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Author Topic: Different tasting honey.  (Read 1558 times)

Offline beehappy1950

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Different tasting honey.
« on: August 14, 2009, 09:04:56 am »
I extracted a super of honey that was the first super I put on this year. It is very clear but has a tangy almost lemony taste and I wonder if everyone will like it. It must be dandelion or wild fruit blossoms. How do the big commercial guys keep track of how the honey tastes?When it comes time to extract you would have to clean up the extractor and start over to keep different varieties apart. Do you have to tast every super before you extract? I will gain weight bad I think. I have eight hives and I wonder if all my honey will taste that way. Maybe if it is all mixed together it will taste different?

Offline luvin honey

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Re: Different tasting honey.
« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2009, 12:11:25 pm »
Welcome, beehappy1950! Could you go back to your profile and add your location, please? It often helps folks answer your questions better :)

Your honey sounds wonderful! Yes, I too will be gaining weight on honey this year and I've only gotten about 12 x 12" of honeycomb and 3 quarts of honey :)

I imagine, but don't know for certain, that most apiaries probably blend it all in an enormous vat or pull their honey immediately after certain flows and extract it in order to be able to label it "clover" or whatever immediately preceded it.

When I watch my hives, I notice that each hive has a definitely different flight path. Some are heading out into the prairie and others definitely heading way back over the woods and probably back to the wetlands. It would not surprise me at all if different hives or even different combs and cells within a hive had different tasting honey.
The pedigree of honey
Does not concern the bee;
A clover, any time, to him
Is aristocracy.
---Emily Dickinson

Offline MustbeeNuts

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Re: Different tasting honey.
« Reply #2 on: August 15, 2009, 10:21:49 pm »
I'll take a shot at this one, as the season progresses there are certain blooms that are happening, thts one way ,  if you pull your honey from a clover filled area , well its clover honey, crops make the difference, like orange blossom honey, bees have been set in an orange grove, etc, clover fields, buckwheat, and so on, and I would guess that as the honey is gathered, they most likely do pull it. once you mix it , then its variental honey, which in my mind is a name for source unknown.
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Offline annette

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Re: Different tasting honey.
« Reply #3 on: August 16, 2009, 12:02:00 am »
You are the first person to describe exactly what my honey tastes like.  Mine also has a lemony flavor to it. The summer honey always tastes like this.

Offline gaucho10

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Re: Different tasting honey.
« Reply #4 on: August 16, 2009, 01:43:08 am »
Most honey sold in supermarkets comes from China or Argentina.  They might give it a name like "clover" but in reality it is a mixture of who knows what.  Local honey extraction is as has been mentioned previously.

When I pull a honey super out for extraction I usually mark it with the approximate date it was pulled/sealed.  With only 4 hives I keep checking to make sure the honey is sealed.  In past years I used to stack my supers till the end of the season.  Not any longer...I am too greedy. :-D  If the super is not going to be extracted immediately I keep it marked and when the time comes for extraction I do "spring" supers first (lighter color honey), I then progress to spring/summer and summer.  Anything towards the end of the season I claim to be "goldenrod honey" because that's whats growing in this area.  I usually save most of that honey to feed the bees at end of winter.  If there is any leftover goldenrod honey next year I either sell it or eat it 8-)
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Offline gaucho10

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Re: Different tasting honey.
« Reply #5 on: August 16, 2009, 01:49:52 am »
Oops!!!  Almost forgot the reason for the topic...My hives are located in a wetlands area (marsh) so that my honey can be considered "wildflower" honey.  There is something continuously flowering in the area.  In the spring, when the apple trees and tall blueberry bushes blossom, I still call it "wildflower" honey.  The spring honey does have a much milder taste and aroma as opposed to late season (goldenrod) honey which is stronger.
My favorite comedy program used to be Glenn Beck--The only thing is that after I heard the same joke over and over again it became BOOOORING.....

People who have inspired me throughout my life---Pee-wee Herman, Adolph Hitler, George W. Bush, Glenn Beck.
Notice I did not say they were people who I admire !!!

 

anything