Persimmon honey
Rich and fruity with a dried-date depth and a warm caramel base — one of the more distinctive minor American varietals and genuinely reminiscent of the ripe fruit.
A scarce honey from the American persimmon, a tree of southeastern woodland and old field edge whose fruit is famously astringent until fully ripe. The honey is dark, rich and distinctly fruity, and it is one of the more sought-after minor American varietals precisely because so little of it is made.
Flavour and aroma
- Aroma
- dried dates, dark caramel, warm spice
- Flavour
- dried fruit, caramel, light spice, faint tannin
- Finish
- Long and fruity.
- Intensity
- Pronounced
- Sweetness
- Sweet
- Bitterness
- Trace
- Acidity
- Moderate
Colour, texture and crystallisation
- Colour
- Amber (85-114 mm Pfund)Dark amber (over 114 mm Pfund)
Deep amber to reddish-brown.
On setting: Sets to a dark opaque tan.
- Texture
- Thick but pourable; Soft set; Crystallised
- Crystallisation
Moderate — granulates over a few months
A moderate set with a medium grain.
Typical composition
- Moisture
- 16–19.5% (typically 17.5%)
- Fructose
- 35–41% (typically 38%)
- Glucose
- 29–35% (typically 32%)
- pH
- 3.7–4.5 (typically 4.1)
- Electrical conductivity
- 0.4–0.9 mS/cm (typically 0.6 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
- Diospyros virginiana, American persimmon, in woodland edge, old field and roadside across the southeastern and central United States.
- Origins
- Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Missouri, the Carolinas and Virginia.
- Origin pages
Resolved from both directions — origins this honey names, and origins that name it.
- Harvest
- May to June (northern hemisphere)
A late spring flow, and a short one.
- The bees
- Persimmon is dioecious — male and female flowers are on separate trees — so bees are genuinely required for fruit set, and an isolated female tree fruits poorly or not at all.
- Usual processing
- Raw, Coarsely strained, Spun (centrifugally extracted)
Persimmon rarely occurs densely enough for a true monofloral crop, which is why so little exists. Most is produced by beekeepers in areas with abundant old field edge.
What to do with it
Its dried-fruit character works well in baking and with cheese, and it is good enough to be worth eating plain.
At the tableBakingDessertsWith cheeseGlazing and roasting
Pairings
- Aged cheesesClassic
Dried fruit and salt is an old combination.
- Persimmon puddingClassic
The regional dessert, and the honey from the same tree.
- Spiced cakes
Warm spice on warm spice.
Pairing pages this honey appears on
Selected by this honey’s own recorded intensity, flavour families and uses rather than by anything written above — each page prints the rule that put it there.
Where this honey sits in the catalogue
History and traditional use
Persimmon was described by early European colonists, who mostly recorded how astringent the unripe fruit is — the word possumwood reflects the animals that wait for it to soften.
- American persimmon fruit has long been used in southeastern cooking, in puddings, breads and a traditional beer.
Traditional use records that people have done something, and for how long. It is not evidence that it works.
Sources
- HoneyHQ editorial synthesis — HEKNO Ltd · HoneyHQ synthesis
How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.
Guides that cover this honey
Tools for choosing and using honey
- Honey finder
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- Honey comparison
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- Honey substitute calculator
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- Storage guide
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