£13.49
The last remaining Laurissilva Cloud forest of ancient Europe still exists, a living breathing vestige of earths ancient past. A sub-tropical paradise full of scented flowering plants, and pre-historic laurel forest as well as plants indigenous to southern Europe. This magical honey is made by bees working in beehives sitting on the edge of the village of Sao Vicente on the wild and verdant North Shore of Madeira.
This raw honey is dark, rich and has real complexity, you can taste both the fruity notes of tropicals like passion flowers as well as dark earthy malty flavours which combine beautifully into a well rounded unusual and very moreish honey. It is also slightly more fructose than glucose so like all honey it crystallizes, albeit over a matter of several months.
We are lucky to be able to bring this honey to you as it is scarce, expensive and very hard to come by and has to be shipped from this outlying Portuguese island archipelago.
This honey is from a small scale artisan producer with a very limited production and you are very unlikely to find it anywhere else. Every batch throughout the year is distinctly different, we have tried to select the very best from this artisan producer, Mr Viera.
We think it is a little bit special and worth the effort we hope you do as well.
£7.99
Greece is famous for its Thyme honey, and there is a truly amazing diversity of Thyme honey produced. Most of the Thyme honey tends to multifloral, that is to say it is quite obviously Thyme honey but with the presence of enough Wildflowers to change the character of it significantly from place to place.
Some of the Greek islands can be rugged, rocky and sparsely vegetated, and it is on these islands there may be little else flowering at the same time so the bees forage on the Thyme almost exclusively and produce Thyme honeys which are extremely Thyme rich and highly monofloral.
Kalymnos is a small island in the eastern Aegean close to Turkey which produces such a Thyme honey, it is rich golden and HIGHLY aromatic and prized for its medicinal qualities. This year a Kalymnos Thyme honey won 3 stars at the Great Taste Awards. It also goes without saying that Thyme honey is traditionally prized for its medicinal qualities especially for lung conditions, colds and respiratory health.
Our Raw Greek Kalymnos Thyme honey is produced by Isabella who wrote this beautiful letter about her relationship to beekeeping. It is produced in full below.
The process until the honey is produced in the hive and reaches consumption was more difficult than I initially imagined. It is a job that requires a lot of physical strength and a lot of patience. The hours you have to devote are too many and the fatigue is indescribable. But the result rewards you. As soon as you bond with the bees and this work, you can understand that the way of life of the bee and how a bee works is admirable.
So every year since then, many times with losses and difficulties, I try with love, patience and persistence, to make this precious gift of nature called thyme honey known to the younger generation, because it should be allowed to be enjoyed in every home. It is a wonder of nature. A miracle, which we are all entitled to have."
£6.99
If there was only one honey I could use everyday for the rest of my life it might just be this one. This lovely dark, rich, smooth as silk honey is just unbelievably more-ish. It is subtle, slightly herbaceous, has a luxurious mouthfeel and has a very mild sweetness. It also has powerful healing properties for internal digestion complaints as well as mouth ulcers.
Like our Raw Vanilla Fir honey and Raw Pine Honey and Serra da Estrela Mountain (Oak) honey, this Raw Greek Red Fir honey is a honeydew. Honeydews are made by bees foraging on the secretions of insects that live off the sap of the trees. They contain a large percentage of long chain sugar molecules called Oligosaccharides. Fructose is a shorter chain molecule which crystallizes quicker and Glucose is the smallest sugar molecule and crystallizes quickest (think Raw sunflower honey), Nectar honeys are usually characterized by the presence of Glucose and Fructose in varying proportions.
This Raw Red Fir honey comes from the mountains of central Greece and is produced by Vaggelis, a young gifted beekeeper and entrepreneur who has been beekeeping since he was a teenager.
These honey would make a beautiful gift to any discerning honey lover.