Most commercially available honey is blended, meaning that it is a combination of honeys from different sources. China is the world's largest producer of honey (256,000 tonnes in 2001), followed by the United States (100,000 tonnes), Argentina (90,000 tonnes), Turkey (71,000 tonnes), Mexico, Ukraine and India [1][2]
Polyfloral honey is derived from the nectar of many types of flowers.
Different monofloral honeys have a distinctive flavor and colour due to differences between their principal nectar sources. Beekeepers keep monofloral beehives in an area where the bees have access to only one type of flower, because of that flower's properties. In practice, because of the difficulties in containing bees, a small proportion of any honey will be from additional nectar from other flower types. Some of the main types of monofloral honey (and their main countries of production) include: apple blossom (United Kingdom), acacia (Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania), cherry blossom (United Kingdom), clover (Canada, New Zealand), eucalyptus (Australia), heather (United Kingdom), lavender (France, Spain), lime blossom (China, Poland), orange blossom (France, Spain), tupelo (United States), wild thyme (France, Greece, New Zealand) sunflower (France, Spain) [3] and Manuka, Rata and Pohutukawa from New Zealand.
Instead of taking nectar, bees can take honeydew, which appears similar to honey and consists of the sweet secretions of aphids or other plant sap-sucking insects. Most important of these is the aphid Marchalina hellenica which feeds on the sap of the Turkish Pine. Honeydew from pine forests has a piney taste and is prized for medicinal use in Europe and Turkey. Bees collecting this resource have to be fed protein supplements, as honeydew lacks the protein-rich pollen accompaniment gathered from flowers.
In New Zealand honeydew nectar is produced from a small, scaled insect (Ultracoelostoma assimile) living in the bark of two of New Zealand's beech forests, mostly black beech (black from the sooty mold growing on the surplus nectar covering the trunks and branches) and, to a lesser extent, red beech. In the early morning sunlight, the droplets of nectar glisten like the morning dew, giving the name honeydew.
Germany's Black Forest is a well known source of honeydew-produced honeys.
Honeydew honey has a full aroma, is heady, almost pungent, and malty with a thick red amber color.
Honeydew has strong markets in some areas, but in many areas beekeepers are disappointed with a honeydew crop, as they are unable to market the stronger flavored product. Honeydew has a much larger proportion of indigestibles than light honeys, which can cause dysentery, resulting in the death of colonies in areas with cold winters. Good beekeeping management requires the removal of honeydew prior to winter in colder areas.
The information on this page has been reproduced from www.wikipedia.com. Copyright acknowledged.