Annual Honey Tasting
Did you know that there are different flavors of honey? Honeybees can get their nectar from a variety of plants – limiting their feeding to a specific plant will result in honey with a specific taste. You’ve heard of the classic Orange Blossom Honey, right? It’s not just a brand-name, it’s a diet. Orange blossom and clover are the most popular varieties of honey, but there are many other tasty varieties to choose from.
At our Rosh HaShana table, the tradition of dipping apples in honey can take quite a while – with at least 5 varieties of apple, and 7 varieties of honey this year alone. The fruity honeys are most popular with the children – there were cranberry, raspberry, blueberry & lime honey. Of those, I liked lime honey the best. Besides for differences in taste, varietal honeys can have different scents and colors. Chestnut and buckwheat honeys are strong and dark – more like molasses. My wife can’t stand them, but I think they’re the best of the bunch. Very assertive flavors, and not what you expect from honey. We also had “forest honey” at the table. The producer’s website claims that it’s produced “on the alpine areas from honeydew and forest blossoms” – it was a nice balance between the ‘fruity’ honeys and the ‘molasses’ honeys.
Next year, I’m going to try to get pine honey. Sounds intriguing. Why not try some flavored honeys at your holiday table?
we had acacia honey and it was great.
Sounds like fun!
We got the flavored honey sticks from http://www.stashtea.com
Original Clover, Chai, Cherry, Cinnamon, Ginger, Lemon, Licorice,Orange, Peppermint, Peach, Raspberry, Vanilla, Bergamot
Much less messy than spooning the honey out of a jar, and the kids enjoy sucking the honey right out of the stick.
Those flavors sound great. I’m impressed that you can limit kids to a stick-full of honey – I’d guess that my kids generally use about 6-10 sticks-worth of honey on each piece of challah. They are flavored honeys – bees sure can’t collect pollen from chai.
I love this site and all of the great recipes that are on it. However, I need help? Does anyone know where organic kosher food is available?
There is some organic kohser food at koshergourmetmart.com
We have a tradition of using a different honey each year at yom tov time. However, we do not buy flavored honies; instead we try different kinds of honey. So far, our favorite has been eucalyptus honey. The biggest loser was buckwheat honey (way too strong). Nest year, we hope (IY”H) to try white honey from Hawaii. We also enjoy using honey combs.
Hello
Please will someone tell me about Kosher honey. I’ve not come across it before. I live by the sea in England.
Thanks
Louise
Hi, Louise– See a previous posting on the subject for more info. Long story short, 100% pure honeys are naturally kosher and do not require any special certification.
Next time you’re in Israel, look for the avocado honey produced by Yad Mordechai. It has a light flavor with a definite hint of ripe avocados. (Which is odd, since the flowers from which the bees collect nectar, far from being ripe, are really prenatal avocados.)
koshergourmetmart.com is now carrying several of rigoni’s honey mentioned above. Each is $8.99 and for this month (december) there is free shipping! Flavors include: Acacia (my favorite), lime blossom, Italian Forest, Chestnut Blossom.
well you know ther are is honey in every contry in the world it wuld be grand! if you wuld haf some of the non u.s honey