Types of honey?

I went to my local bee store and was checking out the types of honey they have. At this time of year, they have mostly clover, but they still had a few kilos of starting to crystalize buckwheat (very dark), and some pumpkin blossom honey as well. Both the buckwheat and pumpkin blossom were quite dark. Mostly in our grocery stores up here we get generic white honey which I think is made from clover.


So my question is, when making mead, should I be considering the darker, more flavourful honeys, or the lighter delicate honeys? I want to make another mead that has more honey taste. My only mead making experience so far has been Joe Matioli's ancient orange. I might like to try a vanilla mead (metheglin?), or just a pure semi-sweet sack mead. I have my K1V and D47 yeasts ready on hand, but need some opinions.

Dean,


I just went to the door an hour ago and guess what the UPS man dropped off...20 lbs of Tupelo honey! I will be making another batch of Tupelo Vanilla starting this weekend.


My take on honey for mead is skip the stuff in the grocery stores all together. Most of the time it has been heated and filtered to make it look nice in the jar. This strips the honey of it's natural flavors and aromas that the bees worked so hard to put in there! Any time you can get pure, raw, unfiltered honey it will make a great mead since the character is still there not just a sweet sticky honey in a cute bear jar.


I have only used Tupelo, Orange Blossom, Raspberry, Cranberry, Clover and Wildflowerhoney so far and each has it's own distinct aroma and flavor. I have read that Buckwheat is very strong tasting.


A nice floral clover honey with vanilla would work very well together.


Mead Rocks!

Dean, Yes! Go with the strong-tasting honeys! It doesn't matter if they are crystalizing. That will all melt for you. If I have my way I'll never buy honey from the store again. Bert has his "honey-man" and he's been great to us! Go for it! And please, keep us posted!

Excellent replies! I can get the clover honey from them, which is raw honey as well! They take their honey very seriously, and frequently sell honeycombs for the ultimate in not processed honey! They can be found at http://honeybeecentre.comand are about 10 minutes away from my place! They have lots of varieties, but are getting low this year. I can get the clover in bulk from them for $3.48/lb, but I think I'm going to take the crystalized buckwheat from them as well. They only had 2 kilos left though, which is only 4.4lbs. Maybe I'll make another batch of Joe's ancient orange with buckwheat and mandarin oranges for a heavy honey, light orange taste to see what I come up with.


I'm going to a clover vanilla batch as well. I'm just waiting to hear back from the folks at vanillabeans4u.com to see when they are getting their next batch of bourbon beans in! I can't wait!

Dean,


You might want to experiment with a chocolate mead and the dark honey too.

Dean, I need to know about these manderin organges. We only see them in cans with a light syrup. I don't recall ever seeing them in my grocer's produce area. Can you give some info on them?

Mandrin oranges are available in the grocery stores around this time of year. They are flavorfull, easy to peel and the peels are thin (more orange less peel).


JC

I have bought mandrin oranges in the can before too...the only thing I have seen at the market similar would be clemintine oranges really small, usually sold in 5 pound packages? Would these be the same thing?

Hadn't thought of the clementines. Or, tangerines. Hmmm...

I found this link about mandarin oranges. May have to copy/paste.


[url]http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/mandarin_orange.ht ml[/url]

Yes, clementines are a close second to mandarin oranges. The peel is almost without a pith, so the peel itself can be eaten. It is somewhat bitter, but not even close to as bitter as a standard navel orange! My family actually candies the mandarine orange peels. Mandarines have a very easy to peel skin like a tangerine, with a very mild and sweet orange/honey taste. Up north in Canada, they are a type of Christmas orange that are associated with Xmas around here. Even the deparment store Santa assistants give you a choice of either a mandarin orange or a candy cane. I always chose the orange since they are my favorite. Clementines would be close to them, but still not quite.

Dean! You are too old to be chatting up Santa at the malls! Just email your wish list to Santa and leave the mall visits to the children.

So last weekend I went back to the honey centre and ended up with 7lbs of blueberry honey, 7lbs of clover honey, and 3lbs of buckwheat honey. All of these honeys are barely processed, and essentially raw.


So, while I was there, they had a new shipment of apple juice come in fresh too . So, today I started a 1 gallon batch of cyser with a 4" stick of cinnamon in it. Basically, just took 2.5lbs of my clover honey, 1 gallon of apple juice (pure and just pressed this morning), 1 stick of cinnamon, 1 tsp yeast nutrient, and then pitched D47 yeast to it. SG was 1.104, so this should finish sweet.


THEN, I came across a 5lb box of clementines! So in another version of Joes Ancient orange, I took 1/2lb of buckwheat honey, 3lbs of blueberry honey, 2 small clementines, 1 clove, 1 stick of cinnamon, and 1 vanilla bean. Added water to 1 gallon and 1 tsp of fleishman's yeast. SG was 1.120! These honeys must have a lot more sugar in them. I somehow don't think the fleishman's is going to ferment this one dry this time.

Sounds great Dean. I see that our local grocery store has 5 lb boxes of clementines on sale next week so I am thinking I need to make a batch of Joe's Ancient orange since I have not made any yet.


I have 3 lbs of Tupelo and 9 lbs of Alfalfa down in the basement. I also want to make my first Braggot so I will be searching for a great recipe for that and most likely need some more honey.

Dean, You appear to have impecable timing! How great that you got all that fresh stuff! I'm thinking I should try a gallon or 2 with clementines. I'm getting close to the 2 month point on the 3 gallons I have going. I hope Bert will give me some honey to use!


Hey Bert! Can I use some of your honey? I'll let you drink some of my meads...