Euphorbia honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

warm caramel, pepper, faint resin

Flavour

burning pepper, caramel underneath, resin

Finish

Very long, burning and peppery.

Flavour character

• Warm and cooked — caramel
• Woody and resinous — resinous
• Spicy and sharp — spicy, 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 — this honey
6. Amber85–114 mm — this honey
7. Dark amber114+ mm

Golden to warm amber, clear and bright — an entirely unremarkable appearance for a honey that behaves as it does.

On setting: Sets slowly to a fine pale grain.

Texture

Runny; Thick but pourable; Soft set

Crystallisation

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

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

Slow to set with a fine grain.

Typical composition

Moisture

14–18% (typically 16%)

Fructose

36–42% (typically 39%)

Glucose

29–35% (typically 32%)

pH

3.5–4.4 (typically 3.9)

Electrical conductivity

0.2–0.7 mS/cm (typically 0.4 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

Euphorbia resinifera, daghmous, a cactus-like spurge endemic to the slopes of the Moroccan High and Middle Atlas.

Origins

Morocco — the Beni Mellal, Khenifra and Tadla regions of the Atlas foothills.

Origin pages

• Africa
• Morocco

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

Typical harvest

March to May (northern hemisphere)

A short spring flow on the Atlas slopes.

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

The bees

Moroccan beekeeping moves hives to the euphorbia slopes for the flowering. The plant's latex is severely irritant, and handling the vegetation is hazardous in a way that working the bees is not.

Usual processing

Raw, Coarsely strained, Spun (centrifugally extracted)

Euphorbia resinifera is endemic to a limited area of the Moroccan Atlas and its habitat is under pressure. Production is small and prices are among the highest for any Moroccan honey.

What to do with it

Taken in tiny quantities, generally in warm water or milk. Cooking with it would be an eccentric decision.

At the tableIn hot drinks

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

Euphorbia resinifera has been known since antiquity — the Roman name euphorbium derives from the physician to King Juba II of Mauretania, who described the plant's latex as a drug. Its resin was traded across the classical Mediterranean.

• Used in Moroccan tradition for respiratory complaints, digestive problems and as a general tonic, taken in very small doses.

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

Claims about this honey