Logwood honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

light florals, warm hay, faint caramel

Flavour

soft floral, light caramel, clean sweetness

Finish

Medium and clean.

Flavour character

• Floral and fruity — floral
• Warm and cooked — caramel

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 — this honey
5. Light amber50–85 mm — this honey
6. Amber85–114 mm
7. Dark amber114+ mm

Pale gold, clear and bright — which surprises people expecting a honey named for a dye tree to be dark.

On setting: Sets to a fine pale cream.

Texture

Runny; Soft set; Thick but pourable

Crystallisation

Moderate, step 3 of 5, from very slow to very fast

Moderate — granulates over a few months; sets with a fine crystal.

A moderate fine set.

Typical composition

Moisture

16–20% (typically 18%)

Fructose

36–42% (typically 39%)

Glucose

29–35% (typically 32%)

pH

3.5–4.3 (typically 3.9)

Electrical conductivity

0.2–0.6 mS/cm (typically 0.35 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

Haematoxylum campechianum, logwood, a spiny leguminous tree naturalised across Jamaican dry limestone and coastal scrub.

Origins

Jamaica principally, and Belize, Mexico and other parts of the Caribbean where logwood was planted.

Origin pages

• The Caribbean

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

Typical harvest

January to April (northern hemisphere)

A dry-season flow, and Jamaica's main crop.

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

The bees

Jamaican beekeeping now works Africanized stock, which spread through the Caribbean from the 1980s. Colonies are managed for it rather than against it.

Usual processing

Raw, Coarsely strained, Spun (centrifugally extracted), Filtered

Jamaican honey production is small and largely domestic, with a growing specialty export. Hurricane damage is a recurrent and severe risk.

What to do with it

An everyday honey and the standard Jamaican type.

At the tableSpreadingIn hot drinksBakingGlazing and roasting

Pairings

• Hard dough breadClassic

  The local staple.

• Fresh cheeses

  Both mild.

• Rum

  A Jamaican pairing with the honey supplying sweetness rather than competing flavour.

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

Logwood was the basis of a major Caribbean dye industry from the seventeenth century, valuable enough to be fought over — the settlement of Belize began as a logwood cutters' camp. Synthetic dyes ended the trade and left the trees.