Greek fir honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

pine resin, warm wood, light caramel

Flavour

resin, soft caramel, fir, faint mineral

Finish

Medium, resinous and clean.

Intensity

Moderate

Sweetness

Moderately sweet

Bitterness

Trace

Acidity

Low

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour

Amber (85-114 mm Pfund)toDark amber (over 114 mm Pfund)

Amber to reddish-brown with a marked blue-green iridescence when light passes through it — the visual signature that gives the honey its Greek name.

Texture

Thick but pourable; Runny

Stays fluid and thick almost indefinitely, and is one of the honeys least likely to be found set on a shelf.

Crystallisation

Very slow — often still liquid after a year or more

Very slow to crystallise, and frequently never does within its shelf life. Honeydew honeys are low in glucose and high in oligosaccharides, both of which suppress crystal formation.

Typical composition

Moisture

14–18% (typically 16%)

Fructose

30–36% (typically 33%)

Glucose

24–30% (typically 27%)

pH

4.2–5.5 (typically 4.8)

Electrical conductivity

0.9–1.8 mS/cm (typically 1.3 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

Honeydew from insects feeding on Greek fir, Abies cephalonica, in mountain forest. There is no flower involved at any point.

Origins

The mountains of Greece, principally Mount Pelion in Thessaly, where the Vanilia Pilio type carries protected status, and also Arcadia and Evrytania.

Origin protection

The Mount Pelion type is protected under the designation Elatis Menalou Vanilia and related Greek protected names.

Harvest

June to September (northern hemisphere)

The honeydew season rather than a flowering window, and dependent on insect populations rather than on bloom.

The bees

Honey bees collect honeydew from fir needles and twigs where scale insects have excreted it. Greek beekeeping is unusually dependent on honeydew — pine and fir honeydew together account for the majority of national production.

Usual processing

Raw, Coarsely strained, Spun (centrifugally extracted)

Yields depend entirely on scale insect populations in the fir forest, which vary sharply between years and cannot be forecast reliably.

What to do with it

Its low sweetness makes it useful where an ordinary honey would be cloying — stirred into yoghurt, or with a strong cheese.

At the tableDrizzlingIn hot drinksWith cheeseDesserts

Pairings

• Greek yoghurt and walnutsClassic

  The national combination, and the honey's low sweetness is exactly why it works.

• Aged graviera and kefalotyri

  Resin against a hard salty sheep cheese.

• Strong black coffee

  Both resinous and both low in sweetness.

History and traditional use

Greek honeydew production is very old and rests on a forest resource rather than an agricultural one, which ties the industry directly to the fate of the mountain forests. Fire has repeatedly damaged both.

Claims about this honey