Egyptian black honey, asal aswad, is a real and respected Egyptian food, but it is not bee honey. Black honey is sugar-cane juice boiled down by people into a dark, thick syrup; bee honey is made by honey bees from the nectar of flowers. Haydara sells only bee honey, and we think both foods deserve to be called by what they are.
In Short
- Egyptian black honey (asal aswad) is made from sugar-cane juice boiled until it thickens. No bees are involved.
- Bee honey is made by honey bees from nectar, ripened in the comb and then harvested by a beekeeper.
- Egyptians call both foods honey because both are thick, sweet and spooned at the same table; the colour word is what tells them apart.
- Black honey is not fake honey. It is a different food with its own long place in the Egyptian kitchen.
- To know which one you are buying, read the product name and the ingredient line on the label, not the colour of the jar.
Is Black Honey the Same as Bee Honey?
No. Egyptian black honey and bee honey share a name, but they are two different foods made in two different ways. Bee honey is a bee product. The international food standard for honey is set out in the Codex Alimentarius standard for honey, which describes honey as the natural sweet substance produced by honeybees from the nectar of blossoms. Egyptian black honey is made from sugar cane, by people, so it sits outside that definition. That does not make black honey a lesser food. It makes it a different one.
What Is Egyptian Black Honey Made From?
Egyptian black honey is made from sugar cane. The cane is pressed for its juice, and the sugar-cane juice is boiled down until it becomes a dark, thick syrup. That is the whole idea: one plant, its juice, and long, patient heat. Black honey has been a staple of the Egyptian kitchen for longer than most households can remember, kept in the cupboard for the breakfast plate and the tahini spoon.
Haydara does not make or sell black honey, so we will not describe how any particular maker works. We would rather say plainly what we know than borrow details we cannot stand behind.
How Is Bee Honey Made?
Bee honey is made by honey bees from the nectar of flowers, and people only collect it once the bees have finished their work. Forager bees gather nectar, the colony works it and dries it in the comb, and the bees seal each ripe cell with wax. The full process is described in our note on how bees turn nectar into honey. A beekeeper then lifts the ripe frames, the wax caps are opened, and the honey is spun out, strained and left to settle before it reaches a jar. Each Haydara jar comes from a single source and is labelled with its region and hive number.
Why Do Egyptians Call Sugar-Cane Syrup Honey?
Egyptians call sugar-cane syrup black honey because, at the table, it does the job honey does: it is thick, sweet, and eaten by the spoon with bread and tahini. The name describes use and colour; it is not a claim about bees. In everyday Egyptian speech the colour word does the sorting. Black honey is the cane syrup, and bee honey is often called white honey, or simply bee honey. The shared name is old and widely understood, which is why the question "white or black?" still comes up in Egyptian kitchens.
How Do Black Honey and Bee Honey Look, Pour and Behave in the Jar?
Egyptian black honey is very dark, close to black, and pours thick and slow, with a deep, rounded sweetness. Bee honey ranges from pale gold to dark amber depending on the flowers, and it carries the aroma of its blossom. Colour alone is not a reliable guide, because some bee honeys are dark too, as explained in what the colour of honey tells you.
The clearer difference over time is texture. Raw bee honey often sets in its own time, turning firm and grainy in the jar; that is natural and is not spoilage. Black honey is a boiled syrup that is kept thick and pourable, and it does not set the way raw bee honey does. A firm, pale, grainy jar is almost always bee honey, while a dark syrup that stays runny is far more likely to be black honey.
How Can You Tell from the Label Which One You Are Buying?
Read the product name and the ingredient line, not the colour of the jar. A jar of black honey is usually sold under that name, or as sugar-cane molasses. A jar of bee honey should be named as honey or bee honey, and honey should be its only ingredient. What every line on a Haydara jar means is set out in our guide to reading a Haydara honey label: one ingredient, honey, with the flower, the region and the hive number beside it.
Where Does Each One Sit on the Egyptian Table?
Egyptian black honey and bee honey often share the same breakfast, but they tend to do different jobs. Black honey is the classic partner for tahini and for feteer: stirred together, the deep cane sweetness and the sesame balance each other, as we wrote in our note on the Egyptian honey and tahini spoon. Bee honey is the one reached for in tea, on yoghurt, and on bread when the aroma of a particular flower is the point. Neither replaces the other. A household that keeps both is not hedging; it is cooking with two different ingredients.
Questions People Ask
Is black honey fake honey?
No. Egyptian black honey is a genuine traditional food made from sugar cane. It was never meant to be bee honey; the two foods simply share a name in Egypt.
Do bees make Egyptian black honey?
No. Egyptian black honey is made by people, from sugar-cane juice boiled down into a thick syrup. Outside Egypt, black honey can also mean a dark bee honey such as pine honey, so the same words can name different foods in different countries.
What is white honey in Egypt?
In Egypt, white honey is an everyday name for bee honey, used to tell it apart from black honey. It does not mean the honey is pale; a bee honey called white can still be dark amber.
Does Haydara sell black honey?
No. Haydara sells bee honey, honeycomb and the Haydara Natural Loofah. Black honey is a good Egyptian food, but it is not one we make or source. More answers are on the Haydara FAQ page.
If you would like help choosing a bee honey for tea, bread or the tahini plate, we are glad to talk it through on WhatsApp or through the website.