Honey for Tea
Honey can be a delicious sweetener for tea. With so many varieties of honey to choose from, it can be subtle enough for the most delicate white teas, or flavorful enough to spice up a rich black tea. This article will cover:
Honey Production and Varieties
How to Sweeten Tea with Honey
Pairing Tea and Honey
Honey and Health
Honey Storage
Honey Production and Varieties
As you probably remember from grade school, honey is made by bees and collected by beekeepers. But you may not know that its flavors and consistency are greatly influenced by the harvesting region and time of year. This is because bees collect honey from local flora, which varies with each place and season. You can buy honeys with a mix of flowers (wildflower honey, for example), or with specific types of flora (the most common in the U.S. is clover honey). Some of the better-known varieties are acacia, alfalfa, buckwheat, clover, orange blossom, raspberry, sourwood, and tupelo, but there is an incredible variety of honey available. The National Honey Board has a great honey locator that lets you search by flower type or growing location. (Hawaiian Christmas Berry honey, anyone? How about soybean honey?) The growing location searches are particularly helpful for those of you who suffer from allergies, since ingesting a small amount of local honey daily helps you build up a tolerance to your local plant allergies.
How to Sweeten Tea with Honey
Regular sugar is made up of sucrose. Honey is made up of varying proportions of fructose and glucose, which means it’s much sweeter. If you know how much sugar you usually like in your tea, divide that amount by 3 to find out how much honey you should use. I like to measure it out before I add it because it’s hard to tell how much you’re adding otherwise. Also, honey’s viscosity can make it difficult to get a "perfect pour" without practice. Stir it in while the tea is hot, especially if you’re going to ice it (see Iced Tea for more info). Some honeys will have a much stronger sweetness than others, so if you’re trying a new one, start with a little and work up.
Pairing Tea and Honey
As with tea and food pairings, it all comes down to personal taste. Lucky for you, I am paid for my personal tastes! Seriously, though, I’ll cover the major schools of thought on tea flavoring and not just focus on what I prefer.
When you set out to select a honey for your tea, think about what kinds of teas you prefer. If you like very delicate white teas, try pairing them with the very mild flavor of alfalfa honey or the buttery-yet-subtle sweetness of tupelo honey. If you like a full-bodied, rich black tea, try the full-bodied buckwheat, or the assertive basswood. Lean toward citrus-flavored teas? Orange blossom may be your best bet. If you like fruity notes, check out raspberry or cranberry honey. Floral-tasting teas are easy to pair with most honeys, but clover, wildflower, and apple blossom are always safe choices. If you like spiced teas you can stick with a more traditional honey with strong flavor (like clover), or try a spiced honey (like Republic of Tea’s chai spice or vanilla bean honey). More specific flavor pairings are also popular--mint tisane with mint honey, or lavender tisane with lavender honey, for example.
The main thing is the taste, but there are a few other things to consider.
If you are adding your honey to tea that is already iced, I suggest tupelo honey. Because of its unique balance of sugars, it doesn’t harden (granulate), even over ice.
If you have allergies to local flora, try a local honey. When ingested daily, they can help your body build up a tolerance to the pollens that get to you.
If you are serving a tea for a special event, consider pairing a tea with a honey instead of the other way around. If your area has a special festival (like Maine’s blueberry festival), pair a (blueberry) honey with your tea. Or you could serve a sage honey with your tea for a favorite wise elder’s birthday. Get creative!
Honey and Health
Honey contains more antioxidants and minerals than sugar (the darker, the more). Unlike table sugar, it is made up of inverted sugars--this makes it an ideal "instant energy" source. It has also been used in many cultures to alleviate sore throats and is thought to reduce pollen allergies when consumed regularly. When I’m getting sick with a cold or sore throat, I mix up the following concoction:
Vee’s Witches’ Brew
1 cup water
1 teaspoon green tea leaves
1-2 tablespoons honey
1 lemon (the juice and some of the grated rind)
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
Optional (if you care more about feeling better than drinking something that tastes good):
1 tablespoon unfiltered apple cider vinegar
Salt to taste
Black pepper, cayenne, paprika, and/or hot sauce (as much as you can stand)
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
Brew the tea as you normally do. (Optional: Brew garlic with the tea leaves and strain it out. It was done for hundreds of years in ancient China, so it’s not THAT weird.) Return the drink to your heat source and stir in everything else. Pour into an over-sized mug, breathe the vapors, and sip slowly. Feel better soon!
Honey Storage
Honey is quite easy to store. In a well-sealed jar, it can keep for many years, though I suggest keeping it for less than 2 years after opening it. Contrary to popular belief, it does NOT require refrigeration. In fact, refrigeration will crystallize most honeys (tupelo being the main exception). Room temperature, out of light and heat, is best. Over time, your honey may begin to granulate (harden). This is easily fixed by submerging the jar in warm water while stirring the honey until it has returned to its normal level of viscosity (a few minutes). Be careful not to boil honey, as it changes its chemical structure.
I hope learned something new about honey and tea. Don’t forget to check out Iced Tea for more sweet tea information and remember to enjoy your tea!