Purple loosestrife honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

green herbs, molasses, tart fruit

Flavour

herbal tang, caramel, light bitterness, mineral

Finish

Long, tangy and herbal.

Flavour character

• Green and herbal — herbaceous
• Warm and cooked — caramel, molasses and treacle

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 greenish-brown, with an unusual cast that is genuinely distinctive.

On setting: Sets to an opaque dark 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

Lythrum salicaria, purple loosestrife, in wetland, marsh, ditch and river margin across northern North America.

Origins

The northern United States and southern Canada — the Great Lakes, New England, the upper Midwest and the Pacific Northwest.

Origin pages

• United States

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

Typical harvest

July to September (northern hemisphere)

A long late-summer flow, running when many other North American crops have finished.

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

The bees

Worked heavily by honey bees and bumblebees. The plant is tristylous — it has three distinct flower forms with differently positioned styles and stamens — which is one of the classic textbook examples of a breeding system that enforces outcrossing.

Usual processing

Raw, Coarsely strained, Spun (centrifugally extracted)

Beekeepers in loosestrife country value the flow. Wetland managers spend substantial sums controlling the plant, including biological control with imported beetles, which has reduced it considerably in some states.

What to do with it

Assertive enough for cooking, and its acidity does real work in a marinade or a glaze.

At the tableGlazing and roastingMarinadesBakingWith cheese

Pairings

• Aged cheddar and blue cheese

  Tang against sharpness.

• Pork and poultry glazes

  Acidity cuts fat.

• Dark breads

  Enough weight to be noticed.

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

Purple loosestrife arrived in North America in the early nineteenth century in ship ballast and as a garden plant. Biological control programmes using Galerucella beetles began in the 1990s and have measurably reduced infestations in several regions.

Claims about this honey