Eucalyptus honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

eucalypt leaf, caramel, wood, menthol, toffee

Flavour

butterscotch, a cool medicinal note, damp wood, malt

Finish

Medium-long with a cooling, slightly camphoraceous finish.

Intensity

Moderate

Sweetness

Sweet

Bitterness

Trace

Acidity

Moderate

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour

Extra light amber (34-50 mm Pfund)toLight amber (50-85 mm Pfund)toAmber (85-114 mm Pfund)

Anywhere from pale gold to deep amber depending on species. Mediterranean eucalyptus honey is typically mid-amber with a slightly grey cast.

Texture

Thick but pourable; Soft set; Crystallised

Crystallisation

Moderate — granulates over a few months

Most eucalyptus honeys granulate over a few months to a medium-grained set. Species variation is wide enough that this is a tendency rather than a rule.

Typical composition

Moisture

15–19% (typically 17%)

Fructose

36–42% (typically 39%)

Glucose

30–36% (typically 33%)

Glucose-to-fructose ratio

0.78–0.95 (typically 0.85)

pH

3.7–4.6 (typically 4.1)

Electrical conductivity

0.3–0.8 mS/cm (typically 0.5 mS/cm)

These are typical ranges assembled across published work, not measurements of a specific honey. Species variation is large enough that these ranges are wider than for most monoflorals, and a specific Australian species honey may sit well outside them.

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

Where it comes from

Floral source

Eucalyptus species — hundreds of them. Australian honeys are usually named for the individual species (yellow box, jarrah, blue gum, red gum), while Mediterranean and South American production is generally sold simply as eucalyptus.

Origins

Australia, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, California and South Africa.

Origin pages

• Spain
• South America
• Brazil
• Portugal
• Israel
• South Africa
• Argentina
• Chile
• Uruguay

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

Harvest

May to September (both hemispheres)

Different eucalyptus species flower at different times of year — including in winter — and some flower heavily only every few years. Any single window is a simplification.

The bees

In Australia, eucalyptus is the foundation of commercial beekeeping and colonies are moved to follow species in flower. Native Australian bees work the same trees, and the introduced honey bee's competition with them for those flowers is a live conservation question rather than a settled one.

Usual processing

Spun (centrifugally extracted), Coarsely strained, Filtered, Creamed (seeded and controlled-set)

What to do with it

The traditional honey for a hot lemon drink in the Mediterranean, where its cooling note is the point. Robust enough for savoury glazes and for strong tea.

At the tableIn hot drinksSpreadingGlazing and roastingMarinadesWith cheese

Pairings

• Hot lemon and gingerClassic

  The honey's cooling, faintly medicinal character sits with lemon and ginger rather than under them. Long-standing Mediterranean practice.

• Aged provolone

  Sharp, piquant cheese meets the honey's caramel and its cool finish.

• Pork and apple

  Caramelises well and brings a herbal edge a plain honey glaze would not.

History and traditional use

Eucalyptus was planted across the Mediterranean, South America and California from the nineteenth century for timber, drainage and windbreaks. The honey followed the plantations, which is why a distinctively Australian flavour became a Spanish, Portuguese and Uruguayan staple.

• Widely used across southern Europe in winter hot drinks, on the traditional basis that its cooling character suits a sore throat. That is a use, not a demonstrated effect.

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