Mikan honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

citrus blossom, fresh zest, light florals

Flavour

mandarin, citrus blossom, clean sweetness

Finish

Short, bright and clean.

Flavour character

• Floral and fruity — citrus, floral

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour

1. Water white0–8 mm
2. Extra white8–17 mm — this honey
3. White17–34 mm — this honey
4. Extra light amber34–50 mm — this honey
5. Light amber50–85 mm
6. Amber85–114 mm
7. Dark amber114+ mm

Very pale straw, clear and bright.

On setting: Sets to a fine pale cream.

Texture

Runny; Soft set; Creamed

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 and fine set. Japanese buyers generally expect it liquid, and creamed versions are sold separately.

Typical composition

Moisture

16–20% (typically 18%)

Fructose

36–41% (typically 38%)

Glucose

30–36% (typically 33%)

pH

3.5–4.3 (typically 3.9)

Electrical conductivity

0.1–0.4 mS/cm (typically 0.25 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

Citrus unshiu, the satsuma or unshu mikan, grown on terraced orchards on the warm coasts of southwestern Japan.

Origins

Japan — principally Ehime, Wakayama, Shizuoka, Kumamoto and Nagasaki prefectures.

Origin pages

• Asia
• Japan

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

Typical harvest

April to June (northern hemisphere)

A short late-spring window as the orchards bloom.

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

The bees

Commercial production uses western honey bees. The Japanese honey bee, a subspecies of Apis cerana, is kept traditionally in small numbers and is notable for its defence against giant hornets — a heat-balling behaviour the introduced western honey bee has never learned.

Usual processing

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

Japan imports the large majority of its honey, and domestic production commands a substantial premium. Mikan honey is among the most sought-after domestic types.

What to do with it

Delicate enough to be worth eating plain, and its acidity works well in dressings and with fish.

At the tableIn hot drinksDessertsDressingsSpreading

Pairings

• Plain yoghurt

  Citrus and lactic acid together.

• Green tea and hojichaClassic

  A Japanese pairing and a good one.

• White fish and citrus dressings

  The acidity does real work here.

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

Satsuma cultivation in Japan dates to the sixteenth century and expanded enormously in the twentieth. Beekeeping followed the orchards.