Chiuri honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

warm nuts, smoke, dark caramel, dried fruit

Flavour

nuts, caramel, faint smoke, dried fruit

Finish

Medium to long and warm.

Flavour character

• Warm and cooked — nutty, caramel
• Woody and resinous — smoky

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 amber to brown.

On setting: Sets slowly to a dark grain.

Texture

Thick but pourable; Runny; In the comb

Crystallisation

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

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

Slow to set. Wild and traditional-hive honey is frequently sold unfiltered, which affects how it behaves.

Typical composition

Moisture

17–22% (typically 19.5%)

Fructose

35–41% (typically 38%)

Glucose

28–34% (typically 31%)

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

Diploknema butyracea, chiuri or Indian butter tree, on steep mid-hill slopes in Nepal and the eastern Himalaya.

Origins

The mid-hills of Nepal, principally Chitwan, Makwanpur and Dhading, and adjacent parts of India.

Origin pages

• Nepal
• The Himalaya

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

Typical harvest

December to February (northern hemisphere)

A winter flow, unusual for the region and dependent on mild conditions in the mid-hills.

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

The bees

Chiuri is principally bat-pollinated, and the flying foxes that visit it are protected in some chiuri-growing communities for that reason. Honey bees take the nectar without being the plant's evolved pollinator.

Usual processing

Raw, Cut comb, Pressed, Coarsely strained

Chiuri butter, pressed from the seeds, is the more important product economically. The honey is a winter by-product of the same groves.

What to do with it

An everyday honey in the Nepali mid-hills, taken in warm water and eaten plain.

At the tableIn hot drinksSpreadingGlazing and roasting

Pairings

• Plain flatbread and roti

  The ordinary local use.

• Warm water and gingerClassic

  The standard preparation for a cold.

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

The chiuri tree supplies fat, fodder, fuel and honey, and its role in Chepang social organisation gives it a significance well beyond its economic value.

• Chiuri groves are traditionally given as dowry among the Chepang and inherited through the female line, which makes them a rare instance of matrilineal property in the region.

Traditional use records that people have done something, and for how long. It is not evidence that it works.

Claims about this honey