Last Saturday was Groennfell Meadery’s official Honey Tasting, and we got a great turn out!
Right off the bat there are three great findings from the tasting notes:
Right off the bat there are three great findings from the tasting notes:
- People had never really thought about the profile of honey besides “sweet.” To quote one taster, “I never knew honey could have such complex aromas and flavors, or that some of them even existed as a category.”
- Almost everyone thinks they’re bad at tasting honey.
3. People are NOT bad at tasting honey. There was an astounding consistency in the tasting notes; each term below, in fact, appeared on over 60% of the sheets.
Without further ado, here’s Groennfell’s Honey:
Appearance: Golden, Grainy
Aroma: Toasted Sugar,[1] Floral, Fruity (Split between, Orange and Apricot)
Flavor: Clover, Toasted Sugar, Slightly Apple-y
Mouth Feel: Grainy, Big Crystals, Surprisingly Smooth
Finish: Warm, Flavor Lingers, Not Much Change
It was a great experiment, and it was amazing to see how helpful the UC Davis Honey Flavor Wheel was at helping people put a name to what they were tasting.
Appearance: Golden, Grainy
Aroma: Toasted Sugar,[1] Floral, Fruity (Split between, Orange and Apricot)
Flavor: Clover, Toasted Sugar, Slightly Apple-y
Mouth Feel: Grainy, Big Crystals, Surprisingly Smooth
Finish: Warm, Flavor Lingers, Not Much Change
It was a great experiment, and it was amazing to see how helpful the UC Davis Honey Flavor Wheel was at helping people put a name to what they were tasting.
Of course, here’s what you really want; the weirdest comments we got all day:
“the barest hint of fresh-split elm”
“musty, like mushrooms, but that’s probably wrong”[2]
“honeysmell”
“wow, I am not good at this. Um, Candy? Honey?”
There you go! We still have some honey around if you’d like to give it a try. Just ask someone at the bar!
[1] For the sake of simplicity, we combined “Slightly Burnt Sugar,” “Crème Brule,” “Toasted Sugar,” and “Slightly Burnt Sugar Like Standing Next to a Cotton Candy Machine” all into one term “Toasted Sugar.”
[2] Good news whoever wrote this: Two other people thought of mushrooms, too.
“the barest hint of fresh-split elm”
“musty, like mushrooms, but that’s probably wrong”[2]
“honeysmell”
“wow, I am not good at this. Um, Candy? Honey?”
There you go! We still have some honey around if you’d like to give it a try. Just ask someone at the bar!
[1] For the sake of simplicity, we combined “Slightly Burnt Sugar,” “Crème Brule,” “Toasted Sugar,” and “Slightly Burnt Sugar Like Standing Next to a Cotton Candy Machine” all into one term “Toasted Sugar.”
[2] Good news whoever wrote this: Two other people thought of mushrooms, too.
