Mountain honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

alpine herbs, warm hay, pine resin, dried fruit

Flavour

herbal complexity, caramel, a resinous edge, faint malt

Finish

Long, warm and layered.

Intensity

Pronounced

Sweetness

Sweet

Bitterness

Trace

Acidity

Moderate

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour

Light amber (50-85 mm Pfund)toAmber (85-114 mm Pfund)toDark amber (over 114 mm Pfund)

Usually amber, sometimes noticeably darker where honeydew contributes, and variable enough between valleys that colour is a poor guide to origin.

On setting: Sets to an opaque medium tan.

Texture

Thick but pourable; Soft set; Crystallised; Creamed

Crystallisation

Moderate — granulates over a few months

Depends entirely on the season's mix. A honeydew-heavy year stays liquid far longer than a year dominated by clover and dandelion, and two jars from the same producer in successive years can behave differently.

Typical composition

Moisture

14.5–18.5% (typically 16.5%)

Fructose

34–42% (typically 38%)

Glucose

27–36% (typically 31%)

Glucose-to-fructose ratio

0.68–0.98 (typically 0.82)

pH

3.7–5 (typically 4.3)

Electrical conductivity

0.25–0.9 mS/cm (typically 0.5 mS/cm)

These are typical ranges assembled across published work, not measurements of a specific honey. Ranges are wide because the category is defined by place rather than plant. Conductivity in particular rises sharply in seasons with a substantial honeydew contribution.

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

Where it comes from

Floral source

Whatever flowers on the mountain: rhododendron and alpenrose, thyme, clovers, vetches, gentians, arnica, dandelion, raspberry and rosebay willowherb, usually with a honeydew contribution from conifers lower down. Composition varies by massif, altitude and season, which is the point rather than a defect.

Origins

The Alps of France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Slovenia; the Pyrenees; the Carpathians; the Apennines; the Spanish sierras; and the Turkish and Balkan highlands.

Origin pages

• Central Asia
• Austria
• Switzerland
• Slovenia
• The Balkans
• The Alps
• The Himalaya

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

Harvest

June to September (northern hemisphere)

Compressed and late. Above about 1,500 m the whole season runs from late June to early September, and everything flowers at once because there is no time to do otherwise.

The bees

Hives are moved up the mountain in summer in the same transhumance pattern the region's livestock follows. Bumblebees dominate at the highest altitudes — they thermoregulate well enough to fly in cold and cloud that grounds honey bees, which is why alpine flowers are disproportionately bumblebee-adapted.

Usual processing

Spun (centrifugally extracted), Coarsely strained, Raw, Creamed (seeded and controlled-set)

Several European regions protect the term. Miel de montagne and Miele di montagna carry regulated altitude and origin conditions, and Miel de Provence and similar schemes sit alongside them — so on a French or Italian jar the phrase carries more weight than it would elsewhere.

What to do with it

Strong enough to be tasted through most things and complex enough to be worth eating on its own. It is the natural partner for the mountain cheeses made in the same valleys.

At the tableSpreadingWith cheeseIn hot drinksBakingGlazing and roasting

Pairings

• Alpine cheeses — Comté, Gruyère, BeaufortClassic

  The oldest kind of pairing there is: two products of the same summer pasture, made from the same flora by different routes.

• Rye bread and dark loaves

  Both carry a herbal-malty depth and neither is trying to be delicate.

• Herbal and mountain teas

  The honey is made of the same plants the tea is; this is amplification.

History and traditional use

Alpine transhumance beekeeping is old and follows the same seasonal logic as moving cattle to summer pasture: the resource exists for a short window at altitude, so you take the animals to it and bring them back down.