# Cane syrup flavor in honey



## Phoebee

Our lazy bees have yet to produce an abundant honey harvest, so we sample honeys on our various trips, and buy quite a bit.

This past year we picked up a jar in Ocean Isle Beach, NC, which has the distinctive flavor of sugar cane syrup, or perhaps a touch of molasses. We're wondering if this might have cane syrup blended in, or if there's something growing in the area that produces the taste.

My wife doesn't particularly care for it, in spite of being a Florida girl raised on cane syrup. I find it interesting and rather pleasant.


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## gone2seed

I don't know what floral source produces this but I get that sometimes.It is a late season product here.I suspect honeydew "honey" but don't know for sure.


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## Michael Palmer

Have you ever tasted Honeysuckle honey? Sugary in flavor.


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## Phoebee

Michael Palmer said:


> Have you ever tasted Honeysuckle honey? Sugary in flavor.


I would have guessed that bees can't work honeysuckle blossoms due to the depth, although I've watched bumbles chew thru the bases of that sort of blossom. How do they manage it?


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## Michael Palmer

I guess they go right in for the nectar....


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## TWall

It depends on the type of honeysuckle. The invasive japanese honeysuckle is a great nectar source. The native honeysuckle plants cannot be foraged by honeybees.

I wonder if it it may have had a little buckwheat nectar in it?

Tom


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## Phoebee

A friend of mine planted about 8 acres of buckwheat for his bees this year ... I should see what his tastes like. I can't recall trying straight buckwheat honey.

We just bought a couple of small bears of tulip poplar and black locust honey, in Thomas, WV. We have both species in range of our apiary, but have yet to get a decent flow from either. If we do, there's a good chance they would occur simultaneously, so who knows what blend we would get.

We passed on the goldenrod honey.


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## TWall

Phoebee said:


> We passed on the goldenrod honey.


Goldenrod is my favorite!

Tom


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## Phoebee

TWall said:


> Goldenrod is my favorite!


Yeah, but too many people here have said it tastes like dirty socks for me to want to pay to try it. (Says the guy who just had a goat cheese snack.)


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## Slow Drone

TWall said:


> Goldenrod is my favorite!
> 
> Tom


Mine also. Never had any that tasted like dirty socks but that's what it smells like when the bees are curing it.


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## TWall

Phoebee said:


> Yeah, but too many people here have said it tastes like dirty socks for me to want to pay to try it. (Says the guy who just had a goat cheese snack.)


The nectar will smell like that when the bees are curing it. But, it has a butterscotch flavor.

Tom


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## papaz

I have a friend who I got started with a hive this year, he and his wife fed a lot of unprocessed cane sugar syrup. We extracted a few frames and the honey tasted just like cane syrup!!


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