Persimmon honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

dried dates, dark caramel, warm spice

Flavour

dried fruit, caramel, light spice, faint tannin

Finish

Long and fruity.

Flavour character

• Floral and fruity — fruity
• Warm and cooked — caramel
• Spicy and sharp — spicy

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour

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

Deep amber to reddish-brown.

On setting: Sets to a dark opaque tan.

Texture

Thick but pourable; Soft set; Crystallised

Crystallisation

Moderate, step 3 of 5, from very slow to very fast

Moderate — granulates over a few months; sets with a medium crystal.

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

• The Appalachians
• United States
• Southeastern United States

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

Typical harvest

May to June (northern hemisphere)

A late spring flow, and a short one.

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

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.

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

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.