Morocco honey

How honey is produced here

Euphorbia resinifera is endemic to a limited area of the Atlas, and its honey carries traces of resiniferatoxin, producing a genuine burning heat. The argan forest of the Souss is a managed landscape maintained for centuries by Amazigh communities and now a UNESCO biosphere reserve.

Flavour signature

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

• Resinous · 3
• Spicy · 2
• Caramel · 2
• Fruity · 2

Honeys from Morocco

• Euphorbia honeyLight amber · IntenseOverwhelmingly pungent — a sharp peppery burn at the back of the throat that builds for some seconds after swallowing and dominates everything else. Beneath it there is a warm caramel sweetness that most people never get to.
• Argan honeyLight amber · ModerateWarm and nutty with a distinct roasted note and a light resinous edge — genuinely reminiscent of the oil, which is a rare coincidence between a honey and its tree's other product.
• Carob honeyAmber · IntenseDark, malty and distinctly savoury with a fermented, almost cheesy note that people either find fascinating or cannot get past.
• Thyme honeyLight amber · PronouncedWarm, herbal and savoury — thyme and dry stone, with a peppery lift and a very long finish.
• Orange blossom honeyExtra white · ModerateUnmistakably floral and citrus-scented — orange blossom in the glass, with the fruit itself somewhere behind it.

Plants behind these honeys

• Resin spurgeEuphorbia resiniferaA good spring nectar source on ground that offers very little else.
• ArganArgania spinosaA good spring nectar source in a semi-arid landscape with few alternatives.
• CarobCeratonia siliquaStructurally important rather than abundant — a good nectar source at a time of year when a Mediterranean colony has almost no alternatives.
• ThymeThymus
• LemonCitrus limonExcellent nectar over an unusually long and repeated window, and only a moderate pollen contribution.
• Sweet orangeCitrus sinensisA heavy nectar source over a substantial period, and moderate for pollen.

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.
• 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 Morocco

The Inzerki collective apiary in the argan country is a terraced mud-and-stone structure holding thousands of traditional hives, documented since the eighteenth century and among the largest traditional apiaries in the world. Daghmous honey is taken in very small doses as a traditional remedy.

Traditions documented here

How honey is, or was, obtained in this place. Each record names the communities it is documented among, the period the record describes, and whether anyone is known to be doing it now.

• Clay and pottery hivesHive system · Practised, decliningHorizontal cylinders of fired or unfired clay, stacked in rows and worked from the rear. The best-evidenced ancient hive on earth, for one reason: it is the only material that survives, so the archaeological record of hives is really the record of this design.
• Cork hivesHive system · Practised, decliningCylinders of cork bark, used across the western Mediterranean wherever cork oak is worked. Excellent insulation, effectively free where the forestry already exists, and a good illustration of hive design following local material.
• Collective apiariesHive system · Practised, decliningPurpose-built shared structures holding hundreds of family-owned hives, with allocation, maintenance and guarding organised communally. Documented in the Maghreb, southern Arabia and central Europe, and among the most striking pieces of beekeeping architecture anywhere.
• Honey and syrup sweets of the Middle East and North AfricaCultural use · Widespread living practiceA family of pastries and fried sweets finished with honey or sugar syrup across the eastern Mediterranean, the Levant, Anatolia and the Maghreb — and an honest account of which of them actually use honey.
• Honey in Islamic traditionCultural use · Widespread living practiceA chapter of the Qur'an named for the bee, honey in the prophetic medical tradition, and the effect both have had on a modern trade in high-value regional honeys.