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NEW ZEALAND BEEKEEPER, MARCH 2017
NZ HONEY SENSORY PROFILES MONOFLORAL VARIETIES AII descriptions based on liquid, except where stated as “Creamed”
VARIETY
APPEARANCE
AROMA
FLAVOUR
CLOVER
Light pale gold
Herbal dry grass, hints of plums
Clean mild, sweet traditional honey flavour Slightly bitter, hints of liquorice and treacle toffees.
ERICA
Deep red amber
Complex, toasty, hint of turpentine
HONEYDEW
Medium-dark amber
Musky citrus Mineral
Complex, treacly, “Christmas Cake”
KAMAHI
Pale lemon yellow
lntense, musky, almost lactic. Quite complex
Very clean, rich and sweet, balanced buttery finish
MANUKA
Dark cream to dark brown
Catmint, damp earth, heather, aromatic Mineral, slightly bitter barley sugar, herbaceous
NODDING THISTLE
Pale lemon gold
Citrus orange peel/orange blossom, intense Musky, damp leaves, salty (almost seaweed) but pleasant
Intense floral flavour, sweet barley sugar
POHUTAKAWA (Creamed)
Off white
Clean earthy sweet butterscotch
RATA (Creamed)
Pale cream
Heady, lime blossom, musk: papaya
Very sweet, Iime flavours
REWAREWA
Light amber with orange hints
Intense, herbaceous, geranium/ dandelion Rich perfumed musk/incense/ sandalwood/orange peel/ liquorice
Clean sweet smoky herbaceous complex
TAWARI
Deep orange gold
Clean musty rosehip syrup, very sweet golden syrup
THYME
Very pale amber
Very aromatic, tarry, “dusty”
Resinous, aromatic herbal, very strong
VIPER BUGLOSS (often described as Blue Borage)
Yellow gold
Dusty, rose oil character
Clean tasting, lemon & floral characters
HONEY AROMA CAN BE FLEETING ONCE CONTAINER OPENED. REGIONAL VARIATIONS MAY RESULT IN DIFFERENCES FROMTHE ABOVE GENERIC DESCRIPTIONS.
Know your honeys before you label them So back to the honey tasting I recently attended. A good percentage were not true to label. Mānuka is thixotropic so sets like a jelly. If you turn a jar upside down, it shouldn’t move. If it does, it isn’t mānuka. I was a little shocked, as one honey was produced by a larger-scale beekeeper. Just because your bees were close to a certain species doesn’t mean the bees brought in that honey. Get to know the tastes of different honeys. Some can be sampled at the National Honey Show at the Apiculture New Zealand National Conference. Buy some small pots and use these as a reference so you have something to compare against.
I have included Bill Floyd’s sensory profiles chart for your information, part of a pamphlet published by the New Zealand Honey Food and Ingredient Advisory Service (1997). The NBA contracted Bill to produce this pamphlet. Bill Floyd was our marketing guru back in the 1990s, when the NBA had marketing money from the levy. Bill was responsible for putting the marketing of mānuka and other varietal honeys on a firm foundation. He took honey to restaurants, catering schools and organised cooking competitions between different polytechnics. If you want to name your honey by its variety, make sure you are correct. Have some samples tested for pollen counts and other markers. Be aware that not all plants can be represented by pollen counts. Some are
under-represented. It’s only when you test the pollen content of the honey that you get a feel of what’s in the area of the beehive. Bees generally forage within 2.5 kilometres of the hive, but they can fly 14 kilometres if they have to. The only problem is that when bees are foraging at a great distance, they will use most of the nectar they collect in flying home.
Source for table New Zealand Honey Food and
Ingredient Advisory Service. (1997, February). New Zealand Honey sensory profiles —Monofloral varieties.
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