Raw forest honey 900 g

Botanical origin — honeydew of the Mediterranean forest

The main source is the honeydew from holm oak, oak and cork oak (Quercus sp.), together with nectar contributions from wild legumes, rockroses, heather, brambles and the odd Lamiaceae of the understory. The pollen spectrum varies by area: in humid zones the HDE markers appear — algae and fungi typical of honeydew honey that flag the secretory origin — while in dry zones those markers disappear. Produced across the Iberian Peninsula except the coastal strip, mainly in the inland mountain ranges. Harvest at late summer.

Sensory profile — nothing like a flower honey

Colour. Amber to dark amber, deep reddish tones against the light. Minimum 90 mm Pfund.
Aroma. Floral but with a clearly malted, toasted-cereal component, intense and moderately persistent. Opens almost like aged must.
Taste. Sweet with clear salty notes — far less cloying than a nectar monofloral. On the retronasal pass the malted intensity and persistence grow noticeably, leaving a long finish.
Texture. Crystallisation absent or very slow — honeydew has a low glucose/fructose ratio, so the honey stays liquid (or slightly thick) for months.

Raw — not pasteurised, not pressure-filtered

Raw honey: no pasteurisation (no heating beyond 40 °C), no fine filtration that would remove pollen and micro-components. HMF — the marker for thermal abuse or age — stays below 40 mg/kg (legal limit), and diastase activity (the enzyme that flags hot processing) above 8 Schade Units. In other words: the honey that ends up in the jar still carries its enzymes, pollen and aroma alive, as the day it came out of the comb.

Pairings — where a flower honey falls short

Precisely because of those salty notes and the malty backbone, forest honey works in pairings where any flower honey is too sweet: aged and blue cheeses (Roquefort, Cabrales, mature Manchego), goat cheese fresh or semi-cured, foie gras, glazed roast meats, mustard marinades and any sweet-and-sour preparation. It also shines alone on buttered toast, in Greek yoghurt or in intense infusions — black tea, rooibos. For anyone who thought they "did not like honey" because they found it cloying, this is usually the one that turns them round.

Analytical composition — the parameters that define a legitimate forest honey

European regulation (Directive 110/2001/EC, transposed in Spain as RD 1049/2003) sets clear parameters to tell a honeydew honey from a nectar one. These are the figures for this harvest:

Technical specs