Tupelo honey is very sweet, in high demand and one of the more expensive honeys to produce. So why ask for tupelo honey? Honey is honey right? Well soup is soup is soup by the same measure. NOT! There is every imaginable soup from broths to vegetables and even fruit soups. They taste as different as light shows on the spectrum, not even close. The one characteristic that most honeys have is that they are all sweet to some degree.

Tupelo has different levels of glucose 29.98% and fructose 44.03% than other honeys. These levels of sweetener cause the tupelo honey to crystallize after a much longer period of time IF ever.

The big reason to choose tupelo honey over any other table honey is always the taste! Many written words have been used to describe the taste of tupelo honey. The most often used description is “the taste of what you would expect flowers to smell like”. Enchanting but still not quite what tupelo honey tastes like. There is initial taste and a finish taste as the honey is enjoyed. Guess I still haven’t done this marvelous gourmet honey justice. Here is the idea of the day, you taste it and tell me how to describe it. Everyone that tries it have great reviews but have a hard time saying anything else beyond, “You gotta try it!”

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Honey was the sweetener of choice prior to refined sugar. Honey is natural and unrefined. In a raw, unpasteurized state, honey has beneficial enzymes, proteins and vitamins while still being lower in calories than refined sugar.

A choice gourmet honey has flavor in addition to being sweet. Squeeze bottles dispense the liquid sweetener for coffee and tea drinkers. Honey is slightly more inconvenient as it is a liquid, sticky and harder to clean up if there is a spill. The advantages are that it is lower in calories, all natural, and much healthier. Now honey comes as a dry powder with the same wonderful honey taste and the sweetener of choice for coffee and tee drinkers.

Another honey sweetener is creamed honey. Creamed honey is a process that causes the honey to crystallize into a creamed solid. In this state the honey is spooned into the tea or coffee with ease. Creamed honey is also a delicacy on toast, biscuits, muffins or bagels. This spread replaces butter and is all natural.

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Honey Butter Recipes:
Honey Butter is a pleasant surprise the first time you spread your hot dinner bread with what you think is “just butter”. From that moment on you want to make a meal of the hot rolls and honey butter. Many first timers can’t help but end their “first course” with “is there any more Honey Butter?”

The honey and butter amounts in these recipes will serve 6 to 8 adults. Any honey butter left over can be stored in a covered container for 2-3 weeks. Feel free to do a half recipe by dividing all ingredients in half. DO NOT USE MARGERINE.

Honey Butter Recipe :
½ cup butter
¼ cup of Mild Gourmet Honey (star thistle, clover, or other light colored honey)
Small pinch of salt

Blend butter and salt in processor or blender until softened. Add honey slowly. Prepare just before use or prepare and refrigerate. Be sure to allow plenty of time for honey butter to rest so it can be served at room temperature. Never use the microwave to warm honey butter. Honey butter is ideal on oven fresh bread, rolls and muffins. Morning bagels, English muffins or toast spring to life with honey butter.

Cinnamon Honey Butter

Cinnamon Honey Butter has become a popular twist of the original honey butter. This popular spread can easily be made at home with an even better taste than that of the restaurant.

Cinnamon Honey Butter Recipe :
½ cup sweet butter
1/3 cup Mild Gourmet Honey (star thistle, clover, or a light colored honey)
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Very small pinch of salt (optional)

This Cinnamon Honey Butter has become popular all over the world. Your breakfast will be transformed into a taste of delight when highlighted with this refreshing new honey spread.

Orange Honey Butter

Orange Honey Butter is a Southern treat that has been well received in all regions that it has migrated to. The honey butter and orange taste combination is a proven culinary spread that delights every newbie.

Orange Honey Butter Recipe :
½ cup sweet butter (salted or unsalted)
1/3 cup Mild Gourmet Honey (star thistle, clover, or a light colored honey)
1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest (fine)
3 teaspoons orange juice concentrate
Very small dash of salt

If this recipe is not sweet enough, add more honey. Place in serving dish or mold and chill overnight. Great on biscuits and pancakes.

Tuscany Honey Butter

Tuscany Honey Butter is that taste of Italian flavor that combines herbs and honey for a delicious not too sweet spread for the dinner bread. This unique taste of Italy will become a favorite bread accoutrement.

Tuscany Honey Butter Recipe :
½ cup butter
¼ cup mild Gourmet Honey (star thistle, clover, or a light colored honey)
½ teaspoon dried rosemary
2 tablespoons finely minced sun dried tomatoes (The Dry ones! NOT the one marinated in oil.)
¼ teaspoon onion powder (Can use onion salt, if so delete pinch of salt)
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder (Can use garlic salt, if so delete pinch of salt)
Small pinch of salt

Combine Onion powder, garlic powder, salt dried rosemary and sun dried tomatoes in food processor and pulse until finely minced. Add room temperature butter and blend. Drizzle honey into mix and allow combining thoroughly. If Tuscany butter is too stiff, add a small amount of extra virgin olive oil to get smooth spreadabilty.

Gourmet honey, honey spreads and natural dessert toppings are alway the choice of the chef, after all it is ALL in the taste!

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Powdered honey is a gourmet honey product that has from 19% to 70% Pure honey as a base. The balance of the product is a stabilizer that is made of wheat, starches or sugars such as maltodextrin and fructose (that help the powdered honey to free flow). The process of dehydration of the honey is “roller dried” , “spray dried” or “vacuum dried”. These processes eliminate the water that is in the honey and changes the properties of the honey from a liquid to that of a powder of the consistency of brown sugar. Powdered honey is also known as dehydrated or dried honey.

Powdered honey has the full honey flavor without the liquid sticky mess. Powdered honey is more stable than liquid honey. You may store powdered honey without crystallization issues. One of the advantages of powdered honey is the ability to mix with hot or cold liquids as a sweetener and is equally easy to blend in dry mixes and recipes. The best powdered honey, having 70% pure honey has the sweetness of cane sugar but the taste of honey.

This convenient taste of gourmet honey can now be used anywhere sugar would be used. The home, office, restaurant, school or camping all can use the dry honey and still enjoy the same liquid honey taste. Tea and coffee are the candidates of choice for dry gourmet honey. Do not overlook ice cream, cereal, marinades, cooking recipes and drinks, if it calls for sugar, you can substitute powdered honey.

Powdered honey is also used in alcoholic drinks, cosmetics, bakery items, health drinks and health powder recipes. A ratio of one to one is used for powdered honey where the recipe calls for sugar. Measuring is easier and clean up minimal when using powdered honey compared to liquid honey.

Liquid honey is a natural antiseptic and is used in open wound treatment. This history has led to the use of powdered honey in balms, salves, lotions, creams, soaps, facials, masks and scrubs by health professionals and laboratories.

Gourmet honey in the form of original liquid honey, creamed honey or powdered honey have a place in all dining spaces, from formal to leisure picnics.

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Whipped Honey is all natural honey that has crystallized. This crystallized honey is a normal state that all honey eventually displays. Honey processors insert stainless steel whisks or beaters to stir the crystallized honey until the crystals are broken into very fine particles. Honey crystals can be as large as a dollar bill or as small as a pin point. The smallest crystal size is the most desirable.

Electric motors stirs the crystallized honey. In small applications a drill motor is used with a stainless steel paddle. The whipped honey is a light cream color and the consistency of peanut butter. This whipped, Creamed honey should be a non-liquid. When preparing to make whipped honey, the producers sometimes put “seed crystals” in the liquid honey to speed up the crystallization process.

Honey that crystallizes without the aid of electrical stirrers or seed honey is usually called granulated honey and has larger honey crystals. Whipped honey does not taste any different than the liquid honey but is easier to consume in the more solid state.

In many European countries and New Zealand, whipped honey is preferred to liquid honey and is more expensive. Whipped honey usually has air whipped into the honey. The honey is sold by net weight so the air is not a detriment to this gourmet delight.

Creamed honey, spun honey, granulated honey and whipped honey are so similar that only the professional could tell the difference in appearance. The texture can be the number one clue even to a novice if the whipped honey is from a very small crystal. The small crystal melts on your tongue almost immediately.

Should you desire to turn granulated honey into a liquid and preserve the enzymes of raw honey, place the honey in a glass jar, place the jar in warm water that does not exceed 140°. Do not overheat.

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