Carob honey

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.

Flavour character

• Warm and cooked — molasses and treacle, malty
• Earthy and mineral — animal and barnyard, mineral and saline

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour

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

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, step 3 of 5, from very slow to very fast

Moderate — granulates over a few months; sets with a medium crystal.

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

• The Mediterranean
• Morocco
• Portugal

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

Typical 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.

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

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.

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.

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.