Honey Bear™, though beloved, is often filled with a bland blend of honeys. Better to cultivate your palate with different varietal honeys from artisanal producers. The Honey Bear™ logo is the registered trademark of the National Honey Board. Photo courtesy of the National Honey Board.
February 2005
Updated July 2006
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Honey Lovers’ Facts & Trivia
Tidbits Of Information About The Sweet Stuff
Honey Facts: An Overview
Why do most honeys taste the same? Even though names like “clover” and “wildflower*” conjure up pastoral images, mass-marketed honeys, like many mass-marketed foods, are blended to a common denominator of acceptability (read: mild and bland).
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Due to mass distribution, the term wildflower has become indicative of a generic-tasting blend of honeys from various origins rather than a regional honey retaining distinctive local wildflower flavors.
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Inexpensive honey is imported from major producing countries like Argentina and China and blended to create a homogeneous taste. An analogy would be importing Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon and blending them to create a commonly acknowledged flavor of “wine.”
In reality, fine honeys are as gloriously different as the fruits of the vine. They differ in color and flavor depending on what flowers the honey bees draw their nectar from. Honey is very much a function of geography: many trees and shrubs are region-specific, so some honeys that are made in California could never be made in Maine.
As a result of this provenance, honeys’ colors vary widely, from clear-as-water wildfire honey to a dark-as-molasses buckwheat honey. Their flavors range from mild and subtle to rich and bold. (As a general rule, lighter-colored honeys are more delicate in taste and darker-colored honeys are stronger.)
Who Produces The Honey?
If you said “the bees,” it’s a trick question. Artisanal beekeepers produce 40% of domestic honey; and like other artisanal producers, keep careful control over the quality of their product. By handing their trade from generation to generation, they ensure that we can enjoy distinctive honeys from sources like basswood (a smooth, smoky, mellow honey), saw palmetto (a robust honey with hints of citrus, and a earthy aftertaste), orange blossom (highly aromatic, with a taste and smell of an orange grove in full bloom) and tropical lehua honey (buttery with lily-like overtones).
You’ll cherish these honeys as you cherish your other fine foods. If you don’t drink generic “tea,” “coffee” and “wine,” you'll learn to look beyond generic “honey” to the great treasures awaiting you.
The Bees
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Bees have been producing honey from flowering plants for 10 to 20 million years.
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Honey bees must tap two million flowers to make one pound of honey.
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A hive of bees flies 55,000 miles to make one pound of honey (more than the distance to the moon and back).
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A healthy colony of bees can produce 300 to 500 pounds of honey per year.
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A bee visits 50 to 100 flowers during one collection trip.
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A honeybee flies at the speed of 15 mph.
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Honeybees communicate with each other by “dancing.” Scout bees dance to alert the other bees to where nectar and pollen are located. The dance explains direction and distance relative to the sun. Bees also communicate with pheromones.
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A healthy colony of bees can produce 300 to 500 pounds of honey per year.
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Mathematically, honeycomb is the second strongest structure in the world after the pyramids.
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In addition to honey, honey bees produce beeswax and help pollinate agricultural crops, home gardens, and wildlife habitats.
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Due to pestilence and pesticide misuse it is estimated that fewer than one percent of bees in the United States are wild. The rest live in hives tended by beekeepers.
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A healthy colony of bees can produce 300 to 500 pounds of honey per year.
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Honey Production
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There are up to 212,000 beekeepers in the United States: 95% are hobbyists with less than 25 hives, and an additional 4% are part-timers with 25 to 299 hives. Together, they manage 50% of the nation's hives and produce 40% of the nation’s honey. An estimated 5% quit beekeeping annually due to the mite epidemic and competition from imports. Commercial beekeepers—with 300+ hives—number approximately 1600 and produce 60% of the nation's honey. These are generally family businesses handed down from generation to generation.
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The USDA estimated that there were approximately 2.59 million honey-producing colonies in 2003, based on beekeepers who managed five or more colonies. Since 1980, U.S. honey production has averaged around 200 million pounds per year.
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Every state has honey production. The leading production states are California and North Dakota, with 30 million+ pounds; and Florida and South Dakota, with about half that amount.
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There are approximately 300 varieties of honey in the United States. They vary from water-clear fireweed honey to dark brown buckwheat honey. |
The Honey
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Honey has been used in medicine since ancient times. Before bacteria were even known, it was used as an anti-microbial agent for dressing wounds, burns and skin ulcers. It reduces odors, reduces swelling and scarring, and prevents the dressing from sticking to the healing wound.
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Raw, unprocessed honey contains living enzymes, antioxidants, amino acids and B-complex vitamins. It’s a healthy food, a low glycemic sweetener, and is the easiest sugar for the body to absorb and use.
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Honey is a mixture of sugars—largely fructose and glucose—does not spoil. Because of its high sugar concentration (70% to 80%), it kills bacteria through the process of plasmolysis. Natural airborne yeasts cannot become active in it because the moisture content is too low. As long as the moisture content remains under 18%, virtually no organism can successfully multiply to significant amounts in honey.
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Honey has long been used as a moisturizer and a preservative. When Alexander the Great died, he was carried back to Greece in a golden coffin filled with honey.
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Trivia sources: ABC to XYZ of Bee Culture (the A.I. Root Company, 1990), National Honey Board
© Copyright 2005-2008 Lifestyle Direct, Inc. Images are copyright of their respective owners.
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