Some people go to the effort of distinguishing between the spring and summer honey from their bees.  Who knew?! I didn’t.  Well not until I visited the Domaine de Merval farm and agricultural college on our recent trip to France.

I had to buy a jar of each, just to taste the difference between them you understand. It isn’t particularly scientific – my assumptions that the same bees were involved, location, treatment after harvesting, not to mention a sample size of one – but there were quite striking differences between the two honeys.  The spring honey is much paler, fudgy and almost waxy in texture (how I always imagine a beeswax candle should taste) and the flavour was more herbal (akin to Scottish Heather Honey).  The summer honey is darker, sweeter and more floral.  I much prefered the spring honey but then I am a fan of the aforementioned Scottish Heather Honey and Manuka too although I did once draw the line at a deeply farmyardy Miel de Savoie.

The main difference now is that the spring honey jar is almost empty.