Tea and Honey

It’s noticeable, that particularly in Europe, people tend to think about sweetening their tea with honey. I can’t remember the last time someone brought me some honey with my coffee, and this got me wondering why… does sweetening tea with honey really work better than sugar? I think the answer lies in that the subtlety of tea actually allows the flavor of the honey to come through, and actually work with the honey to create a completely new sweet flavor (all kidding and nastiness aside – a dollop of honey in a cup of coffee would simply get lost!). The floral aspects present in both tea and honey work beautifully together. With all the amazing honeys available at farmer’s markets, I tried a few.

Not being a habitual sweet tea drinker, this was a fun excursion into sweet flavors – each like a candy defined by a tasty tea base, then prolonged or sometimes lifted by the honey flavors.

I’ve now tried creamy honeys, various floral honeys,

including orange blossom, and am anxious to try some lavender honey with my Earl of Grey. I recommend it, and in a future post plan to talk through some tea and honey pairings…Sweet Dreams!

Thank you abeilles.apiculture.free.fr for the photos!