Ohia lehua honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

fresh butter, light florals, faint citrus

Flavour

butter, soft floral, faint tropical fruit

Finish

Short and soft.

Flavour character

• Floral and fruity — floral, fruity
• Warm and cooked — buttery

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour

1. Water white0–8 mm — this honey
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, from water-white to pale straw, turning opaque and near-white as it sets.

On setting: Sets to a smooth opaque off-white.

Texture

Soft set; Crystallised; Runny

Crystallisation

Fast, step 4 of 5, from very slow to very fast

Fast — granulates within weeks; sets with a fine crystal.

Sets fairly quickly to a fine smooth texture, though less dramatically and less completely than kiawe.

Typical composition

Moisture

15–18% (typically 16.5%)

Fructose

35–40% (typically 37%)

Glucose

33–39% (typically 36%)

pH

3.6–4.3 (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

Metrosideros polymorpha, the dominant native tree of Hawaiian forest, and a close relative of the New Zealand pohutukawa and rata.

Origins

Hawaii, principally the Big Island, from native ohia forest at a range of elevations.

Origin pages

• Hawaii

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

Typical harvest

January to June (northern hemisphere)

Flowering is highly variable between trees, elevations and years — the species is exceptionally polymorphic.

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

The bees

Honey bees are introduced to Hawaii and are latecomers to a system built around native birds. Ohia lehua evolved with Hawaiian honeycreepers, many of which are now extinct or endangered, and the honey is produced in a forest whose original pollinators are largely gone.

Usual processing

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

Produced in limited volume from native forest, and increasingly limited further by the disease affecting the trees.

What to do with it

A delicate honey worth eating on its own or on something plain. Cooking it or stirring it into anything strongly flavoured wastes it entirely.

At the tableSpreadingDessertsIn hot drinks

Pairings

• Plain scones and shortbread

  Nothing competes, which is the point with a honey this delicate.

• Fresh soft cheeses

  Butter against cream.

• Green and white tea

  Delicate enough not to overwhelm the tea, which is unusual.

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

Ohia is the first tree to colonise new lava flows and the dominant species of Hawaiian forest, which gives it a foundational position in both the ecology and the tradition of the islands. The story of Ohia and Lehua, whose separation is marked by the flower, is among the best known in Hawaiian legend.

• The lehua blossom holds a central place in Hawaiian tradition, appearing in chant, legend and the lei of the island of Hawaii.

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

Claims about this honey