Niger seed honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

cut hay, sunflower, warm grain, light blossom

Flavour

light caramel, grassy sweetness, faint seed oil, clean finish

Finish

Medium and soft.

Intensity

Mild

Sweetness

Sweet

Bitterness

None

Acidity

Moderate

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour

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

Bright golden, clear and clean.

On setting: Sets to a fine pale grain.

Texture

Runny; Soft set; Creamed

Crystallisation

Fast — granulates within weeks

Granulates within weeks, as most composite-family honeys do. Sunflower behaves the same way for the same reason.

Typical composition

Moisture

15–19% (typically 17%)

Glucose-to-fructose ratio

1–1.25 (typically 1.12)

pH

3.6–4.3 (typically 3.9)

Electrical conductivity

0.2–0.5 mS/cm (typically 0.33 mS/cm)

These are typical ranges assembled across published work, not measurements of a specific honey. A glucose-leaning ratio in the sunflower range, which is exactly what the rapid set reflects.

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

Where it comes from

Floral source

Guizotia abyssinica, an Ethiopian oilseed of the daisy family, grown for cooking oil there and sold worldwide as nyjer birdseed.

Origins

The Ethiopian highlands above all, with production in Nepal, parts of India and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Origin pages

• Ethiopia
• Africa
• India
• Nepal

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

Harvest

October to December (northern hemisphere)

Post-rains flowering, which supplies the main Ethiopian honey harvest.

The bees

A daisy-family composite head is a dense disc of shallow florets that a bee walks across working one after another, which makes it an unusually efficient foraging surface and explains the yields.

Usual processing

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

Ethiopia has several million hives, the great majority of them traditional, and a very large share of production never enters a formal market at all.

What to do with it

The everyday Ethiopian honey, and a substantial share of it goes into tej rather than onto bread.

At the tableSpreadingIn hot drinksBakingFermentation (mead, kefir)

Pairings

• Injera and spiced stewsClassic

  Sweetness against the sour fermented flatbread and the chilli heat of the stews — a contrast pairing that is standard on an Ethiopian table.

• Ethiopian coffeeClassic

  Coffee and honey are served together across Ethiopia, and this is the honey it is served with.

• Fresh cheese

  Mild honey against mild fresh curd, with the honey supplying the flavour.

History and traditional use

Ethiopia's beekeeping tradition is among the oldest continuous ones anywhere, and tej has a documented history going back well over a thousand years. The scale is easy to miss from outside: Ethiopia produces more honey than any other African country by a wide margin.

• The base of tej, the Ethiopian honey wine, which accounts for a large proportion of the country's honey consumption.
• Served with coffee in the traditional ceremony, and given at weddings and religious festivals.

Traditional use records that people have done something, and for how long. It is not evidence that it works.