Thyme honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

wild thyme, dry stone, resin, white pepper, dried fig

Flavour

herbal warmth, beeswax, dried fruit, a peppery, almost spicy finish

Finish

Exceptionally long and aromatic; the herbal note builds rather than fades.

Intensity

Pronounced

Sweetness

Sweet

Bitterness

Trace

Acidity

Moderate

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour

Light amber (50-85 mm Pfund)toAmber (85-114 mm Pfund)

Warm amber with an orange-gold cast; deeper in a hot dry year.

On setting: Pales to a golden beige.

Texture

Thick but pourable; Soft set

Crystallisation

Moderate — granulates over a few months

Granulates steadily over several months. Warm Mediterranean storage slows it considerably, which is why so much arrives liquid.

Typical composition

Moisture

14–18% (typically 16%)

Fructose

38–43% (typically 40%)

Glucose

30–36% (typically 33%)

Glucose-to-fructose ratio

0.75–0.92 (typically 0.83)

pH

3.6–4.4 (typically 4)

Electrical conductivity

0.3–0.7 mS/cm (typically 0.45 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

Mediterranean thymes, principally Thymbra capitata (conehead thyme), rather than the culinary Thymus vulgaris of a herb garden.

Origins

Greece — Crete, the Cyclades, Attica — and Sicily, Spain, Turkey and the wider eastern Mediterranean.

Origin pages

• Spain
• Greece
• Europe
• The Mediterranean
• Turkey
• Morocco
• Sicily
• Crete

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

Harvest

June to August (northern hemisphere)

High summer on dry, hot, stony ground. A hot dry season concentrates the flavour.

The bees

Worked in the heat of the day on ground that supports almost nothing else. Thyme honey is a product of poor, dry, rocky landscapes — the yields are low, which is a large part of the price.

Usual processing

Spun (centrifugally extracted), Coarsely strained

What to do with it

One of the few strongly aromatic honeys that works in savoury cooking without shouting. Excellent over grilled halloumi, in a lamb marinade, and drizzled on anything with yoghurt. Strong enough to be tasted through a dessert.

At the tableDrizzlingWith cheeseDessertsGlazing and roastingMarinadesDressings

Pairings

• Feta and halloumiClassic

  Salt against herbal sweetness — the Greek combination, and the reason thyme honey and salty sheep's cheese appear together everywhere in the region.

• Greek yoghurt and walnutsClassic

  The national dessert, and a genuine three-way balance of sour, bitter and aromatic.

• Lamb

  Thyme and lamb is already a pairing; the honey brings the herb and the caramelisation in one ingredient.

• Baklava and filo pastriesClassic

  Strong enough to be tasted through butter, nuts and pastry, which most honeys are not.

History and traditional use

Thyme honey from Mount Hymettus, above Athens, was a byword for quality in the classical world and is one of the earliest honeys anywhere to be identified and traded by its floral source rather than simply as honey. Production continues on the same slopes.

• Hymettus honey was famous throughout classical antiquity and named repeatedly in Greek and Roman writing as the finest available.
• Central to Greek and Cretan cooking, from baklava to loukoumades to the yoghurt-and-honey combination eaten daily.

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