’s own recorded intensity, flavour families and uses rather than by anything written above — each page prints the rule that put it there.

Where this honey sits in the catalogue

History and traditional use

Carob was a Mediterranean staple long before it was a chocolate substitute — the pods fed people and livestock through lean years, and the seeds were the original weight standard for gemstones, which is where the word carat comes from. The honey is a minor by-product of a tree grown for entirely other reasons.

Sources

  • HoneyHQ editorial synthesis — HEKNO Ltd · HoneyHQ synthesis

How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.

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