The Black Forest honey
Silver fir honeydew country, and the source of Tannenhonig — among the most distinctive honeydew honeys in Europe.
3 honeys · part of Germany
Flavour signature
The flavour families that recur across this origin’s honeys, counted from their sensory profiles rather than asserted.
Honeys from The Black Forest
- Forest honeydew honeyAmber · PronouncedResinous, malty and mineral, with far less sweetness than its darkness suggests. Closer to treacle and pine forest than to anything floral.
- Silver fir honeyAmber · PronouncedMalty, resinous and barely sweet, with a balsamic depth and a long woody finish. One of the least sugary honeys there is.
- Spruce honeydew honeyAmber · PronouncedMalty and caramelised with a woody depth and restrained sweetness — warmer and less balsamic than fir honeydew.
When these honeys are typically harvested
Plants behind these honeys
- Silver firAbies albaNo floral nectar and negligible pollen. Its entire forage value is honeydew, which is why nectar and pollen are rated separately in this catalogue — a single bee-friendliness score would make this tree look worthless.
- Norway sprucePicea abiesNo floral nectar. Honeydew is the whole of its value, and it can be very substantial.
- Scots pinePinus sylvestrisNo floral nectar, moderate wind-borne pollen that bees will collect, and honeydew in very large quantities where the scale insect is established.
Bees associated with this origin
Deciding between two of them
- Single-source vs mixed forest honeydew — Honeydew honey is sold both as a named species crop and as a general forest honey. The distinction is genuine and it affects both character and price.
Guides covering these honeys
- How honey is madeNectar is mostly water. Honey is mostly sugar. Everything interesting about honey happens in the gap between those two sentences.
- What is honey?Honey is nectar that bees have concentrated and chemically altered, then sealed in wax. Every property people notice about it — the sweetness, the keeping quality, the setting — follows from that process.
- Why some honeys are rareRarity in honey almost always comes down to botany and weather rather than to deliberate restriction. Understanding the mechanism explains why supply swings so violently from year to year.
- Which flowers make honeyBeing good for bees and producing a honey crop are different things. A honey crop needs a plant that flowers in enormous quantity, in one place, at one time — which most good bee plants do not.
- How plants decide honey flavourNearly everything that distinguishes one honey from another arrives in the nectar. The bee contributes enzymes and evaporation; the plant contributes everything you taste.
- Honey chemistry explainedHoney is a supersaturated sugar solution with a small and consequential fraction of everything else. Almost every practical question about honey resolves into a question about that composition.
Explore these honeys
- 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?