Tepezcohuite honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

warm blossom, dry wood, light caramel

Flavour

floral caramel, faint tannin, brown sugar

Finish

Medium and slightly drying.

Flavour character

• Floral and fruity — floral
• Warm and cooked — caramel
• Woody and resinous — woody

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour

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

Mid amber, clear and bright.

On setting: Sets to a fine mid-brown grain.

Texture

Runny; Thick but pourable; Soft set

Crystallisation

Moderate, step 3 of 5, from very slow to very fast

Moderate — granulates over a few months; sets with a fine crystal.

Sets over a few months where storage temperatures allow.

Typical composition

Moisture

16–20% (typically 18%)

Glucose-to-fructose ratio

0.9–1.1 (typically 1)

pH

3.6–4.3 (typically 3.9)

Electrical conductivity

0.25–0.7 mS/cm (typically 0.45 mS/cm)

These are typical ranges assembled across published work, not measurements of a specific honey. Consistent with the leguminous dryland tree honeys generally.

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

Where it comes from

Floral source

Mimosa tenuiflora, called tepezcohuite in Mexico and jurema preta in Brazil. It flowers profusely while nearly leafless.

Origins

Chiapas and southern Mexico, and the caatinga of northeastern Brazil where the same species dominates cleared ground.

Origin pages

• Mexico
• Brazil
• South America
• Caatinga

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

Typical harvest

November to February (northern hemisphere)

Mexican dry-season timing. Brazilian caatinga populations flower on the opposite half of the year.

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

The bees

Worked heavily by Africanized honey bees across its Latin American range, which is the dominant managed and feral bee in both regions. A brush of exposed stamens with accessible nectar and abundant pollen.

Usual processing

Spun (centrifugally extracted), Coarsely strained, Raw

A pioneer species on cleared and degraded land, which means the honey supply expands as forest cover contracts — a relationship worth stating plainly rather than presenting as good news.

What to do with it

A versatile everyday honey, robust enough for coffee and cheap enough locally to cook with.

At the tableSpreadingIn hot drinksBakingGlazing and roasting

Pairings

• Strong coffee

  Enough body to be tasted through a dark roast, and it is the regional way of drinking both.

• Fresh queso fresco

  A mild fresh cheese against a warm floral honey, which is a standard Mexican plate.

• Corn tortillas and bread

  The everyday use across its range.

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

The tree's Mexican reputation dates largely from its use treating burn victims after the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, which turned a regional remedy into a national one. None of that has anything to do with the honey.

• The bark has an extensive traditional use in Mexico for burns and skin injury, and a separate ritual use in northeastern Brazil.

Traditional use records that people have done something, and for how long. It is not evidence that it works.

Claims about this honey