Dark Honey

[paquebot]

Why is it that everyone supposedly knows that dark honey is better than light but they don't buy it?  If there's a beekeeper at a farmer's market, he'll charge more for dark honey and can't keep up with the demand.  Stock it on a supermarket shelf and it sits there until it crystallizes.  Then it's offered at cost or below as a closeout as $4 or less per pound.  I just can't resist those offers.  Even WalMart closed some out yesterday, 12-ounce bears for $3.  Didn't want to be greedy so only got one of each.  All gone today. 

There's a nice side story to this.  My garden partner is currently visiting her relatives in ND.  One is a beekeeper and she will be bringing some buckwheat honey back next weekend.  About 10 years ago, she came back with a number of containers of honey.  She said that something was wrong with 3 or 4 of them.  "They must have heated it too much and burned it as it is black and solid."  I asked if they smelled something like burned rubber and it did.  Told her to bring them over.  I recognized it as buckwheat and she ended up taking one pail back with her!  I warmed it and transferred it to jars.  That was the purest buckwheat honey that I had seen since I was probably 10. 

Martin      

[indypartridge]

Strictly my opinion:
In stores - "the general public" tends to think that honey should be light and golden. Light honey tastes very light and sweet.
(If you're a wine drinker, think Chablis or Moscato.)

At farmer's markets, buyers of honey are more savvy and know that dark honey has a richer, more robust taste.
(If you're a wine drinker, think Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon).

And I don't know of any honey that is more robust than pure buckwheat honey! Many people don't like it because it has such a strong flavor.

[paquebot]

Indy, I know that dark honey is better, you know that dark honey is better, 99% of the general public think something is wrong with it and that it all should look like Sue Bee white clover honey. I grew up with either wild or buckwheat. At Taliesin, there was one field of buckwheat every year. That was pure and would set up as hard as a rock. My mother was diabetic so it was used in place of sugar for a lot of baking. Often it was hard to tell if honey or sorghum were used. The latest from WalMart was blended with some local honey from the southeastern part of the state. Totally different from the non-glacial southwestern part.) The blend tastes great and may slow the crystallizing process.

Martin

[Use Less]

I like buckwheat honey, available in my area since they grow buckwheat around here for flour. Not everyone cares for it, so I wonder if some pass by darker honey thinking it's buckwheat, when really, it's "wildflower." I seldom go in a Walmart, but I would be afraid that their honey comes from China. I get mine from a young man I know from my farm-market days. He has studied beekeeping seriously and keeps his own hives.

[paquebot]

Anyone doubting where the honey at any store comes from has only to read the label. The "dreaded" Food Safety Act S-511 should come to mind. That was the one which supposedly was going to outlaw gardening, home butchering, saving seeds, and producing any food in general.  Part of the reason why it is no longer safe to eat an apple in the dark without the risk of ingesting a plastic "country of origin" label. As a result of S-511 and Country of Origin Labeling, the country of origin must be on just about everything including honey. Importers must guarantee what they import is safe. That's why I know that dark honey from India is great but only so-so from Argentina or Uruguay. In the case of the latest that I bought, I suppose that I could say that it's foreign. It's from Minnesota!

Martin

[Skandi]

We don't get dark honey here, I assume we have no plants that produce it. If you buy from a local keeper (as we do) honey is divided up into spring, summer and autum. Spring is the cheapest, it's pale and waxy in consistancy and will be mainly from rape. Summer will be slightly darker and have a much nicer taste it'll be mixed flowers, mainly wild. And autumn is the best, slightly darker again and often liquid, it's another mix but if you're lucky it'll have plenty of heather in it. You can of course pay 4x the amount and buy heather honey, that's the only named native honey you will find.

[paquebot]

In addition to plain and buckwheat, there are some local beekeepers who offer specialty honeys. My favorite has pumpkin, basswood, locust, purple loosestrife, black cherry, and goldenrod in addition to clover and wildflowers. He's constantly moving hives to where he can get a pure flow and each of those are very distinctly different. Of those, my favorite is black cherry which should also be available in parts of Denmark.

Martin

[Skandi]

I would think we don't get any special ones other than heather because we do not have large areas of anything, other than rape of course, but no one wants that honey! it might be possible to get seabuckthorn if you placed the hives right, but again it would be a mix not very pure. Clover might be theoreticaly possible, we got that in the uk, personaly I think it's a terrible honey!

Hives here do not tend to be moved, it's not considered good for the bees.

[paquebot]

Most of the rape/canola honey here comes from Canada but I have yet to find a single container on any store shelf. For one, it is normally very light color. For another, it is quick to crystallize. Most of it ends up in large bulk containers for commercial baking and similar uses. If one can handle 5 gallons at a time, as I have done, it is available.

Martin

[Woodpecker]

I always buy the least expensive honey, which ever is on sale. Martin, this is a silly question, but what do I look for to try "dark honey?" Does it say "dark" on it , or am I looking for the darkest honey I can find?

[paquebot]

Woodpecker ,it's really simple, you see the color through the plastic or glass. If you buy "bears", the honey has been heated to a point where some of the beneficial qualities are lost. Reason for that is that plastic doesn't fare well in hot water if the honey goes hard. What you find in jars may not have been heated as much and the label may say what to do if the honey crystallize. Generally you will find light or amber honey on the store shelves since that's what most people think it should be. (Isn't there even a color "honey"?) Around here, we also find buckwheat and orange blossom on supermarket shelves. Those plus clover are examples of monofloral honeys. There are probably 300 different just in the US and I've enjoyed at least 10% of them. If not labeled as a distinct type, they are either a natural or apaiary blend.

www.hiveandhoneyapiary.com/honeyvarieties.html

Martin

   

[feather]

Maybe the maple syrup that is 'honey colored' is clear and yellow, not over cooked. And honey is supposed to be light, like white bread. Remember the period in history when the rich people could afford the white bread and the lowly poor could only afford the dark bread and the burned crust. So maybe the light colored preference in honey has something to do with the light colored bread being seen as more affluent. BUT, nutritionally speaking, having all the minerals and vitamins, a dark bread, and a dark honey, is probably better for you.

[steveinpa]

Martin, does the Goldenrod honey have an odor? I have left it for the bees because it comes late in the year and smells...bad.

The closest smell I can describe curing goldenrod honey to is a locker room or very sweaty gym socks. The first time I smelled it I panicked thinking my hives had foulbrood.

[paquebot]

Steve, goldenrod is hated by most beekeepers because of the smell. A great uncle was great at locating wild bee trees and often claimed to be able to find them by the smell. I know for a fact that that is true as I found one that way. Supposedly the odor is of stinky feet but I do not find it offensive. The honey has a great sweet taste which I like. We use honey exclusively in tea (me) or coffee (wife). What it smells like is no factor as the tea or coffee overpowers it. The beekeeper who sells it has no problem moving all of it at several farmers markets.

In Denmark, Skandi is not looking in the right places for specialty honey. Helt Honey in Skanderborg has some interesting ones. They also have spiced honey which we can not get. If anything is added to honey here, it can best be called honey syrup. There are many recipes of how to make it but it can't be sold as honey.

helthoney.com

Martin

[Woodpecker]

Thank you paquebot, for all the info. I think I need to go to the health food store, to find the dark honey. There's no dark colored honey where I shop. Boy oh boy, you sure know something, about everything! You're a blessing, in my eyes to this forum.

[paquebot]

Woodpecker, in your bigger market area, it will be interesting to see how many different you find in health or ethnic stores. You're not going to find them at $4 a pound clearance!

Martin

[indypartridge]

Jul 2, 2017 16:36:32 GMT steveinpa said:

Martin, does the Goldenrod honey have an odor? I have left it for the bees because it comes late in the year and smells...bad.

The closest smell I can describe curing goldenrod honey to is a locker room or very sweaty gym socks. The first time I smelled it I panicked thinking my hives had foulbrood.

Agree with Martin - the honey is sweet to the taste. Actually, the honey doesn't smell bad - the 'stinky socks' smell is just how the hive smells during the curing of the honey. Once cured, the honey does not have an offensive odor. It does, however, tend to crystallize quickly.

[paquebot]

Jul 3, 2017 4:25:57 GMT Tallpines said:

For years our local honey collector sold his honey for $1.oo a pound!

Of coarse, I'm getting pretty old ..... and that was many, many years ago.
I'm wishing I had stock piled a bunch of it.

Six years ago I bought a 5-gallon pail for less than $3 a pound.  Moderator on HT had been constantly moaning the low price of honey said that I paid too much!  It was right on the verge of crystallizing so I assembled 20 wide-mouth quart jars to transfer it into.  Also had full roll of paper towels to account for spills.  Set up so jar sat on an inverted pan and the funnel overlapped the pail.  Used a soup ladle to dip out the honey.  Never spilled a drop!  It was honey from the eastern part of the state where my wife was raised.  She took one taste and said that it was the same as what her grandfather's hives used to produce.  It was nowhere close to the honey which I grew up with.  Our very local honey has always been somewhat generic and everyone thinks that it's super except me and it's all because of where I am presently gardening, Prairie Pumpkin Patch.  I think that pumpkin honey is good but doesn't blend well with other nectar.  And when added to all of the exotic city flowers, it's a unique taste that needs help somewhere.     

Martin     

[paquebot]

Friend returned from Dickinson, ND today and brought some honey as I'd hoped. There's 2# of coal-black buckwheat and 2# of the just about the lightest honey I've ever seen other than basswood. If there were a color lemonade, that would be it. It's liquid but grainy and very sweet. I don't recognize the taste but for now I'm betting on canola.

///Confirmed that the light honey is canola.  Adds another to the many different that I've enjoyed.  Went well with this morning's cup of tea.

Martin

[Skandi]

canola is normaly solid waxy and pretty tasteless in my experiance, prehapse a slight mustard aftertaste.

[paquebot]

Not far from where that Danish honey is produced is where I have been twice on this date. I was in Rebild in 1990 and again in 1997. First time, the crown prince was there. Second time, the queen was there. Trivia question. Where is the Fourth of July celebrated in a European country? Answer is Denmark and exact location is Rebild where it's been celebrated since 1912.

Martin

[paquebot]

The boon continues. Wife came home this morning and set two 24-ounce bears on the table beside me. Roundy's brand so it's being phased out now that Kroger's bought the company. They were only $3 each. Asked why only two and that was all that were left. Oh yes, it also was dark.

Martin