Corsica honey

How honey is produced here

Miel de Corse — Mele di Corsica holds an AOP that recognises six seasonal types from spring maquis through chestnut grove to autumn maquis, all from the same landscape at different points in the year. The classification is by season and altitude rather than by single species, which is unusual and honest.

Flavour signature

The flavour families that recur across this origin’s honeys, counted from their sensory profiles rather than asserted.

• Phenolic and medicinal · 3
• Woody · 3
• Resinous · 2
• Floral · 2
• Smoky · 2
• Vegetal · 2

Protected honeys from here

Registered names with a specification: the honey types each allows and the hardest limit it sets. Water and HMF limits stricter than the general honey standard are a sign of honey handled cold and sold young.

• Miel de Corse – Mele di Corsica — PDO

  The whole island of Corsica (Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud), where the honey is harvested and settled.

  • Spring
  • Spring maquis (tree heath)
  • Maquis honeydew
  • Chestnut grove (Chestnut honey)
  • Summer maquis
  • Autumn maquis (strawberry tree)

  Every type: water < 18 %; hmf ≤ 10 mg/kg.

  When the specification places it:

  • Nectar flow, Sweet chestnut: June–August (season words; months derived)
  • Nectar flow, Strawberry tree: September–February (season words; months derived)
  • Harvest, Corsican maquis honey: January–December (all year, as stated)
  • Harvest, Corsican maquis honey: April–November (months as stated)

  Cahier des charges de l’appellation d’origine « Miel de Corse – Mele di Corsica », Décret n°2013-1057 du 22 novembre 2013 (JORF 24.11.2013), Cahier des charges §2, §3, §5; annexe 1. In French. Paraphrased by HoneyHQ from the document; not an official translation.

Honeys from Corsica

• Corsican maquis honeyExtra light amber · PronouncedRanges from delicate and floral in spring to intensely bitter and resinous in the autumn maquis, which is dominated by strawberry tree and is among the most challenging honeys in Europe.
• Chestnut honeyAmber · IntenseAromatic, woody and unmistakably bitter — sweetness first, tannin second, and a long dry finish.
• Strawberry tree honeyLight amber · IntenseAggressively bitter — coffee grounds, artichoke and burnt sugar, with the sweetness arriving late and briefly. Nothing in food prepares most people for it.
• Asphodel honeyWater white · DelicateDelicate and softly perfumed with a fresh, almost vegetal lift and a silky weight that gives it more presence than the flavour alone would.
• Tree heath honeyAmber · IntenseStrong, malty and slightly bitter, with a burnt-caramel depth and a woody finish — assertive in a way that divides opinion sharply.

When these honeys are typically harvested

Sourced periods for this place

Read from a source for the place named, and kept apart from the typical windows elsewhere on HoneyHQ, which are synthesis. Flowering, nectar flow and harvest are different periods.

• Nectar flow: Sweet chestnut — June–August

  Corsica (the PDO area), France · northern hemisphere · Season words; months derived · Protected-name specification

  Among the island's seasonal nectar staples, "chestnut at the start of summer" (HoneyHQ's translation from the French of the Corsica specification).

  The specification says the start of summer; the whole season is drawn, because it does not say which month it means. The quantity varies with the year's weather.

  Source: Cahier des charges de l’appellation d’origine « Miel de Corse – Mele di Corsica ». Checked 2026-10-31.

• Nectar flow: Strawberry tree — September–February

  Corsica (the PDO area), France · northern hemisphere · Season words; months derived · Protected-name specification

  Among the island's seasonal nectar staples, "strawberry tree in autumn–winter" (HoneyHQ's translation from the French of the Corsica specification).

  The source of the bitter autumn-maquis honey. The quantity varies with the year's weather.

  Source: Cahier des charges de l’appellation d’origine « Miel de Corse – Mele di Corsica ». Checked 2026-10-31.

• Nectar flow: Sweet chestnut — June

  Corsica (the PDO area), France · northern hemisphere · Months as stated · Beekeeping authority

  Some of the colonies made early in the season "can go into production on the chestnut flow (mid-June)" (HoneyHQ's translation from the French of the beekeeping institute's case study).

  The study places the flow in mid-June and gives no end month, so only June is drawn. Since the chestnut gall wasp arrived in 2010 the chestnut flow has become less reliable, the study notes.

  Source: Cas-type apiculture — Corse : miel en AOP et vente en demi-gros. Checked 2026-10-31.

• Nectar flow: Strawberry tree — October–November

  Corsica (the PDO area), France · northern hemisphere · Months as stated · Beekeeping authority

  "At the end of the season (October or November), beekeepers can take their hives to strawberry tree"; the season "can run until November or even December with the autumn maquis flow (mainly strawberry tree)" (HoneyHQ's translation from the French of the beekeeping institute's case study).

  Drawn October to November; "or even December" is an extension the study does not make regular, so it is kept in the words and not drawn. The flow may yield honey for sale or only the colonies' winter stores.

  Source: Cas-type apiculture — Corse : miel en AOP et vente en demi-gros. Checked 2026-10-31.

• Harvest: Corsican maquis honey — January–December

  Corsica (the PDO area), France · northern hemisphere · All year, as stated · Protected-name specification

  "Harvest periods take place throughout the year", from capped combs and at good ripeness (HoneyHQ's translation from the French of the Corsica specification).

  The six named types follow the island's flowering sequence through the year, from spring to the autumn maquis; the specification gives no month for each type.

  Source: Cahier des charges de l’appellation d’origine « Miel de Corse – Mele di Corsica ». Checked 2026-10-31.

• Harvest: Corsican maquis honey — April–November

  Corsica (the PDO area), France · northern hemisphere · Months as stated · Protected-name specification

  "The harvests are spread through the whole year, from April to October–November or even February" (HoneyHQ's translation from the French of the Corsica specification).

  Drawn April to November; the specification's "or even February" is a late extension it does not make regular, so it is kept in the words and not drawn.

  Source: Cahier des charges de l’appellation d’origine « Miel de Corse – Mele di Corsica ». Checked 2026-10-31.

• Harvest: Corsican maquis honey — March–May

  Corsica (the PDO area), France · northern hemisphere · Months as stated · Beekeeping authority

  The spring honey (clementine, asphodel) is "harvested from March to May" (HoneyHQ's translation from the French of the regional tourism agency's page).

  The PDO's "Printemps" type.

  Source: Le miel corse. Checked 2026-10-31.

• Harvest: Corsican maquis honey — May–September

  Corsica (the PDO area), France · northern hemisphere · Months as stated · Beekeeping authority

  The maquis honeydews (rockrose, oaks, mastic tree) are "harvested from May to September" on the coast and the wooded land around the maquis (HoneyHQ's translation from the French of the regional tourism agency's page).

  The PDO's "Miellats du maquis" type. A harvest of honeydew honey: it says when the honey comes off, not when the insects are active.

  Source: Le miel corse. Checked 2026-10-31.

• Harvest: Corsican maquis honey — August

  Corsica (the PDO area), France · northern hemisphere · Onset as stated · Beekeeping authority

  The summer maquis honey is "harvested from August" (HoneyHQ's translation from the French of the regional tourism agency's page).

  The PDO's "Maquis d'été" type. The page gives when the harvest begins, not when it ends.

  Source: Le miel corse. Checked 2026-10-31.

• Harvest: Corsican maquis honey — October–February

  Corsica (the PDO area), France · northern hemisphere · Months as stated · Beekeeping authority

  The autumn maquis honey, mainly strawberry tree, is "harvested from October to February" (HoneyHQ's translation from the French of the regional tourism agency's page).

  The PDO's "Maquis d'automne" type; it crosses the new year.

  Source: Le miel corse. Checked 2026-10-31.

Every sourced period, on the honey atlas

Plants behind these honeys

• Strawberry treeArbutus unedoValuable out of all proportion to its abundance, because of when it flowers. Late nectar lets colonies enter winter with fresh stores in a landscape that has otherwise shut down.
• HeatherCalluna vulgaris
• Sweet chestnutCastanea sativaAn exceptional pollen source — the catkins shed enormous quantities — and a good nectar source in the right weather. The pollen arrives at a useful moment for colonies building towards late summer.
• AsphodelAsphodelus ramosusA major early nectar source in country that offers little else at that season, and rated highly for pollen as well.
• RockroseCistus ladaniferAn outstanding pollen source and a good nectar one, and a plant that also supplies resin for propolis — an unusual triple contribution.
• Bell heatherErica cinereaA good nectar source and moderate for pollen, over a long summer season on ground with few alternatives.

Bees associated with this origin

• Western honey beeApis melliferaThe bee behind essentially all the world's honey, and the one most people mean when they say 'bee'. Apis mellifera is a perennial eusocial insect that overwinters as a living cluster rather than dying back each year — which is the whole reason it stores honey in quantity, and therefore the reason it was ever domesticated. It is native to Europe, Africa and western Asia and has been carried by people to every continent except Antarctica.
• BumblebeesBombusLarge, furry, loud, and cold-tolerant in a way no honey bee is. Bumblebees run annual colonies: a mated queen emerges alone in spring, founds a nest by herself, raises workers through the summer, produces new queens and males in late season, and then the entire colony dies except those new queens. They do make honey, in the strict sense of ripened nectar stores — just a few days' worth, because they have no winter to survive as a colony.
• Iberian honey beeApis mellifera iberiensisThe honey bee of Spain and Portugal, and one of the more genetically interesting subspecies in Europe — it carries ancestry from both the western European dark bee lineage and the African lineage across the Strait of Gibraltar, in a gradient running from north to south. It is defensive, frugal, prone to swarming, and superbly adapted to a landscape of long dry summers.

Honey in Corsica

Corsican beekeeping works the endemic Corsican bee, a distinct population of Apis mellifera adapted to the island's compressed altitudinal range, and the AOP requires it.

Deciding between two of them

• Chestnut vs strawberry tree honey — The two great bitter honeys of Europe. One is widely available and a good introduction; the other is the most bitter honey in production and divides people completely.