Chinese jujube honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

dried red dates, burnt caramel, warm spice, a medicinal note

Flavour

dark dried fruit, treacle, a distinct bitterness, warm spice

Finish

Very long, bitter-sweet and warming.

Flavour character

• Floral and fruity — fruity
• Warm and cooked — caramel, molasses and treacle
• Spicy and sharp — phenolic and medicinal

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

Deep amber to red-brown, thick and slightly opaque.

On setting: Slow to set; a dense dark grain when it does.

Texture

Thick but pourable; Runny

Crystallisation

Slow, step 2 of 5, from very slow to very fast

Slow — months before it starts to granulate; sets with a medium crystal.

Fructose-leaning and slow to granulate, generally holding liquid for a year or more.

Typical composition

Moisture

15–19.5% (typically 17.2%)

Fructose

38–44% (typically 41%)

Glucose

28–34% (typically 31%)

Glucose-to-fructose ratio

0.66–0.85 (typically 0.76)

pH

3.7–4.6 (typically 4.1)

Electrical conductivity

0.4–1 mS/cm (typically 0.65 mS/cm)

These are typical ranges assembled across published work, not measurements of a specific honey.

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

Where it comes from

Floral source

Ziziphus jujuba, the Chinese red date, grown across northern China for its fruit. A relative of the Ziziphus behind Yemeni sidr and Pakistani ber, and the honeys are recognisably related.

Origins

Shandong, Hebei, Shanxi, Henan and Shaanxi in northern China.

Origin pages

• China

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

Typical harvest

May to July (northern hemisphere)

Early summer, and heavily dependent on humidity — jujube secretes poorly in dry weather, which is a recurring problem in the northern Chinese plains.

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

The bees

A major destination for Chinese migratory beekeeping, and one of several crops on a circuit that runs from milk vetch in the south through vitex and jujube to the northern late flows.

Usual processing

Spun (centrifugally extracted), Coarsely strained, Filtered, Raw

What to do with it

Taken in hot water across northern China, often with dried jujube fruit and ginger. Its bitterness makes it a poor everyday table honey and an interesting cooking one.

At the tableIn hot drinksDessertsGlazing and roastingWith cheese

Pairings

• Hot water with ginger and dried datesClassic

  The domestic preparation, and the honey's own dried-fruit register belongs in it.

• Dark chocolate

  Bitterness against bitterness, with the dried fruit as the connecting note.

• Strong aged cheese

  Enough weight and bitterness to hold its own.

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.

Claims about this honey