Star thistle honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

anise, cinnamon, light florals, warm hay

Flavour

aniseed, cinnamon, green apple, clean sweetness

Finish

Bright and spicy, medium length.

Intensity

Moderate

Sweetness

Very sweet

Bitterness

None

Acidity

Bright

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour

Extra light amber (34-50 mm Pfund)toLight amber (50-85 mm Pfund)

Light amber with a slight green-gold cast, bright and clear.

On setting: Slow to set, and fine and pale when it does.

Texture

Runny; Thick but pourable

Crystallisation

Slow — months before it starts to granulate

Fructose-leaning, so it typically holds liquid for close to a year. That slowness is part of its commercial appeal alongside sage.

Typical composition

Moisture

14.5–18% (typically 16.3%)

Fructose

39–45% (typically 42%)

Glucose

27–33% (typically 30%)

Glucose-to-fructose ratio

0.62–0.8 (typically 0.71)

pH

3.6–4.3 (typically 3.9)

Electrical conductivity

0.12–0.35 mS/cm (typically 0.22 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

Centaurea solstitialis, an annual thistle of Mediterranean origin, introduced to California in the mid nineteenth century probably as a contaminant of alfalfa seed.

Origins

California above all, particularly the Sierra foothills and inner Coast Ranges; also Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

Origin pages

• North America
• California
• United States
• Pacific Northwest

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

Harvest

June to September (northern hemisphere)

A long, hot, dry-season flow at a point in the Californian year when almost nothing else is producing — which is a large part of its value.

The bees

Starthistle secretes generously in heat and drought, filling the summer gap after the spring flows have finished and the annual grasses have died back. For Californian beekeepers it is often the difference between a season and no season.

Usual processing

Spun (centrifugally extracted), Coarsely strained, Raw, Filtered

An uncomfortable dependency. Californian beekeeping benefits from an invasive plant that costs rangeland agriculture heavily and is under active biological and chemical control — and successful control would remove a major honey flow. HoneyHQ records this rather than resolving it: the honey is genuinely good and the plant is genuinely a problem, and both statements are true.

What to do with it

A table honey with just enough spice to be interesting. Its anise note is genuinely useful in cocktails and in anything with stone fruit.

At the tableDrizzlingIn hot drinksDessertsWith cheeseIn cocktails

Pairings

• Fresh goat and sheep cheesesClassic

  The spice cuts the lactic sharpness rather than simply sweetening it.

• Peaches and nectarines

  Anise and stone fruit is a settled pairing, and the honey supplies both sides of it.

• Whiskey sours and gin cocktails

  Dissolves cleanly and adds a botanical note the spirit is already working in.