Rātā honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

fresh cream, light butterscotch, clean wax, faint sea air

Flavour

butterscotch, clean sweetness, a trace of salt, vanilla

Finish

Smooth and gentle.

Intensity

Delicate

Sweetness

Very sweet

Bitterness

None

Acidity

Low

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour

Water white (0-8 mm Pfund)toExtra white (8-17 mm Pfund)toWhite (17-34 mm Pfund)

Very pale, almost white when set, occasionally with a faint pink cast.

On setting: Sets to a smooth dense white cream.

Texture

Thick but pourable; Soft set; Creamed

Crystallisation

Moderate — granulates over a few months

Granulates over a few months into a fine smooth set, and much of the crop is sold creamed.

Typical composition

Moisture

15–18.5% (typically 16.8%)

Fructose

37–42% (typically 39.5%)

Glucose

31–37% (typically 34%)

Glucose-to-fructose ratio

0.8–0.96 (typically 0.87)

pH

3.6–4.4 (typically 4)

Electrical conductivity

0.15–0.4 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 umbellata, southern rātā, and M. robusta, northern rātā — the latter beginning life as an epiphyte in the crown of another tree and eventually enveloping it.

Origins

The West Coast of New Zealand's South Island, Fiordland, Stewart Island and parts of the North Island.

Origin pages

• New Zealand
• South Island, New Zealand

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

Harvest

December to February (southern hemisphere)

Southern-hemisphere summer, and famously irregular — rātā flowers heavily only in some years, and a mast flowering is a local event.

The bees

Hives are moved into remote West Coast country for the flow when it comes. Rātā is also a major nectar source for native birds — kākā, tūī and bellbird — and the competition between introduced honey bees and native nectar-feeders is an unresolved conservation question here as with pōhutukawa.

Usual processing

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

Supply depends on standing native forest and on possum control — introduced brushtail possums browse rātā severely and have killed large areas of it outright. A honey whose production depends on pest control is an unusual case, and it is one of the clearest examples in the catalogue of a crop tied directly to conservation work.

What to do with it

A breakfast honey. Delicate enough for tea and smooth enough for toast, and wasted in cooking.

At the tableSpreadingDessertsIn hot drinksBaking

Pairings

• Hot buttered toastClassic

  The smooth set and butterscotch note make this the obvious pairing.

• Plain yoghurt

  Nothing competes; the honey supplies all the flavour.

• Black tea

  Mild enough to sweeten without interfering.