Honeydew honey - the Blacksheep of the honey family?

Honey from the forest

You might be thinking that honey only come from bees collected from nectar belonging to flowers, trees and plants, however there is one curious exception. Honeydew honey.

Honeydew honey sometimes known as forest honey is a particular type of honey, and is popular in several countries especially Germany, with the best known coming from the Black Forest.

What honey really is?

EU defines honey as the following:

Honey is a natural sweet substance produced by Apis mellifera bees from the nectar of plants or from secretions of living parts of plants or excretions of plant-sucking insects on plants.

I know - the second part sounds yummy right? ;)

Instead of taking nectar from the usual sources, bees can take honeydew, which is the sweet secretions of aphids or other plant sap-sucking insects.

Aphids which are small insects (you might know them as the food of ladybugs) have mouthparts which contain a set of needles for piercing plant walls and a series of tubes for transporting liquids. The Aphids and similar insects then bite into the plants drawing out the sap, they then ingest what they need from the sap and excrete the rest, flicking over the rest of the plant and leaves, where ants and bees collect it.

What does the honeydew honey look and taste like?

Honeydew honey is usually darker than floral honey: and is normally a light to dark brown colour or reddish, sometimes it can almost appear black, and/or with a tinge of red or green. It has a distinctive odour and is taste is also strong and can sometimes be described as having malty, treacly, figgy, toffee or nutty flavour notes.

What are health properties of honeydew honey?

Honeydew has great health-promoting potential. It exhibits antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antibiofilm, and wound healing activity properties.