Towai honey
Very pale and delicate with a faint butterscotch sweetness — noticeably lighter and milder than kamahi from the same genus.
Tōwai
The first native forest honey of the New Zealand season, from kamahi's northern relative. It flowers ahead of manuka in Northland, and it is increasingly sold on its own terms rather than blended into bush honey.
Flavour and aroma
- Aroma
- butterscotch, light blossom, beeswax, fresh cream
- Flavour
- butterscotch, clean sugar, light caramel, faint vanilla
- Finish
- Short and soft.
- Intensity
- Mild
- Sweetness
- Sweet
- Bitterness
- None
- Acidity
- Low
Colour, texture and crystallisation
- Colour
- Water white (0-8 mm Pfund)Extra white (8-17 mm Pfund)White (17-34 mm Pfund)
Very pale, among the palest New Zealand honeys.
On setting: Sets to a fine white cream.
- Texture
- Runny; Soft set; Creamed
- Crystallisation
Moderate — granulates over a few months
Sets over a few months to a smooth fine grain, and is frequently sold creamed.
Typical composition
- Moisture
- 15–18% (typically 16.5%)
- Glucose-to-fructose ratio
- 0.9–1.1 (typically 1)
- pH
- 3.7–4.4 (typically 4)
- Electrical conductivity
- 0.15–0.45 mS/cm (typically 0.28 mS/cm)
These are typical ranges assembled across published work, not measurements of a specific honey. Low conductivity consistent with its pallor, and New Zealand honeys are unusually well characterised because of the regulatory attention manuka has attracted.
What these mean: the sugars and the ratio · moisture · conductivity · how each is measured
Where it comes from
- Floral source
- Weinmannia silvicola, of the northern North Island. Its close relative Weinmannia racemosa produces kamahi honey and flowers later.
- Origins
- Northland and the northern North Island.
- Origin pages
Resolved from both directions — origins this honey names, and origins that name it.
- Harvest
- October to December (southern hemisphere)
Earlier than kamahi, and it opens the Northland native honey season ahead of the manuka flow.
- The bees
- Long racemes of small open flowers with easily accessible nectar, worked heavily by honey bees and by native birds. An apiary in Northland can take towai and then manuka from the same site in one season.
- Usual processing
- Spun (centrifugally extracted), Coarsely strained, Creamed (seeded and controlled-set)
Increasingly marketed as a named monofloral rather than blended into bush honey, driven by the same premium-native-honey market manuka created.
What to do with it
A mild breakfast honey. Its delicacy makes it a poor cooking honey and a very easy eating one.
At the tableSpreadingIn hot drinksDessertsBaking
Pairings
- Buttered toast
Mild, creamy and easy — a straightforward breakfast honey.
- Yoghurt
Acidity gives a very mild honey something to work against.
- Green tea
Delicate enough not to bury a lightly brewed leaf.
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
The commercial separation of New Zealand's native honeys into named monoflorals is recent and was pulled along by manuka's success — towai, tawari and rewarewa were all bush honey until buyers started paying for the distinction.
Sources
- HoneyHQ editorial synthesis — HEKNO Ltd · HoneyHQ synthesis
- UMF grading and the New Zealand manuka honey definition — UMF Honey Association / New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries · Industry body
How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.
Tools for choosing and using honey
- Honey finder
Which honey should I buy for what I actually want to do with it?
- Flavour selector
I like this taste — which honeys have it?
- Honey comparison
How do these honeys actually differ, beyond colour?
- Honey substitute calculator
How much honey do I use instead of sugar, and what else has to change?
- Storage guide
How should I store honey, and what do I do when it sets?