One of the more fun projects I'm doing is a honey quality/taste test. I'm working with two professors from Universitas Teknologi Sumbawa. I'll be sending honey samples to them and they will be analyzing them in their labs for pollen and neutraceuticals (however you actually spell that). I am wondering if we are able to correlate any of that with honey quality -- there are crazy-big differences in the flavors of the honey, even within the same species of bee, even within the same geographical area (and, for T. itama, where the honey pots are large, there are differences in a single hive between pots!). Ditto for color which ranges from near-white to near-black.
Trigona honey is interesting because the bees collect both nectar and resin. Rather than storing honey in wax combs (like Apis honeybees do), they store it in propolis 'pots' which "leak" compounds into the honey. I think that the longer the honey is not harvested, the more of the resins are absorbed by it and they acquire a more distinctive flavor (and stronger color). But the flowers that they are utilizing also make a pretty big difference in the flavor of their honey. It's pretty wild how different they are. It is much more variable that what we get from European honeybees in the U.S.
Trigona honey is interesting because the bees collect both nectar and resin. Rather than storing honey in wax combs (like Apis honeybees do), they store it in propolis 'pots' which "leak" compounds into the honey. I think that the longer the honey is not harvested, the more of the resins are absorbed by it and they acquire a more distinctive flavor (and stronger color). But the flowers that they are utilizing also make a pretty big difference in the flavor of their honey. It's pretty wild how different they are. It is much more variable that what we get from European honeybees in the U.S.
So, I'm trying to see if I can quantify the color and flavor differences.
I'm working with the USDA honey colour chart and a flavor wheel out of UC Davis.
I'm working with the USDA honey colour chart and a flavor wheel out of UC Davis.
Tim and I started with blind-testing of 13 honey samples and the whole UCD wheel and narrowed it down to the more common flavors which we translated to Indonesian. Fruit, flowers and caramel/candy flavors come up often and made the Bahasa Indonesia taste test. Thankfully, we have yet to encounter a honey that tastes like 'cat pee,' although a faint 'wet earth/hummus' taste comes up occasionally (Tim and I are up to 23 honeys so far).
We recently tested out with Cok Bagus' son (Kusuma) and Mother with 5 honeys for each of them. I learned that a Likert Scale (1-5) is more cultural than I'd thought and not something that easily translates. A 3-point scale (none, slight, lots) is going to be a lot more accurate so I'll need to revise the form before getting a bigger Indonesian audience.
It was actually a lot of fun administering the test. Kusuma, in particular, was a hoot. He was literally hooting. Happily for the sweetest of the honeys, miserably for the most sour. Yelling "manis sekali!" for the sweet ones and drawing back in horror when he got a particularly sour one. Wish I'd videotaped it :-)
It was actually a lot of fun administering the test. Kusuma, in particular, was a hoot. He was literally hooting. Happily for the sweetest of the honeys, miserably for the most sour. Yelling "manis sekali!" for the sweet ones and drawing back in horror when he got a particularly sour one. Wish I'd videotaped it :-)