The best honey

[John F]

I know this is going to a bit subjective. This is my second year as a beekeeper and this year I got to taste a bit of the work of my bees. I will be extracting some here soon. When folks ask me what it tastes like all I can say is "uhh flowers.?" and these folks are shocked when I tell them that it really does taste quite different. I am learning this for myself actually and I imagine that my idea of honey flavor isn't that far different than the average off the shelf clover honey consumer.

Actually, most things out there tend toward some average taste so a person could pick just about any common product, say coffee, beer, honey, etc., and most folks don't move too far from the average. I sometimes wonder of most folks even know what beer tastes like since they seem to think Bud Light is beer. :) Anyway, start to talk about the variation of flavors and folks will brand you with the title "connoisseur" in a context as if it were a bad thing. (No, really, I just like GOOD coffee, not... well, never mind.)

So I got to taste fireweed honey. I have to say, as a hobbist, if I were in an area where I knew fireweed was a possibility then that is the only honey I would try to get. The bees can keep the other honey. My "domestic flower" suburban honey isn't even in the ballpark compared to this. Now I wonder what the awesome honey in my area is?

Be gentle, remember I am a honey flavor virgin. What are favorite honeys? I've heard that tupelo honey is supposed to be awesome. Now I want to try some out.

But fireweed is definately good.

[Dan Williamson]

Usually when folks ask me... I tell them... MY HONEY IS THE BEST FLAVOR HONEY! That usually gets a chuckle and "I'll try some!"

Most people come back and say... "That is the best honey I've ever had!" When all they've ever had is the super center store bought honey its a no brainer.

[Korny's Korner]

MY customers tell me I have the best honey:p

[Bizzybee]

I consider clover run of the mill and wouldn't go outta my way for it. AS a rule of thumb I wouldn't waste my money on store honey. I have always gotten my honey from Beeks.

I wish I could try everyones honey at least once!!! I don't know that I have a favorite yet?? I don't think I ever will?!

There must be at least a gazillion different honeys out there, compound that with another gazillion combinations. There's a lotta honey fun out there to be tasted!!

And I wouldn't even consider color a factor either! Everyone may want to find that elusive light honey. But some of the best IMO is dark.

[Laurence Hope]

I like them all. I gravitate to those with a little zing or a different flavor or two. That's why I like to trade honeys. I got some great Tupelo last year from FL via a trade on this board, and some unexpectingly fantastic clover fron ND. Also some wonderful Goldenrod - NY, even after hearing from some that Goldenrod wasn't the best. I also received some wonderful wildflower honey -WV just labeled "honey" or Ruby Red (I'd like more) or something else non-varietal. Still looking for Sourwood, Mesquite and more.

Locally, I really like our Orange Blossom, Cotton Blossom, Safflower, Eucalyptus, Manzanita,
and California Buckwheat. I also like, for different tastes, each batch of "wildflower", one of which had a nice hint of licorice (wild anise, I think). I have even enjoyed some oak honeydew, and believe I have some Eucalyptus honeydew in a couple supers at present.

Anyone wanna trade?

[Dan Williamson]

What is interesting to me is that my honey can taste different from year to year depending on timely rains and such. One year I may get alot of black locust and the next none.... Clovers bloom great one year and less another... I usually blend it all and some years I have a very smooth very mellow honey. Other years the honey tastes smooth and is mellow but you get a little zing right at the end. Same with the color. One year lighter than the next etc....

[JC]

Sourwood is my favorite honey. I thinik that there are about 1200 distinct honeys. I always buy some local honey when I am traveling.

[Brent Bean]

I always warn people that if they buy my honey they will never be satisfied with Wal-Mart honey again. And to set the record straight I sell the Best honey!

[newbee 101]

My label states my honey is "The Worlds Finest".....I got you all beat ;)
http://www.acmepainting.com/largelabel.jpg

[Jeffzhear]

I actually like basswood...however I haven't tasted all the different types of honey out there...
I'm looking forward to trying many more over time...:)

[iddee]

Check out this link. I got a jar of this honey tonight. Without a doubt, after 50 years of eating raw honey, this is by far the very best I have ever come across. It is so mild you want to drink it rather than eat it.

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=197276

[Aisha]

John F,

Thanks for the fireweed honey reference. I want to try it out.

I am interested in trying some darker, more bittersweet or spicy honeys. I wonder how those are created? I hear some are as dark as motor oil. Mmmm.

You might like getting some herbal honey mixes from Botanical Preservation Corps (http://www.botanicalpreservationcorps.com/honey_1.htm). I have ordered from them for over a decade and they are a great company. I love their "stimulant honey." It's dark and bittersweet and gives you a nice energy rush. It's solid like butter, but more dense, and a little goes a long way.

[riverrat]

[quote=Aisha;256520]John F,



I am interested in trying some darker, more bittersweet or spicy honeys. I wonder how those are created? I hear some are as dark as motor oil. Mmmm.

Try to get some bees on sunflowers it makes a strong dark honey

[xC0000005]

Fireweed is (for me) the one true honey. Clover I detest. Grew up eating nothing but clover, always thought it was good. The wife loves buckwheat, my daughters like mesquite.

At a picnic there were strawberries with honey on them - my daughter tried some. Then she scrunched up her face and said
"There's something wrong with this honey."
She marched over to the bottle picked it up, said "Ugh. It's clover." I couldn't have been more proud. One bear from the car later everything was set right. I have a bunch of people who really want to buy honey from me now. :)

[Black Creek]

purple honey?? that's some pretty stuff. sounds tasty too! awfully kind of them to send you a jar. I'm betting something like that would fetch quite a good price if you could convince folks that it's acutally the real deal.

[EKW]

One of the best honeys my bees ever made was a Strawberry/Orange Blossom. I don't think that they usually make a surplus from strawberries, but that year we had bees on pollination in some commercial strawberry fields which were next to orange groves. The weather was right, the hives were super strong, the stars aligned, and whoa! When I pulled the supers there was a dark crescent band of honey in the middle/bottom of the frames and the rest of the frame contained nearly white orange blossom honey. We extracted it, and when I tasted it I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! I still have people ask me for that honey- I stupidly sold a few dozen cases before I came to my senses. I am hoarding the balance of it for extra special occasions.

Another really good honey that we used to make is Palmetto. Before I had beees I never knew that palmetto was a nectar producing plant (in quantities for making honey). The first year we had bees they collected a bunch of it from around our farm. The following years we moved the bees to a location which was right smack in the middle of hundreds of acres of palmetto plants. I think I'd have to rate Palmetto as my all time favorite honey. Tupelo is nice, but cannot compare.

Now I have married and moved to Minnesota, where we make LOTS of basswood, clover, some alfalfa, but nothing that can compare in quality to the honey we made in the South.

[nc_beekeeper]

Sourwood is my favorite honey. I thinik that there are about 1200 distinct honeys. I always buy some local honey when I am traveling.

I'm with you JC, it's hard to beat sourwood IMO. I'm surprised we don't have a few more sourwood peeps on here.

[the kid]

my favorite honney is HONNEY!!!!!!!!!!!!

[aszalan]

mine is fireweed.

had my first taste of it well helping out a beekeeper in the BC rockies when I was a teenager back in the late 70s.

[Quint Randle]

Where my main hives are, I get a real minty flavor to my honey. It's very interesting. Kind of sharp and tangy. Apparantly there is a lot of wild mint up in the Rocky Moutains, just above where my hives are.

The analogy I use for people who have never tasted raw honey, and only know store-bought honey is: It's like the difference between fresh squeezed organge juice and frozen concentrate. That is a comparison they kind of understand, cause most people will choose fresh squeezed -- if they could do it or afford it.

Quint

[Carson]

Well I live in arkansas and we have a lot of soy beans down south and there good honey plants. This is my frist year beekeeping and I only have 2 hives well im going to have 7 in the spring. Well the guy thats helping me is the arkansas state inspecter. So are hives are in the soy beans. Well my hives did not do to good makeing honey. I did get one 5 gallon bucket and ed gave me one more for all the help this year. Well I got one bucket all ready to sell on thur and on sat I was sold out of the frist one so now ive got to wate for ed to get back to the us to get my other one and its sold out lol. Ever one tells me I have the best honey. And then I told them if thay give me the jars back there get part of the price taken off:D

[riverrat]

hands down the judges have spoken I have the best honey of all dark has a beer bottle smooth has the glass its made of and sweet has anything discovered yet. produced right here in the state of KANSAS unsure what the source was probably sumac