CATEGORY

Honey

2008 CHEFSBEST® AWARD FOR BEST TASTE WINNER

Golden Blossom

What Makes Great Honey?

Used as a baking component, spread, topping, and drink sweetener, honey is a staple in every cupboard. Honey proves a perfect sweetener for toast, yogurt, sliced grapefruit, oatmeal, and iced tea, because it delivers a warmer tone than white sugar or jams.

Our chef experts define high quality honey as having a golden amber color with clarity and no visible sugar crystals. Honey should possess moderate aroma intensity—the relative strength of the honey’s smell—while notes of citrus, caramel, woodiness, honeycomb, and floral combine to create a fairly bright aroma character, indicating quality elements. No off notes should detract from honey’s familiar, natural aroma.

Unsurprisingly, pronounced sweetness should be the most evident basic taste in honey. There should be no more than a trace of bitterness or sourness, if either taste is present at all.

Honey’s flavor intensity should be moderate to pronounced, with flavor notes very similar to its aroma notes; these notes will combine to give honey its complex character. The unique array of notes lends sweetness to anything in which honey is added, while also providing a distinctive earthy undertone.

While honey should maintain a fairly thick consistency, it should still be easy to pour and spread. Its finish should be appropriately sweet, though not to the point of excessiveness, and its dissolve time should be moderately lengthy. The best honey will have a moderately heavy mouthweight, which refers to how heavy it feels in your mouth; its astringency, which causes the mouth to pucker, should be minimal. Finally, honey should have a brief aftertaste that complements foods without being too heavy.

Product Category Definition

The category judged was defined for the consumer market, not including other sweetener products, such as sugar, corn syrup or molasses.

Other Leading Brands:

Sue Bee, Barkman’s Busy Bee