Honey as a natural miracle of many colors, tastes and aromas
Honey is an amazing superfood. Hardworking bees make it in their digestive tract after collecting nectar from flowers or honeydew. Thanks to honey sacs, the bee can transfer the sucked nectar or honeydew to the hive, where other bees then take care of the contents: they evaporate the liquid, thicken it, and enrich it with substances from their own body. After emptying the honey sac, the worker bee rests for a while, cleans its eyes and antennae, and then sets out again for nectar. She makes up to sixteen such trips a day. The result is a beneficial golden liquid full of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and amino acids.
Color, Taste, and Aroma of Honey Honey is generally divided by origin into floral and honeydew, and from another perspective, into single-flower or mixed, depending on the type of plants from which it is collected. Interestingly, the vast majority of honeys are never purely single-flower but always contain multiple types of honey. Therefore, one honey often contains multiple flavors. Understanding the taste of honey is an extremely complex task and requires years of practice, a well-trained palate, and the knowledge of a honey sommelier.
There are thousands of plant and insect species in the world that produce this sweet and nutrient-rich liquid, which means a different honey every time! Not only the nectar but also the individual bee species influence the resulting honey. Hundreds of bee species live in nature around the world, and each is slightly different and specific in some way. Some bees focus on early nectar sources, others on late ones, some prefer floral nectar, while others prefer honeydew. Different bee species add more or fewer of their enzymes to the honey, in different ratios and quantities. By combining the nectar source and the bee species, we can distinguish thousands of types of honey," says honey sommelier Milan Špaček from Medokomerc.
Fruity, Smoky, or Floral Flavors We generally consider honey to be a sweet food. However, behind the initial sweetness on the tongue lie other, much more complex flavor tones, which are formed based on the predominant flowers in the bee pasture and many other factors. Depending on the nectar source, honey can taste floral, fruity, smoky, woody; it can also smell fresh like grass or pungent like aged cheese and be colorless or black like molasses. For easier identification and classification, a sensory taste palette has been created, defining 9 basic tastes, which are further divided into 22 groups.
Just like wine, which is influenced by the soil, climate, and environmental conditions of the place where the grapes grow, honey also has its "terroir" (a French term that means "taste of place"). Milan Špaček describes it this way: "Some flowers influence the taste of honey more than others – for example, heather or almond honeys are bitter, avocado or holly honeys are salty, and citrus tree honeys are acidic."
What Color is Honey Actually? It's Measured in Millimeters! Honey has a diverse range of shades from almost colorless to dark brown. The color of honey is the result of Mother Nature's laboratory games - it results from the reaction of sugars, proteins, and minerals: the more minerals honey has, the darker it is. Interestingly, we measure the color of honey using a color scale in millimeters – which is both a unit of distance and a unit of honey darkness. Water has a color of 1 mm, the lightest honeys (e.g., acacia, linden) have around 10 mm, and the darkest, which appear completely black, have up to 150 mm. Most often, honey has a shade of yellow, such as rapeseed honey or honey from fruit trees. So, do you already know what color "honey hair or eyes" are?
The Scent of Honey Can Even Be Pungently Smoky The scent of honey depends on the origin of the nectar or sweet juices, just like the taste and color. Generally, honeydew honeys are more aromatic than floral honeys. However, there are exceptions, for example, avocado honey is very aromatic, yet it comes from plant nectars. Again, we can distinguish thousands of honey scents, especially in freshly extracted honeys.
Because the scent is made up of volatile substances that evaporate over time, the most intense aroma is present during extraction, and it weakens with long or improper storage. "Many types of honey have no distinct aroma, while some honeys can be pungent when smelled. Floral honeys usually have a delicate floral scent, and honeydew honeys, which are more aromatic, smell smoky, like resin or forest," explains honey sommelier Milan Špaček.
