Madagascar litchi honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

muscat grape, rose, lychee, warm blossom

Flavour

muscat, lychee, rosewater, light caramel

Finish

Long and perfumed.

Intensity

Pronounced

Sweetness

Sweet

Bitterness

None

Acidity

Moderate

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour

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

Pale to mid gold, bright and clear.

On setting: Sets to a fine pale grain where it is cool enough.

Texture

Runny; Soft set

Crystallisation

Moderate — granulates over a few months

Sets over a few months in cool storage and stays liquid in tropical conditions.

Typical composition

Moisture

17–21% (typically 19%)

Glucose-to-fructose ratio

0.85–1.05 (typically 0.95)

pH

3.5–4.2 (typically 3.8)

These are typical ranges assembled across published work, not measurements of a specific honey. Typical of humid tropical orchard honeys, and moisture at the upper end means it should be kept cool.

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

Where it comes from

Floral source

Litchi chinensis, grown extensively along the humid eastern coast of Madagascar for the European Christmas market.

Origins

The Toamasina and Analanjirofo regions of eastern Madagascar, and comparable production in Mauritius and Réunion.

Origin pages

• Africa
• Madagascar

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

Harvest

August to October (southern hemisphere)

A short and heavy flowering ahead of the fruit harvest, which is itself timed for the northern hemisphere Christmas.

The bees

Litchi depends heavily on insect pollination and growers benefit substantially from colonies being present, so the honey and the fruit crop are two outputs of the same visits.

Usual processing

Spun (centrifugally extracted), Coarsely strained, Filtered

A short window and a concentrated orchard landscape make this one of the few Madagascan honeys produced at genuine commercial scale for export.

What to do with it

A tasting and dessert honey. Its aromatics are volatile and it is entirely wasted in anything baked.

At the tableDessertsDrizzlingIn hot drinksIn cocktails

Pairings

• Fresh cream and mascarponeClassic

  Fat carries aroma better than any other medium, which makes rich dairy the best possible showcase for a perfumed honey like this.

• Fresh lychee and tropical fruitClassic

  Agreement in the same aromatic register — one of the few cases where a blossom honey genuinely does echo its fruit.

• Champagne cocktails

  Made into a syrup, its muscat character reads as a fruit liqueur rather than as sweetening.

History and traditional use

Madagascar's litchi export trade is built entirely around the European Christmas market, and the honey harvest is scheduled around a fruit crop timed for a hemisphere on the other side of the world.