Rewarewa honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

burnt caramel, malt, dark toffee, damp forest

Flavour

burnt sugar, malt loaf, a tannic dryness, faint smoke

Finish

Long and drying, with the astringency arriving last.

Intensity

Pronounced

Sweetness

Sweet

Bitterness

Trace

Acidity

Moderate

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour

Amber (85-114 mm Pfund)toDark amber (over 114 mm Pfund)

Deep reddish amber, noticeably red-toned rather than brown.

On setting: Sets slowly to a dark coarse grain.

Texture

Thick but pourable; Runny; Soft set

Crystallisation

Slow — months before it starts to granulate

Fructose-leaning and slow to granulate, generally holding liquid for a year or more.

Typical composition

Moisture

15–18.5% (typically 16.8%)

Fructose

38–44% (typically 41%)

Glucose

28–34% (typically 31%)

Glucose-to-fructose ratio

0.66–0.85 (typically 0.76)

pH

3.7–4.5 (typically 4.1)

Electrical conductivity

0.3–0.8 mS/cm (typically 0.5 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

Knightia excelsa, in the protea family — a relationship it shares with macadamia and with the South African proteas, and nothing at all with true honeysuckle despite the common name.

Origins

The North Island of New Zealand and the north of the South Island, in regenerating native forest.

Origin pages

• New Zealand

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

Harvest

November to January (southern hemisphere)

Southern-hemisphere early summer, overlapping with mānuka, which is why the two are frequently blended.

The bees

The flowers are adapted for bird pollination — tūī and bellbird are the natural visitors — and honey bees work them opportunistically. This is a case of an introduced insect harvesting a resource evolved for something else entirely.

Usual processing

Spun (centrifugally extracted), Coarsely strained, Raw

Rewarewa is a pioneer of regenerating forest, so the resource has grown where native bush is returning and shrunk where land has stayed cleared. Its supply is a fairly direct index of New Zealand forest regeneration.

What to do with it

Strong enough to hold its own in cooking and interesting enough to eat on its own. It works particularly well anywhere a malty note is welcome.

At the tableWith cheeseGlazing and roastingBakingIn hot drinksSpreading

Pairings

• Aged cheddar and hard sheep's cheesesClassic

  The astringency stops the pairing collapsing into sweetness, which a milder honey would.

• Dark ale and stout

  Malt against malt; the honey is working in the same register as the beer.

• Roast lamb glazes

  Enough weight to survive a glaze, with a caramel depth that suits the meat.