Flavour selector
Start from a flavour you already like and work outwards to the honeys that carry it — and to the families that keep turning up alongside it.
28 of 265 honeys carry spicy
What tends to come with it
Families that appear on the same records, commonest first. This is a count of co-occurrences in the catalogue, not a claim that the two tastes resemble each other — it answers “if you like this, what else is usually in the jar”.
- Caramel (15)
- Floral (11)
- Fruity (8)
- Herbaceous (8)
- Resinous (8)
- Woody (4)
- Citrus (3)
- Phenolic and medicinal (2)
- Smoky (2)
- Molasses and treacle (1)
- Vegetal (1)
All 28 honeys
In catalogue order. Nothing here is ranked — no honey is a better answer than another until you say what you want it for.
- Ceanothus honeyDelicate and clean with a light floral sweetness and a faint spicy edge — mild, and rather more interesting than a pale honey usually is.FloralSpicy
- Brazilian pepper honeyWarm and peppery with a distinct resinous spice and a faint tartness — genuinely reminiscent of the pink peppercorns the plant produces.SpicyResinousFruity
- Catclaw honeyDelicate and floral with a light sweetness and a faint spicy warmth — one of the gentler American varietals and quite distinct from the darker mesquite honey of the same country.FloralSpicy
- Persimmon honeyRich and fruity with a dried-date depth and a warm caramel base — one of the more distinctive minor American varietals and genuinely reminiscent of the ripe fruit.FruityCaramelSpicy
- Leatherwood honeyPowerfully perfumed and slightly spicy — musk, warm blossom and something faintly balsamic. Distinctive to the point of being polarising.FloralSpicyResinousCaramel
- Sourwood honeySpicy and aromatic — anise and clove over a caramel base, with a dry, almost tannic finish that stops it being merely sweet.SpicyCaramelFloralWoody
- Goldenrod honeyStrong, warm and spicy, with a hay-and-clove character and a slightly astringent finish. Assertive in a way that surprises people expecting an ordinary golden honey.SpicyFloralCaramel
- Saw palmetto honeySmoky and peppery with a warm resinous depth — an unusual and slightly savoury honey that divides opinion sharply.SmokySpicyResinousWoody
- Star thistle honeyLight and clean with a distinct anise-and-cinnamon lift and a fruity sweetness underneath. Delicate but not blank.SpicyFruityFloral
- Longan honeyIntensely aromatic — caramel, dried tropical fruit and a distinctive musky floral note that is unlike anything in the European catalogue.CaramelFruityFloralSpicy
- Thistle honeyWarm and herbaceous with a hay-and-spice character and a faint bitterness at the end.HerbaceousCaramelSpicy
- Ber honeyWarm and rich with dried dates and caramel, and a faint herbal bitterness on the finish — recognisably a Ziziphus honey, and lighter than Yemeni sidr.CaramelFruitySpicy
- Aster honeyStrong and slightly sharp with a hay-and-herb character and a distinct sour edge that fades as the honey ages.FloralHerbaceousSpicy
- African acacia honeyWarm and spiced with a caramel base and a dry, faintly smoky finish — considerably more assertive than European acacia honey, which it is named after and resembles in no way.SpicyCaramelSmokyWoody
- Savory honeyIntensely herbal with a distinct peppery, almost oregano-like bite over a warm sweetness — one of the more assertive Mediterranean aromatics.HerbaceousSpicyResinous
- Dittany honeyIntensely aromatic and herbal with a distinct medicinal lift and a warm oregano character — closer to a herbal infusion than to a floral honey.HerbaceousResinousSpicy
- Thyme honeyWarm, herbal and savoury — thyme and dry stone, with a peppery lift and a very long finish.HerbaceousSpicyResinousFruity
- Sidr honeyRich, dark and layered — caramel and dried fruit first, then a faintly medicinal bitterness and a long savoury finish. Complex in a way few honeys are.CaramelFruitySpicyPhenolic and medicinal
- Jamun honeyDark, tannic and astringent with a dried-fruit depth and a dry finish — noticeably less sweet than most honeys of similar colour.FruitySpicyMolasses and treacleWoody
- Coriander honeyWarm and spicy with an unmistakable coriander-seed aroma over a caramel base — one of the most immediately recognisable honeys there is.SpicyCaramelCitrus
- Euphorbia honeyOverwhelmingly 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.SpicyResinousPhenolic and medicinalCaramel
- Tulsi honeyDistinctly clove-scented over a light caramel body — one of the few herb honeys that genuinely smells of the herb.HerbaceousSpicyCaramel
- Ajwain honeyAromatic and faintly medicinal, with a clear thyme-and-caraway note over light amber sweetness.HerbaceousSpicyCaramel
- Moringa honeyGreen, peppery and faintly vegetal over a light sweetness — recognisably related to the mustard-oil chemistry running through the whole plant.VegetalSpicyFloral
- Cardamom honeyGenuinely spice-scented — eucalyptol and a sweet resinous lift over pale amber sweetness. One of the clearest spice signatures of any honey.SpicyResinousCitrus
- Manzanita honeyDelicate and faintly spicy, with a clean short finish. Interesting mostly for when it is made rather than for how it tastes.FloralSpicyCaramel
- Xtabentún honeyPale, aromatic and faintly aniseed, with a clean floral lift. The liqueur made from it leans directly on that anise note.FloralSpicyHerbaceous
- Wilga honeyWarm and faintly spicy with a clean finish, and without the camphor edge that runs through the eucalypt honeys of the same landscape.CaramelSpicyCitrus
- Flavour families are editorial groupings, and the boundaries between them are matters of judgement rather than fact.
- It does not model intensity of a family, only its presence — a honey with a trace of smoke and one dominated by it both match 'smoky'.
- Adjacency is co-occurrence in this catalogue, not similarity of taste. It answers what tends to be in the jar together, which is a different question from what tastes alike.
- The map shifts as the catalogue grows, which is correct and does mean a link shared today may show slightly different neighbours next year.
The vocabulary under each family
HoneyHQ’s six groups and eighteen families, with the reference terms the International Honey Commission’s trained panels use and the terms official honey specifications add. A term is a link only where a source has named it in a honey in the catalogue; the rest are vocabulary, shown so you can see what the family covers.
Floral and fruity
- Floral
- orange blossom
- violet
- rose
- hyacinth
- Fruity
- pear
- apple
- red fruit
- blackcurrant
- coconut
- apricot
- exotic fruit
- dates
- prunes
- figs
- raisins
- candied fruit
- dried fruit
- overripe apple
- Citrus
- lemon
- orange
- grapefruit
Green and herbal
Warm and cooked
Woody and resinous
- Resinous
- cedar
- pine resin
- propolis
- fresh conifer wood
- spruce-tip syrup
- balsamic
- Woody
- leafy wood
- dust
- Smoky
Spicy and sharp
- Spicy
- clove
- nutmeg
- coffee
- Phenolic and medicinal
- styrene
- paint
- solvent
- household soap
- vitamin b1
Earthy and mineral
- Mineral and saline
- damp cloth
- humus
- stuffy
- Waxy
- Animal and barnyard
- piquant cheese
- vinegar
- cheese
- perspiration
- cowshed
- cat urine