A few months ago I gave one of my bosses a small jar of my favorite honey from the farmer’s market because she was out of hers and looking for new honey to try. We often bond over just how good the honey is because local honey by skilled beekeepers is the bombdiggity! In fact, one of the sellers for this particular vendor gave me an appreciation for honey I never had before.
He taught me how honey has different flavors and why the stuff you buy in the store is often just flat and sweet instead of complicated and deep. Now I treat honey like fine wine and good chocolate. I need many jars of different flavors to match the different teas or foods I put the honey in or on.
I once told one of my co-workers that I spent a weekend pairing up my favorite teas with my favorite honeys looking for the perfect combination. Her response was priceless: “Girl, you need a boyfriend!” When I related this tale on Twitter, Amal El-Mohtar tweeted back that it seemed like an excellent way to spend a weekend to her, as tea and honey are sacred.
That they are.
Which is why I need to get my hands on her excellent book, The Honey Month. I have had peeks at it at various conventions but it always sells out before I get around to buying. Sadness! However, I am going to enter this fabulous contest and win a free copy so that I can enjoy the honey and tea prose and poetry goodness. You can, of course, also enter the contest. I won’t hold it against you if you win. Promise.
Yayy! Thank you so much, lady.
Josh: Ever tried purple loosestrife honey on soft unripened goat cheese and pita? Pure bliss!
Oh, Tempest, don’t forget to post a link at Melimuses to be counted! And/or introduce yourself there. :) Allllso, I do hope you’ll post your tea/honey combo findings — inquiring minds want to know!
Your coworker obviously does not understand how to truly enjoy life.
The best honey I’ve ever had was pine honey taken directly from the hive in the mountains of Greece. It was the color of tar when it dripped out of the comb and it was the most delicious thing I’d tasted in my life. That was when I learned that real honey had flavor. :-)
Greek honey is wonderful. I still have some that I got on Mykonos two years ago and it’s the best I’ve ever tasted.
Bamboo honey. That’s it for me. There’s a bamboo forest on the slopes of Mt. Hood (Oregon), and this guy takes his hive up there and produces bamboo honey. It’s just amazing, rich and dark and buzzy (not literally, it’s not carbonated or fizzy).
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. Buckwheat honey on vanilla ice cream is possibly one of the best things you can do with honey. Go find the ponytailed honey guy in the 14th street farmers market. He usually has some.
That is my honey guy! The one that used to be at the Inwood market on Saturdays, right? I haul my ass down to Union Square for that honey, that is how much I love it. He is also a sweetie.