Tawari honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

butterscotch, light florals, fresh cream

Flavour

butterscotch, vanilla, soft floral

Finish

Short, clean and slightly creamy.

Flavour character

• Floral and fruity — floral
• Warm and cooked — buttery, caramel

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour

1. Water white0–8 mm
2. Extra white8–17 mm — this honey
3. White17–34 mm — this honey
4. Extra light amber34–50 mm — this honey
5. Light amber50–85 mm
6. Amber85–114 mm
7. Dark amber114+ mm

Very pale straw, clear and bright, among the palest New Zealand honeys.

On setting: Sets to a smooth pale cream.

Texture

Runny; Soft set; Creamed

Crystallisation

Slow, step 2 of 5, from very slow to very fast

Slow — months before it starts to granulate; sets with a fine crystal.

Slow to set and fine when it does, which suits a honey usually sold and eaten liquid.

Typical composition

Moisture

15–18% (typically 16.5%)

Fructose

37–42% (typically 39%)

Glucose

29–35% (typically 32%)

pH

3.5–4.2 (typically 3.8)

Electrical conductivity

0.1–0.3 mS/cm (typically 0.2 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

Ixerba brexioides, a small New Zealand forest tree found nowhere else and belonging to a family of one species.

Origins

The central and northern North Island of New Zealand, from native forest — principally the Bay of Plenty, Waikato and Northland.

Origin pages

• Northland

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

Typical harvest

November to January (southern hemisphere)

A short early-summer window in native forest.

A typical window for the honey type, HoneyHQ synthesis — not a calendar for any one place.

The bees

Honey bees are introduced to New Zealand, arriving in 1839. The country's own bee fauna is small — around 28 native species — and tawari's original pollinators are a mix of native bees, flies and birds.

Usual processing

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

Scarce, because it requires hives in intact native forest during a short window. Production is small and largely consumed domestically.

What to do with it

A honey for eating rather than cooking. Its butterscotch note survives in a plain yoghurt or on bread and vanishes entirely in anything heated or heavily spiced.

At the tableSpreadingDessertsIn hot drinksBaking

Pairings

• Plain yoghurtClassic

  The butterscotch note is exactly what plain yoghurt lacks.

• Fresh buttered toast

  Butter against butterscotch.

• Fresh berries

  Delicate enough to let the fruit lead.

Similar honeys and substitutes

Three different questions with different answers: a honey that tastes alike can behave differently in a recipe, and the same set texture says nothing about flavour. Each list is chosen from the recorded fields that matter to its question — and, where tasting panels or specifications described both honeys, the terms they share — and every suggestion says which, and what will be different. Compare it side by side or build a tasting flight.

History and traditional use

Tawari is endemic to New Zealand and belongs to a genus and family of one species, making it one of the more botanically isolated honey plants anywhere. Its honey has remained a domestic product while manuka took the export market.