Sidr honey is a blossom honey that honey bees make from the nectar of the sidr tree, Ziziphus, a hardy thorny tree that Egyptians know through its small fruit, nabq. The name sidr on a jar is a claim about the flower the bees worked. Haydara does not sell sidr honey, but the name deserves a plain explanation.
In Short
- Sidr honey is named after the sidr tree, a species of Ziziphus; in Egypt the tree is best known for its fruit, nabq.
- A honey may carry the name of a flower only if it comes wholly or mainly from that flower.
- Sidr honey is produced in several countries, and Egypt is among them.
- A careful sidr honey label names the flower and the region the honey came from.
- Haydara does not sell sidr honey; our shelf holds citrus, clover and marjoram honeys.
What Is Sidr Honey?
Sidr honey is honey that honey bees make mainly from the nectar of sidr blossoms. It is a blossom honey, made in the hive in the same way as any other flower honey, and the word sidr names its source.
Forager bees visit the small flowers of the sidr tree, carry the nectar home, and the colony works it and dries it in the comb until it ripens, then seals each cell with wax. What changes from one flower to the next is the nectar, and with it the colour, the aroma and the taste of the finished honey.
What Tree Does Sidr Honey Come From?
Sidr honey comes from the sidr tree, a member of the Ziziphus genus of hardy, thorny trees and shrubs that cope well with heat and dry ground. The sidr tree grows across the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa, Egypt included.
Many Egyptians who have never seen a jar of sidr honey know the tree well, because of its fruit. Nabq is the small, round fruit sold by street vendors and picked from trees in villages and old gardens, sweet with a slight tang. The tree that gives nabq and the tree behind sidr honey are the same tree: the honey comes from the flowers, the nabq from the fruit that follows them.
What Makes a Honey Sidr Honey?
A honey can be called sidr honey only if it comes wholly or mainly from sidr nectar. That rule is not ours; it is set out in the Codex Alimentarius standard for honey, which allows a honey to be named after a flower or plant only if it comes wholly or mainly from that source and has the properties that match that origin.
In practice, a beekeeper who wants a honey that is truly sidr places the hives where sidr trees dominate the forage while they flower, and harvests that honey on its own. A honey from mixed forage that includes some sidr is a real honey, but it is a polyfloral honey, and the name sidr alone would promise more than it holds. The difference between the two kinds of label is described in our guide to monofloral and polyfloral honey labels.
Is There Egyptian Sidr Honey?
Yes. Sidr honey is produced in several countries where the sidr tree grows, and Egypt is one of them. A study by Hegazi and colleagues, Characterization of Sidr Honey from Different Geographical Origins, compared sidr honeys from many countries, with Egypt among the origins studied.
Imported sidr honey is widely sold in Egypt, so many shoppers assume sidr honey must come from abroad. It does not have to. What matters on any jar of sidr honey, Egyptian or not, is that the label tells you where it was made, so the name has something to stand on.
How Do You Know If Sidr Honey Is Real?
The most useful thing a shopper can do is read the label closely, because a kitchen test cannot tell which flower a honey came from. Telling sidr from another flower takes a laboratory, which looks at the pollen in the honey and its other properties.
A careful sidr honey label usually names:
- the flower: sidr honey, not only honey with the word sidr somewhere on the front;
- the region where the honey was produced, which under the Codex standard should be named only if the honey was produced entirely within it;
- one ingredient: honey;
- who packed it, so that you know whom to ask.
A vague label is not proof that a honey is false, and a precise one is not a guarantee. But a seller who knows the flower, the region and the season will usually say so plainly. If the label names none of them, it is a fair question to ask. Why the popular home tests cannot answer this question is explained in our note on home purity tests for honey.
Why Doesn't Haydara Sell Sidr Honey?
Haydara does not sell sidr honey because our shelf is short on purpose, and sidr honey has not yet joined it. Every Haydara honey is a blossom honey named after the flower its bees worked, citrus, clover and marjoram, from beekeepers in Fayoum and Sharkiya that we know and return to.
A new honey joins the Haydara shelf only when we can describe it truthfully on every line of the label, which is set out in our note on why the Haydara shelf is short. Sidr honey is a well-loved honey, and many people sell it with care. Our not selling it says nothing about anyone else's jar, and it is not a promise that we will stock it.
What each line on a Haydara jar means is described in our guide to reading a Haydara honey label: one ingredient, honey, with the flower, the region and the hive beside it.
Questions People Ask
What does nabq have to do with sidr honey?
Nabq is the Egyptian name for the fruit of the sidr tree. Sidr honey comes from the same tree's flowers: the flowers come first, and the nabq follows.
Is mountain sidr honey a different honey?
Mountain sidr is a name sellers use for sidr honey from hill or mountain areas. Under the Codex standard, a place in a honey's name should mean the honey was produced entirely within that place, so it is fair to ask which mountains are meant.
Is sidr honey related to black honey or black forest honey?
No. Sidr honey is a blossom honey made by bees from sidr nectar. Egyptian black honey is a sugar-cane syrup, as explained in our note on whether Egyptian black honey is real honey, and black forest honey is a honeydew honey, as described in our note on what black forest honey is.
Does Haydara sell sidr honey?
No. Haydara sells citrus, clover and marjoram honeys, honeycomb with clover honey, and the Haydara Natural Loofah. More answers are on the Haydara FAQ page.
If you are wondering which honey on our shelf would suit the way you use sidr honey, tell us what you like, and we will recommend what fits, on WhatsApp or through the website.