HoneyHQ

Sycamore honeydew honey

Malty and mildly sweet with a savoury, faintly smoky depth and a mineral finish — less resinous than the conifer honeydews and more caramelised.

HoneydewModerateMaltyMineral and salineMolasses and treacle

A dark honeydew honey collected from aphids on sycamore and other maples, and one of the more common European honeydews outside the conifer forests. Sycamore is a heavily aphid-infested tree in most of its range, and in a warm summer the honeydew flow from a single avenue can be substantial — the sticky film on cars parked beneath is the same substance.

Flavour and aroma

Aroma
molasses, damp wood, malt
Flavour
malt, caramel, mineral, faint smoke
Finish
Medium, malty and savoury.
Intensity
Moderate
Sweetness
Moderately sweet
Bitterness
Trace
Acidity
Low

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour
Amber (85-114 mm Pfund)Dark amber (over 114 mm Pfund)

Dark amber to brown, occasionally with a greenish cast.

Texture
Thick but pourable; Runny; Soft set
Crystallisation

Slow — months before it starts to granulate

Slower than a nectar honey of comparable colour, though faster than the conifer honeydews — broadleaf honeydews contain rather less of the oligosaccharides that suppress crystallisation.

Typical composition

Moisture
15–19% (typically 17%)
Fructose
31–38% (typically 34%)
Glucose
25–32% (typically 28%)
pH
4.1–5.2 (typically 4.6)
Electrical conductivity
0.8–1.5 mS/cm (typically 1.1 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
Honeydew excreted by aphids feeding on Acer pseudoplatanus and other maples. The tree's own flowers do yield nectar early in spring, but the honeydew is the larger and later resource.
Origins
Britain, Ireland, France, Germany and central Europe, wherever sycamore is abundant.
Origin pages

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

Harvest
June to September (northern hemisphere)

The aphid season, later and longer than the tree's own brief spring flowering.

The bees
Honey bees collect the honeydew from leaf surfaces. Wasps and ants compete for the same resource, and in a heavy aphid year a sycamore avenue is loud with all three.
Usual processing
Raw, Coarsely strained, Spun (centrifugally extracted)

Yield tracks aphid populations, which vary sharply between years and are affected by their own predators. Beekeepers generally remove honeydew before winter, since colonies overwintering on it are prone to dysentery.

What to do with it

Its low sweetness suits savoury use. It is good in a marinade and on a strong cheese, and undistinguished on toast.

At the tableWith cheeseBakingGlazing and roastingMarinades

Pairings

  • Aged hard cheeses

    Mineral against salt.

  • Dark bread

    Malt and malt.

  • Roast root vegetables

    A savoury honey belongs in savoury cooking.

Pairing pages this honey appears on

Selected by this honey’s own recorded intensity, flavour families and uses rather than by anything written above — each page prints the rule that put it there.

Where this honey sits in the catalogue

History and traditional use

Sycamore was introduced to Britain in the sixteenth century and is now among its most abundant trees, which has made a honeydew resource out of a tree that was not originally there.

Sources

  • HoneyHQ editorial synthesis — HEKNO Ltd · HoneyHQ synthesis
  • Council Directive 2001/110/EC relating to honey — Council of the European Union (2001) · Regulatory guidance Link

How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.

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