Kāmahi honey
Buttery and caramel-sweet with a faint herbal-resinous edge and a smooth rounded body.
Kāmahi
New Zealand's most abundant native forest honey, and the everyday bush honey most New Zealanders grew up with. Kāmahi is a common canopy tree of regenerating forest across both islands, and its honey is light amber, buttery and caramel-sweet with a faint herbal edge — approachable in a way manuka is not, and available in far greater quantity.
Flavour and aroma
- Aroma
- butterscotch, warm caramel, damp forest, faint herb
- Flavour
- butterscotch, toffee, clean sweetness, a soft herbal finish
- Finish
- Medium and rounded.
- Intensity
- Moderate
- Sweetness
- Very sweet
- Bitterness
- None
- Acidity
- Low
Colour, texture and crystallisation
- Colour
- Extra light amber (34-50 mm Pfund)Light amber (50-85 mm Pfund)
Light amber with a warm golden cast.
On setting: Sets to a smooth pale cream.
- Texture
- Thick but pourable; Soft set; Creamed
- Crystallisation
Moderate — granulates over a few months
Granulates over a few months into a fine smooth set, and much of the crop is sold creamed.
Typical composition
- Moisture
- 15–18.5% (typically 16.8%)
- Fructose
- 37–42% (typically 39.5%)
- Glucose
- 31–37% (typically 34%)
- Glucose-to-fructose ratio
- 0.8–0.96 (typically 0.87)
- pH
- 3.7–4.5 (typically 4.1)
- Electrical conductivity
- 0.2–0.6 mS/cm (typically 0.38 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
- Weinmannia racemosa, a widespread tree of New Zealand's native forest, often beginning life as an epiphyte on tree ferns before establishing on the ground.
- Origins
- The West Coast and Fiordland of the South Island, and the central and southern North Island.
- Origin pages
Resolved from both directions — origins this honey names, and origins that name it.
- Harvest
- November to January (southern hemisphere)
Southern-hemisphere early summer, and considerably more reliable than rātā or mānuka.
- The bees
- A dependable and generous flow from a common tree, which makes it the backbone of New Zealand bush honey production. Colonies are placed in native forest for it, and it is often the crop that pays for a season when mānuka fails.
- Usual processing
- Spun (centrifugally extracted), Creamed (seeded and controlled-set), Coarsely strained, Raw
Kāmahi is heavily browsed by introduced brushtail possums, and possum control on the West Coast has a measurable effect on the health of the stands the honey depends on.
What to do with it
A thoroughly versatile honey and New Zealand's everyday jar. Enough character to notice, mild enough for anything.
At the tableSpreadingBakingIn hot drinksDessertsGlazing and roasting
Pairings
- Toast and butterClassic
Butterscotch against butter, with a smooth set that spreads.
- Black tea
Sweetens with a faint caramel warmth and nothing that competes.
- Mild cheeses
Rounded and gentle on both sides.
Pairing pages this honey appears on
Selected by this honey’s own recorded intensity, flavour families and uses rather than by anything written above — each page prints the rule that put it there.
Where this honey sits in the catalogue
Sources
- HoneyHQ editorial synthesis — HEKNO Ltd · HoneyHQ synthesis
How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.
Tools for choosing and using honey
- Honey finder
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- Flavour selector
I like this taste — which honeys have it?
- Honey comparison
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- Honey substitute calculator
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- Storage guide
How should I store honey, and what do I do when it sets?