Black forest honey is honeydew honey: a real bee honey that honey bees make from honeydew, the sweet liquid left on trees by sap-sucking insects, instead of from the nectar of flowers. It is usually darker and less flowery than blossom honey. Haydara does not sell black forest honey, but we think the honey deserves a plain explanation.
In Short
- Black forest honey is a name for honeydew honey, also sold as forest honey.
- Honeydew is a sweet liquid that sap-sucking insects leave on the leaves and bark of trees. Honey bees collect it the way they collect nectar.
- Honeydew honey is real bee honey. The international food standard for honey names it alongside blossom honey.
- Blossom honey comes from flowers; honeydew honey comes mainly from trees. The difference shows in the colour, the aroma and the taste.
- Black forest honey is not the same as Egyptian black honey, which is made from sugar cane, not by bees.
What Is Honeydew, and How Do Bees Collect It?
Honeydew is a sweet, sticky liquid that small sap-sucking insects, such as aphids, leave on the leaves, twigs and bark of trees. The insects feed on the sap of the tree, keep what they need, and pass the rest out as droplets of sugary liquid.
Honey bees treat honeydew much as they treat nectar. Forager bees gather the droplets, carry them home, and the colony works the liquid and dries it in the comb until it ripens into honey, then seals each cell with wax. The steps inside the hive are the same ones described in our note on how bees turn nectar into honey. Only the starting material is different.
Is Black Forest Honey Real Honey?
Yes. Black forest honey, or honeydew honey, is real honey made by honey bees. The definition used around the world is set out in the Codex Alimentarius standard for honey, which describes honey as made by honeybees from the nectar of blossoms, or from secretions of living parts of plants, or from the excretions of plant-sucking insects. The same standard names two kinds of honey by origin: blossom honey, from the nectar of flowers, and honeydew honey, which comes mainly from those plant secretions and insect excretions.
So the question of whether black forest honey is real honey has a clear answer. The bees made it, in the hive, in the usual way. They simply gathered from the tree instead of the flower.
Why Is It Called Forest or Black Forest Honey?
Honeydew honey is often sold as forest honey because most of it comes from trees rather than from fields of flowers. The word black usually points to the colour: honeydew honey tends to be dark. The Codex standard describes the colour of honeydew honey as ranging from very light brown or greenish to dark brown, so not every honeydew honey is close to black.
Black Forest is also the name of a real forest region, and the Codex standard says a honey may carry the name of a region only if it was produced entirely within that area. When a jar says black forest, the label itself should make clear whether the words name a place or simply describe a style of dark forest honey. If the label names no place, it is a fair question to ask the seller.
What Is the Difference Between Forest Honey and Flower Honey?
The main difference between forest honey and flower honey is the source: flower honey, or blossom honey, comes from the nectar of flowers, while forest honey, or honeydew honey, comes mainly from honeydew on trees. Everything else follows from that.
- Colour: blossom honey ranges from pale gold to dark amber depending on the flower; honeydew honey tends towards the darker end, from light brown or greenish to dark brown.
- Aroma: blossom honey usually carries the scent of its flower, such as the bright note of citrus blossom. Honeydew honey carries less of a flower and more of the tree; people often describe it as woody, malty or resinous.
- Taste: honeydew honey is often described as less sharply sweet than blossom honey, with a deeper, rounder finish.
Colour alone is not a reliable guide, because some blossom honeys are dark too, as explained in what the colour of honey tells you. Neither kind is better. They are two honeys from two kinds of forage, and which one you enjoy is a matter of taste.
How Can You Tell from the Label Which One You Are Buying?
Read the name on the label. A honeydew honey should be named as honeydew honey, forest honey, or by the tree it came from, such as pine or fir honey. A blossom honey is usually named after its flower or flowers, or simply called honey. Under the Codex standard, a honey may be named after a plant only if it comes wholly or mainly from that plant, which is the same logic described in our guide to monofloral and polyfloral honey labels.
At Haydara, every honey we sell is a blossom honey named after the flower its bees worked: citrus, clover and marjoram, from beekeepers in Fayoum and Sharkiya. What each 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 beside it.
Is Black Forest Honey the Same as Egyptian Black Honey?
No. Black forest honey is a bee honey made from honeydew; Egyptian black honey, asal aswad, is sugar-cane juice boiled down by people into a thick syrup, with no bees involved. The two share a colour word and nothing else. Egyptian black honey is a respected food in its own right, explained in our note on whether Egyptian black honey is real honey. When someone in Egypt asks for black honey, they almost always mean the cane syrup, so it helps to say honeydew or forest honey when the bee honey is meant.
Questions People Ask
Is honeydew honey made from honeydew melons?
No. Honeydew honey has nothing to do with the melon. The name comes from honeydew, the sweet liquid that sap-sucking insects leave on trees, which honey bees collect and turn into honey.
Is forest honey the same as black forest honey?
Usually, yes. Forest honey and black forest honey are both common names for honeydew honey. When black forest is meant as a place, the label should say so.
Why is black forest honey darker than flower honey?
Black forest honey comes mainly from honeydew on trees rather than from flower nectar, and honeydew honey tends to be darker. The colour still varies, from light brown or greenish to dark brown.
Does Haydara sell black forest honey?
No. Haydara sells blossom honeys (citrus, clover and marjoram), honeycomb and the Haydara Natural Loofah. More answers are on the Haydara FAQ page.
If you are curious how a darker honey compares with the jars on our shelf, we are glad to talk it through on WhatsApp or through the website.