Swamp mahogany honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

malt, resin, wet bark, molasses

Flavour

malt, molasses, resin, bitter finish

Finish

Very long, with a persistent bitter edge.

Intensity

Pronounced

Sweetness

Moderately sweet

Bitterness

Noticeable

Acidity

Moderate

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour

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

Dark amber to brown.

On setting: Sets slowly to a coarse dark grain.

Texture

Thick but pourable; Runny

Crystallisation

Slow — months before it starts to granulate

Slow to granulate, as most of the darker eucalypt honeys are.

Typical composition

Moisture

16–19% (typically 17.5%)

Glucose-to-fructose ratio

0.8–1 (typically 0.9)

pH

3.9–4.7 (typically 4.3)

Electrical conductivity

0.6–1.2 mS/cm (typically 0.85 mS/cm)

These are typical ranges assembled across published work, not measurements of a specific honey. High conductivity and pH for a floral honey, consistent with its colour and its mineral depth.

What these mean: the sugars and the ratio · moisture · conductivity · how each is measured

Where it comes from

Floral source

Eucalyptus robusta, on swampy and estuarine ground along the eastern Australian coast.

Origins

Coastal New South Wales and southern Queensland.

Origin pages

• Australia
• New South Wales
• Queensland

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

Harvest

May to August (southern hemisphere)

Mid-winter, which makes it a keystone resource rather than merely a crop.

The bees

Large brush flowers holding a great deal of exposed nectar, worked by honey bees by day and by flying foxes and gliders at night. Coastal swamp forest loss has made the remaining stands disproportionately important to all of them.

Usual processing

Spun (centrifugally extracted), Coarsely strained, Filtered

Coastal swamp forest is a much-reduced habitat, and the winter flowering that makes this honey possible is also what keeps a good deal of coastal wildlife alive. That is a genuine argument for the stands beyond the crop.

What to do with it

A strong honey for cheese, dark bread and cooking. Its character is structural rather than aromatic, so it survives an oven.

With cheeseAt the tableGlazing and roastingMarinadesIn hot drinksBaking

Pairings

• Blue cheeseClassic

  Sweetness suppresses the salt while the honey's own bitterness meets the cheese rather than hiding under it.

• Dark rye bread

  Malt against malt, and the one bread assertive enough not to be flattened.

• Barbecue glazes

  Molasses depth and a robust structure that survives the heat that does the browning.

History and traditional use

The flying foxes that feed on these trees at night are themselves the principal long-distance pollinators of several eucalypts, which makes the honey a by-product of a system that runs mostly after dark.