# My Sourwood Honey's color is light this year



## Cyndi (Apr 26, 2005)

This year my Sourwood Honey is awfully light. It barely has a hint of amber color compared to the last couple of years.

I live in Sourwood country. This year we lost our Spring flow due to weather conditions. Sourwood flow was actually great this year. Usually it rains and washes the flowers away. This year even though it has been hot, we've had days that were cooled off with afternoon showers that were light...perfect weather. I just can't believe how light in color this honey is. It's almost as if there was something else going on, like maybe a clover??? I just don't know. 

Just another speculation here...I'm wondering if this is actually what sourwood is suppose to look like and because we didn't have the usual "other" flows, did that have something to do with the color being off? Techinically, Sourwood is not 100% pure sourwood, it's usually got some kind of wildflower mixed in with it. BUT, since this year everything's been off...I just wonder if I just happened to have lucked up and made 100% sourwood...or what else could it be?? Any thoughts??

Anyway, anybody else having this going on too?


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## samiyam318 (Jan 18, 2006)

I haven't pulled my supers yet, but I am seeing the same thing. I hope to do it this weekend. I agree it was a great sourwood crop, though I'm afraid that because of the loss of the spring flow a lot of mine is going to stay on the hives to be feeding my bees this winter. 

When you don't have the tulip poplar bloom it can wreak havoc on the whole year.


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## MapMan (May 24, 2007)

I guess the true way of tellin' is in the tastin'. Close your eyes when you taste it, and see if it has the taste that you are used to tasting with sourwood. 

The way I understand it, the color does vary from year to year - perhaps your harvest this year is closer to being monofloral than in your past extractions.

MM


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## Cyndi (Apr 26, 2005)

Map Man,

It taste great!!! It has that strong anise flavor....somewhat sweeter, but yet most definitely distinctive??? not sure if that's the right word or not. Oh well...

Excuse my ignorance...but what does "monofloral" actually mean??


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## MapMan (May 24, 2007)

A honey which is (as close as can be, with bees) produced with nectar from a specific plant/tree. I have harvested Basswood honey this year by placing supers right before the start of flow, and removing them as the frames were capped. 

Clover honey is named as being monofloral, but usually is a clover and alfalfa mix.

MM


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## samiyam318 (Jan 18, 2006)

In our part of the world Cyndi it's unreaonable to expect the honey to be truly monofloral -- there are a number of others blooming, including sumac and clover (or at least we've had that here, and I suspect y'all have had it as well). Still, my honey looks almost like water. I'll be interested to see what it looks like in the jar -- it will probably be at least a little bit darker.


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## Cyndi (Apr 26, 2005)

My husband gave me a new name for my honey this year...he said to call it "Whiteside Mountain Honey", 

The color isn't too bad...it's definitely one that will have to grow on ya if you're comparing to previous years. I'm trying to keep last year's bottles away from it...otherwise it'll drive you crazy. The longer it sits in the jar, I do believe the darker it gets. When I bottled the first batch, I took it directly from the frames and strained it only one time. It's kinda pretty actually. I'm still proud of it. I gave a small bottle to my sister to try it out on her first. She liked the way it tasted compared to last year's batch. So there ya go.


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## iddee (Jun 21, 2005)

>>>>Just another speculation here...I'm wondering if this is actually what sourwood is suppose to look like and because we didn't have the usual "other" flows, did that have something to do with the color being off?<<<<

BINGO....You finally have sourwood honey. I can't believe some of the honey I've seen being passed off as sourwood in the mountains of NC. Good sourwood honey has hardly any color at all.


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## Cyndi (Apr 26, 2005)

Idee,

Would you please expand upon that statement some more. What exactly is the color of sourwood??? Will you describe it?? Can I send you a small bottle??


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## MapMan (May 24, 2007)

Cyndi-

You can send me some, I'll give it a try. I like large bottles, though - especially of real Sourwood . 

On the other hand, the strong flavor of Buckwheat is an acquired taste, I'm working on that.

MM


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## Vabeeguy (Jun 15, 2006)

Helping my grandfather for many years put on then pull supers during sourwood bloom, I can tell you, the lighter the honey the purer it is. I haven't had decent sourwood since he passed away. The mountains around his house in NC were spotted white during bloom. Want to mail some to Va?


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## Cyndi (Apr 26, 2005)

Oh goody...I think the price of my honey just went up 

Yea, sure, I'll send some to Virginia for paying customers. Sorry, but if you saw my expenses vs. my income sheet for the last 4 years...it's very pitiful,


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## Bizzybee (Jan 29, 2006)

Huh.................... Make money with bees???? You can do that??!!


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## iddee (Jun 21, 2005)

cyndi, fill a jar with water, add a couple drops of yellow food coloring. Maybe 1 drop of red.
Now you know what sourwood honey should look like. 
Yes, I will send you about 20 addresses to send a small bottle to, or one address to send a LARGE bottle to.


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## CSbees (Aug 7, 2007)

I have had one year of experience in beekeeping and have lucked into some good mentors one of which is sharing a sourwood location. Sourwoods are good this year and the nectar is almost exclusively that of the sourwood blossom. I myself have pulled 7 or 8 supers of this "white" honey from one of my strong hives in sourwood country. The lighter the purer. The honey is now crossing into a "ruby red" does anyone know the source of this red honey?


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## Cyndi (Apr 26, 2005)

Bizzybee said:


> Huh.................... Make money with bees???? You can do that??!!


Notice I said 4 years....and still trying, 

I tell you what....I used to be really good at hiding money, hiding my shopping sprees (clothes and expensive perfumes) and so on. It's really, really difficult to hide bee equipment. Something about wooden boxes, tools, extractors and refractometers, when a woman starts buying bee equipment, all of a sudden, husband takes notice. What's up with that???!! To top it off.... Get this...I don't get to go on shopping sprees for clothes and perfume anymore...it's ALL going to the bees. I think I need to revamp my strategy some more, LOL!!


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## samiyam318 (Jan 18, 2006)

My previous "Sourwood" honey always has had a little amber in it, which this year's does not seem to. 

Go here http://www.honeylocator.com/flowers.asp and click on Sourwood. This is what the National Honey Board says sourwood looks like. It's not truly white but it doesn't have much color.


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## nc_beekeeper (Jul 11, 2007)

I'm getting ready to pull my supers this weekend and from what I've seen mine is just as you describe yours. Some of the lightest sourwood honey I have seen. Boy it has a great taste as well. I don't know that I'll be able to sell any of it.. it's just to darn pretty...lol.


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## samiyam318 (Jan 18, 2006)

Western North Carolina -- at least we have a presence on BeeSource, even if they never heard of us in Raleigh.


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## RBar (Jun 22, 2005)

I am SO glad to run across this discussion...when I bottled my honey, I was startled at the clarity, almost no color...white, almost!
I thought it would therefore be thinner, but, surprised again, thicker than I have ever seen. It is sourwood, with that special firey (spicy?) aftertaste, but more mellow than ANY even lightly colored Sourwood I have ever tasted. Not the "bite" that I remember in some sourwood of my youth. Special stuff this year...no candy can compare.


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## CSbees (Aug 7, 2007)

Can anyone provide the source of the "ruby red" honey to which I previously mentioned? What blooms after sourwood that would give such a color of honey?


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## samiyam318 (Jan 18, 2006)

CSbees said:


> Can anyone provide the source of the "ruby red" honey to which I previously mentioned? What blooms after sourwood that would give such a color of honey?


I don't know when buckwheat blooms there, but could it be a mixture of buckwheat and the last of the sourwood?


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## kenr (Sep 25, 2005)

*csbees*

csbees could be sumac!And also I'm extracting Sat. and what I've seen in my frames it looks like water


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## kc in wv (Feb 1, 2006)

Cyndi said:


> This year my Sourwood Honey is awfully light. It barely has a hint of amber color compared to the last couple of years.



Cindi
It looks like ours will be light too. I was in North Wilksboro yesterday and the paper had an article on the good quality of the sourwood. They quoted Steve Forest some.
KC


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## hilltop hives (Mar 9, 2007)

I haven't extracted any yet but my supers look almost white. The sourwood is still blooming here I hope this hot weather doesn't ruin it.


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## samiyam318 (Jan 18, 2006)

Everybody in Western NC and the surrounding area seems to be saying the same thing. I have to beelieve it has to do with the Easter Freeze.


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