Rosemary, chestnut, oak, milflower, more or less dense, dark or almost transparent, velvety, liquid, porous… In the market we find various types of honey, which we can choose based on our palate and the different moments of consumption, both to spread on toast and, for example, to consume as a sweetener in a coffee or a glass of milk.
Each jar of honey hides endless information about its production and origin, from the flowers from which the nectar comes, whether or not there has been intervention by the beekeeper when it comes to conditioning the aromas and flavors and, even, whether the honey has reigned. good vibes in the hive.
Many consumers are confused when talking about monofloral honey, wrongly assuming that it comes exclusively from a single species of flower. This is not the case, since, for example, for a honey to be considered monofloral rosemary it is enough for it to have 12% rosemary, while the rest can come from other plants. It is explained by Marc Arumí, production manager at Abellaires Empordaneses, in the Alt Empordà region (Girona), who explains that other honeys, for example chestnut honey, require higher percentages to be considered monofloral. “In chestnut honey there must be at least 75% chestnut to be considered monofloral,” he explains, and so on depending on the predominant flower, of which more or less presence will be required according to established standards.
In any case – Arumí continues – it is a mistake to think that monofloral honeys always come from a single flower, since it is practically impossible considering that bees fly freely.
The belief that multifloral honeys are of poorer quality is also false. “The only thing we mean when we talk about milflores is that we find a variety of flavors and aromas and that, in principle, there is no predominant one. In fact, they are very interesting honeys on a nutritional level since they provide all kinds of nutrients.” It should be noted that some beekeepers condition these flavors by planting certain flowers around the hives.
The color of honey depends on the type of flower and the season in which it is produced. Thus, spring honeys tend to be lighter (such as rosemary or acacia), while summer, autumn and winter honeys usually have darker colors (chestnut or strawberry tree). Arumí highlights that “the beauty of honey is that it is a reflection of the landscape, so that Atlantic honeys have a completely different flavor than Mediterranean honeys and if we go to New Zealand we will find notes that are practically unknown here.”
Honey is, therefore, a great gastronomic souvenir to bring back from a trip, since it is a way to capture the essence of a landscape in a small jar, also providing a sweet and velvety touch for the palate.
One of the great confusions for consumers occurs when honey changes texture and color when subjected to low temperatures. It is normal, and even at less than 15ºC there can be significant changes in texture, which does not mean that the honey is spoiled. “When it comes into contact with the cold, crystallization begins, something very evident in rosemary honey, for example, which suddenly becomes completely white and almost solid in texture,” explains Arumí. When this happens, it is important to heat the honey in a bain-marie until it recovers its original properties. “The microwave should never be used, as it will lose its qualities,” says the person in charge of Abellaires Empordanesos.
In this sense, it is not uncommon for honey producers to beat some drums with a specific machine until they achieve a creamy texture. “By beating the honey that has reached a solid stage, we manage to break the crystals and achieve a very interesting texture and a light toasted flavor. This type of honey is perfect for preparations that require consistency, such as spreading on toast,” explains Arumí.
Before taking a jar of honey at random, it is important to take into account what each flower provides, so it is a good idea to look at the labels. While rosemary honey, very common in the Mediterranean, is soft and floral, thyme or cantueso honey (a very abundant plant in the Empordà) provides a slight throat clearing. The chestnut variety, for its part, is less sweet and has a velvety consistency and, according to Arumí, it works very well in cooking precisely because of its discreet flavor and good density. “A baked lamb shoulder painted with chestnut honey is a delight,” he notes.
A common myth about honey is that it is a healthy substitute for sugar. This is not true, since both are made up of sucrose (100% in the case of sugar and around 80% in honey, since the rest is water). This means that in both cases consumption must be moderate, and that although honey also contains vitamins and minerals (which does not happen with sugar), this contribution does not in any case justify the intake of sucrose, whose excessive consumption can have adverse health effects.
Although this information probably does not contribute anything when choosing one or another honey, the truth is that most consumers are unaware of the large number of things that happen inside a hive. From consensual polyamorous games to fratricidal duels, postcoital deaths and a series of vicissitudes that remind us more of an episode of Game of Thrones than the comings and goings of a gang of friendly flying bees.
It all starts with the queen, the boss of the hive, who defends her power tooth and nail with the unconditional support of her minions: the worker bees. The drones don’t matter, since her only mission is to impregnate the queen, which happens when she takes the nuptial flight, only once in her life. “The nuptial flight lasts a couple of days, during which the queen is fertilized non-stop by numerous drones, both from her hive and from others, until she fills what we know as the sperm library. From here, she will dedicate herself to laying eggs for the rest of her life,” explains Arumí. Therefore, the queen bee is fertilized only once, both by drones from her own hive and from others, which is always interesting “because inbreeding is avoided and we have healthier hives” and, therefore, honey richer.
Since the only task of the drones is to fertilize the queen, they die as soon as they mate, while the queen, already fertilized, returns to the hive and dedicates herself to laying eggs from which the worker bees will emerge, which will dedicate themselves to work in the hive, and other drones, who will remain waiting for their time to fertilize another queen. Meanwhile, the workers will occupy different roles in the hive depending on their age. “The youngest ones are dedicated to care, ensuring that there is enough water and food in the hive, while the youngest ones are dedicated to cleaning and surveillance,” Arumí continues.
When we talk about surveillance we mean that, literally, they stand at the door of the hive to check that no outsiders enter (the drones, as we said, are not even expected). These are soft doors, which means “they can let in a percentage of bees from other hives, around 25%, but always knowing that they are not from yours, since the bees from the same hive recognize each other.” Yes, and they only come in to bring nectar,” explains Arumí. These migratory workers are usually the oldest, since when going from one hive to another they are at greater risk of dying.
In the coldest months, the workers gather together to conserve heat, but when spring arrives they go out into the fields in search of the nectar from the flowers that will become honey inside the hive. “This happens when the worker bees regurgitate the nectar repeatedly and mix it with their enzymes, which causes it to lose moisture and transform into honey in the cells of the honeycomb,” explains Arumí. Since production multiplies in spring, the beekeeper’s intervention is usually necessary by generating more cells through superpositions, that is, by making the hive grow upwards. Otherwise, the queen could leave and the hive could be left without a monarch.
“Whether the queen leaves of her own free will, which happened to us this spring after a rainy season, or if she dies for any reason, there are several systems to replace her. The monarchy in the hives has nothing to do with ours, since here the people have a lot to say,” jokes the beekeeper. What usually happens is that the hive’s own workers, when they find themselves without a queen, choose the eggs that are in the best health, that is, those that are likely to give rise to possible queens.
It may happen that the first one hatched breaks the rest of the eggs to prevent its competitors from being born or that there is a fight in the hive until the strongest one remains. An increasingly common option, very practical at a business level, is to buy already fertilized queens and place them directly in the hive.
