Generally speaking there is some truth to the varied taste of honey as it relates to the color, but if you begin to get that technical, you'll miss the forest for the trees or, in this case, the hive for the bees? Well, that didn't quite work, but you get it.
We were set up today at a local farmer's market and my favorite part of the day was not selling our honey. Yes, selling helps pay the bills but we did not get into beekeeping to make tons of money. Beekeepers all over the world are reading this and spitting out their beer! We are not responsible for any damages. Seriously though, my favorite part of being at these events is talking about bees and helping to educate the public about locally sourced honey. This inspired me to come home and blog about our experience.
We had two different harvests available for purchase today and so came the question, "What is the difference in the colors?" The color of the honey is dependent upon what the bees are pollinating at the time they retrieve the nectar. The greatest example of this, that I often refer to when I am explaining this to customers is Avocado honey. If you are like me and love tacos, your mouth is watering right now. Avocados and honey... together...??? If you ever get the opportunity to sample this honey, do it! It's quite different than what you would imagine. It is a very dark amber, almost black and very thick. In the case of the aforementioned connection between color, taste and potential benefits, this one hits on all three cylinders! Avocado honey is super rich in polyphenols, an antioxidant, which gives it it's dark color. Then there's the whole idea about why you rarely see this type of honey on shelves and we get into the specific minerals that bees need to sustain themselves and why they will choose one flower over another.
You see what I mean about missing the forest for the trees? Once we get too technical, we forget what it is we are really in search of and why. Most of us want local honey to support local beekeepers and to obtain honey that has been created just for us in our area for our enjoyment and to help combat seasonal allergies. What this all boils down to is, the color does not matter. What does matter is if it was harvested locally. It is fun to guess what our bees were pollinating when they made the current batch! And, of course, larger scale operations place their hives in specific locations to obtain certain varieties of honey. This is definitely something we will grow into here at Georgia Gold in the coming years.
If we met today, thank you for stopping and chatting. If we didn't, follow us on social media to see where we will be next! If we have more than one batch next time, I promise we will have a free tasting of both so we can all taste the difference.
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