The colour and texture of honey depends on the flower nectar used for the honey. There are thousands of honey types, originating from different nectar, such as lavender, acacia, eucalyptus, heather and orange flowers.
The texture of honey is liquid by nature, but it will start to crystallize after a while and become solid. The ratio between different types of sugar in the sugar determines how fast the honey turns solid.
The colour of the honey can vary from almost white to black, depending on the flowers used by the bees. Light honey is often mild, while dark honey often has a more intense flavour.
Avocado honey comes from the nectar secreted by the flowers on the avocado tree. The flowers are in large bundles, where the flowering occurs in April-May. The tree can be 15-20 meters high.
Avocado tree is typically found in Mexico, California and Central America, but can also be seen in Europe.
The honey has a very dark, tar-like color, and feels smooth and silky on the tongue. The honey of the avocado has a special flavor, with a touch of burned and smoked.
Acacia is from a very big plant family, and can grow to be 6-8 meter high. The acacia often looks bushy and the flowers are round or oval with plenty of stamens. The leaves are normally double-finned and feather-like.
Acacia trees bloom in early spring, where the fragrant flowers attract bees with a large amount of nectar. The acacia tree, which typically grows along the Danube river in Eastern Europe, is only in bloom for about 14 days in early summer. Bees do not fly in case of rain, and frost will make the flowers fall to the ground. Thus, the production of acacia honey depends on the weather conditions in May.
Acacia honey is almost always liquid, due to the high fructose content. It is one of the most popular honey types, since it is mild and therefore suitable as sweetening agent.
The sunflower is known by most, as a beautiful and very vibrant flower with a lovely smell. The tall, yellow sunflower is the essence of European summer.
The head of the flower has a diameter of 5-50 cm, depending on the sort. The most common sunflower has yellow crowns and a brown centre that contains a lot of small seeds. The sunflower is not just one flower, but contains hundreds. The flowers compete in attracting the bees - that is why the sunflower has a dark centre, only visible under ultraviolet light, visible to insects.
The name of the sunflower means ”the one, following the sun” and that is exactly what the sunflower does. It reaches high into the sky and follows the sun to get energy. The sunflower has further the same shape and colour as the sun.
Sunflower honey has a beautiful yellow colour, a delicate sweetness and a pleasant taste, and is loved by most.
The forest is a very special place to have honey bees, since the forest soils are darker and have fewer flowers, compared to other sunny areas. But the bees stay in larger forest areas and collect nectar from trees and bushes.
Since sunlight is rare in the forest soils, the forest is moister than other places. Bees normally collect nectar from flowers, but since the forest does not have many flowers, the bees collect sugar from "honeydew" from honey glands on ferns and the leaves of certain hardwood trees. The sugar substances are energy to the plants and are transformed into the most wonderful honey.
Forest honey is very dark and has an intense taste. It is incredibly fragrant and tasty!
The pretty orange trees produce fragrant flowers that add a Mediterranean feeling.
The branches of the orange tree are grey-green with short hair and leathery, shiny green leaves that are cluttered with bright, transparent dots like the leaves of other citrus trees. The leaves have an intense, aromatic scent. The flowers are white, fragrant and bundled into large bouquets.
Orange blossom honey is collected in orange orchards, and has a mild taste with a characteristic touch of citrus.
Eucalyptus is related to myrtle and includes several sorts of evergreen bushes and trees, including some of the highest trees in the world. All eucalyptus trees contain essential oils that vary quite a lot by sort and composition. The leaves of most of the eucalyptus sorts are very fragrant with tones of lemon or peppermint.
The flower buds of eucalyptus trees open by means of a lignified cover, made by the cup and crown. The flowers are characteristic with numerous, coloured stamens.
Eucalyptus flowers are very attractive to bees, resulting in a very golden and creamy honey with a pleasant and aromatic taste, without a distinct taste of eucalyptus.
Clover is a very common plant in Denmark. It is related to various ochrus-pea sorts. The most common clover sorts are red clover and white clover.
Clover grows wild on meadows, in dunes, roadsides and fields of grass. Clover spreads with creeping stems that take root.
The clover leaves consist of three green leaves and in rare cases by four leaves. According to old faith, a four-leaved clover means good luck for the person finding it. The flowers of the clover are accumulated in heads and are in bloom from May to September.
Clover flowers are extremely attractive to bees, due to the large production of nectar. Further, clover is self-sterile, meaning that the plant depends on insect pollination from bees, in order for the flowers and the function of the clover to develop.
Clover honey has a lovely mild and well-balanced sweetness. The texture is creamy and with a pretty pearly colour.
Lavender in bloom in the summer sun is a feast for the senses. The flowers are beautiful with velvety labiatae on green ears.
Lavender is partly evergreen and perennial, and a joy to humans, butterflies and bees in midsummer.
Lavender has an eye-catching blue-purple colour. The leaves are needle shaped and grey-greenish depending on season. Lavender is bushy and can grow to be about 50 cm high. The close-set leaves are covered with a fine layer of down, which is very aromatic. If you let your hand glide across lavender, it will release a calming and intense scent.
Lavender honey can be liquid or creamy, and has a very characteristic and aromatic taste. It is not as scented, as you might expect, but is fresh with a touch of citrus.
Many people know heather from late summer, when it is in bloom and shows off a beautiful purple carpet. Heather is the common name for a group of evergreen, low bushes.
It is a sturdy and branched bush that can grow to be 50 cm high. The flowers are in groups of 4 with fan-leaved cups and crowns. The fruit is a small and round capsule. The heather family is characterised by the fact that the stamens often have two corniculate appendages. Heather grows wild in Denmark and is most common in Western and Northern Jutland, as well as on Bornholm. Heather grows on the heath, in dunes and dry parts of moors.
Bees collect heather honey in August, when the heather is in full bloom. Honey from heather has a amber-golden colour and a characteristic taste. It is sweet, aromatic and intense.
It smells like pure summer, when the linden trees are in bloom. The linden tree is also referred to as the tree of love and joy, since the leaves are heart-shaped and the treetop looks like a big heart. It is one of the few big trees that is pollinated by bees and not the wind.
Linden trees can grow to be 30 m high and more than 300 years old. The trees grow naturally all over Europe, but mainly in the eastern part of Europe.
The linden tree is in bloom in July and has numerous small flowers, full of nectar that smell amazing. The flowers of the linden tree are hermaphrodites, i. e. both male and female. The flowers are white-yellow and have 5 petals, 5 sepals, plenty of stamens and a stigma in the middle. The linden flower contains a lot of nectar and is very attractive to bees and insects. They carry flower dust (pollen) from one flower to the next and pollinate the linden flowers.
Linden honey has a mild taste and a light colour. The texture is soft and pasty.
Beehives are often placed in areas with varying vegetation. Bees hum around and suck nectar from all kinds of flowers. That is why, honey often is a blend of nectar from various flowers. Flower honey varies in terms of smell, taste, colour and texture, depending on the weather, location and season.
Jakobsens flower honey has a delicious full and well-balanced taste.