Four Ways to Think About Honey

Improve your honey experience: take a more thoughtful approach to the varietals you choose and how you experience them.

We were inspired by a recent NY Times weekly “The Pour” column by the great wine journalist Eric Asimov. In it, he encouraged wine drinkers to slightly adjust their mindset in four ways when approaching a bottle of wine for a deeper, richer experience.

Since we often equate Plan Bee™ Varietal Greek Honey to wine (the varietals, terroir, limited vintages, etc.), his column resonated with us, and I hope our honey version will resonate with you as well. Here are four ways of thinking that can enrich your relationship with Plan Bee honey.

Think of Honey as from the Soil.

Each of our honey varietals come from the earth, and as hard as the bees work, it’s really Mother Nature that has the last word on flavor. Because we move our hives to different locations at different limited times to collect whatever varietal we’re after (Oak, Heather, Pine, etc.) and in varietal concentrations above 85%, the weather is crucial.

Temperature, humidity, sun, rain, clouds and the surrounding flora and soil all contribute to the unique terroir of that small ecosystem that the bees will work over a magic window of a few weeks; an ecosystem that could be entirely different even a few kilometers away. Finding that perfect area is less of a science than it is an art. Our beekeeper, Vasilis, scouts out areas, examines weather forecasts, and keeps a trusted network of wilderness property owners on hand. They happily give up some real estate for a couple kilos of the treasured nectar.

Missing these magic windows could be disastrous: fuel for the truck is expensive, as is healthy food for the bees ahead of time, not to mention the hours of driving and the heavy labor of unloading 100+ hives. Coming back empty-handed leaves the gas tank dry, the bees hungry, and the spirit broken. Due to Vasilis’ skill, that is a rarity. But not unlike a crop farmer, sometime Mother Nature does throw a curve.

Compare the aforementioned system to the US honey “industry:” feeding the bees sugar syrup while they forage to quadruple output, mixing 10% of a more quality honey with poor quality honey to create a grocery shelf homogenous blend, and heating the honey to levels that kill anything beneficial while also eliminating any honey DNA which could track it back to illegal Chinese imports.

Think of Honey as Food.

We know of consumers who wouldn’t touch a processed, sugar-laden cereal and avoid chemical-laden, processed foods like the plague, yet they’ll grab a jar of grocery store honey without a second thought.

Imagine honey as another staple and apply the same standards as you would any other food. But since the U.S. has no honey standard, and no real rules on labeling, you are at the mercy of the open market. Food Safety News famously reported that 76% of all honey on grocery store shelves could not legally be called “honey” outside the U.S.

What can you do? Know and trust your vendor and understand the taste and health benefits that come from true, unadulterated honey. Know that honey is the 3rd most adulterated product in the world, behind olive oil and milk. Understand, as well, that “local” honey helping allergies is a myth. Pure, non-adulterated honey will help build your immune system. That in turn could help alleviate allergies. But if you’re ingesting chemical-laden honey—including the ubiquitous glyphosate that is found in RoundUp, that will certainly not help alleviate allergies—no matter how local or not.

Note that Plan Bee is one of the few honeys worldwide that is certified glyphosate free.

Think of Honey as an Adventure

When you try a new honey, your tastebuds are on an exploratory journey. The honey is transporting your senses back to its point of origin—a moment in time when the bees communed with the heather bushes, for instance, but perhaps that vintage was a bit more complex than the previous years’ due to a bit of nearby mint and a week of rain before the hives arrived.

Part of this adventure is leaving the predictable behind, and appreciating honey as the complex, multi-faceted food that it is. Support your local beekeeper by all means if you know one, but there are so many reasons to venture out and explore, from taste benefits but also health benefits. You probably wouldn’t consider drinking only local wine. Same thing with honey. There’s a whole world out there.

Earlier I mentioned the inane practice of heating or pasteurizing honey. Bees keep their honey anywhere from 90 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit give or take. They know what they’re doing, because heating honey over 120 degrees Fahrenheit kills all of the polyphenols, organic chemical compounds lauded for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Plan Bee honey never experiences temperatures above natural hive temperatures. Studies are currently being conducted on honey and Alzheimer’s Disease, as well as an assortment of other medicinal uses. Needless to say, these studies are not being conducted using grocery store “honey.”

Think of Good Honey as Analog

Good honey is not measured on a “perfection scale,” but in its individuality, its distinctiveness, and above all, how it speaks to you. Eric Asimov, in his piece, compares a digital recording session with an analog one, where there are no auto-tuners, or vocoders adjusting pitch, where the idiosyncrasies of the session become part of the session.

Great honey becomes a “recording” of the time and the place the honey was collected, how long it sat in the frames, the method of uncapping the frames and extracting; it’s a bunch of messy, lovely, awe-inspiring moments that won’t culminate until those hundreds of kilos are bottled.

There are memories for the beekeeper just as there are memories for yourself and your friends, should you be fortunate enough to be surrounded by friends as you guide each other through a charcuterie tray; imagine the look on a friend’s face as they try a paper thin slice of prosciutto, with a drizzle of Chestnut honey on a piece of Gruyere that melts in their mouth, with eyes closed and a smile across their face. It’s those moments that make our work so fulfilling.

Thanks for reading and start or continue your journey with Plan Bee’s current five varietals today – Oak, Pine, Heather, Fir, and Chestnut, then write to us with your favorite varietals, pairings, tips, or recipes.