HoneyHQ

Titi honey

Mild and clean with a light floral sweetness and no strong distinguishing character — the honey itself is unremarkable, which is why nothing about it justifies the cost to the colony.

MonofloralMildFloral

A honey from the swamp forests of the American southeast with a peculiar and well-documented side effect: colonies working black titi frequently develop purple brood, in which the larvae turn purple and die. Beekeepers move hives out of titi country before it flowers, which makes this one of the few honeys whose principal characteristic is that beekeepers avoid it.

Flavour and aroma

Aroma
light florals, fresh hay
Flavour
mild floral, light caramel
Finish
Short and clean.
Intensity
Mild
Sweetness
Sweet
Bitterness
None
Acidity
Moderate

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour
Extra light amber (34-50 mm Pfund)Light amber (50-85 mm Pfund)

Pale gold, clear and bright — an attractive honey from an unwelcome flow.

On setting: Sets to a pale cream.

Texture
Runny; Thick but pourable; Soft set
Crystallisation

Moderate — granulates over a few months

A moderate and even set with a fine grain.

Typical composition

Moisture
16–19% (typically 17.5%)
Fructose
36–41% (typically 38%)
Glucose
30–36% (typically 33%)
pH
3.6–4.3 (typically 3.9)
Electrical conductivity
0.1–0.4 mS/cm (typically 0.25 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
Cliftonia monophylla, black titi or buckwheat tree, a shrub of southeastern swamp and bay forest. The related white titi, Cyrilla racemiflora, flowers later and does not cause the same problem.
Origins
The coastal plain of the southeastern United States — Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.
Origin pages

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

Harvest
February to April (northern hemisphere)

Very early, before the main southeastern flows, which is part of why the effect on brood is so damaging — colonies are building up.

The bees
The relationship is genuinely negative for the bees. Larvae fed on black titi pollen and nectar in quantity turn purple and die, an effect known for over a century and still not fully explained chemically. Adult bees are unaffected.
Usual processing
Raw, Coarsely strained, Spun (centrifugally extracted)

Deliberately avoided by most southeastern beekeepers, who move colonies out of black titi areas before it flowers. The honey exists in small quantities as a by-product of hives that were not moved in time.

What to do with it

An ordinary mild table honey. It is in this catalogue for what it does to bees rather than for what it does on toast.

At the tableSpreadingBaking

Pairings

  • Fresh cow's milk cheeses

    Both mild; nothing competes.

  • Plain biscuits and shortbread

    A mild honey on a plain base.

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

Purple brood has been recorded in southeastern American beekeeping literature since the nineteenth century, and the association with black titi was established early. The chemical cause remains unidentified, which is unusual for a phenomenon this consistent and this old.

Claims about this honey

Emerging research

Real studies exist and point somewhere, but they are small, in vitro, in animals, or not yet replicated. Direction is not the same as a result.

Emerging research

Black titi causes purple brood, in which honey bee larvae turn purple and die.

The association between Cliftonia monophylla and purple brood is long-established in the southeastern United States and consistently reproduced — colonies moved into black titi areas develop it, colonies moved out recover. The responsible compound has not been identified, so the mechanism is unknown while the effect is not in doubt. Beekeeping practice in the region is built around avoiding the flow.

What this does not claim: This does not claim the honey is harmful to people — adult bees and human consumers are unaffected. Nor does it claim the mechanism is understood; the responsible compound has never been identified.

  • HoneyHQ editorial synthesis — HEKNO Ltd · HoneyHQ synthesis

Sources

  • HoneyHQ editorial synthesis — HEKNO Ltd · HoneyHQ synthesis
  • The Biology of the Honey Bee — Harvard University Press (1987) · Textbook

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

Guides that cover this honey

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