honey

How to Sweeten Up Without Sugar

Filed under: Dining

Trying to cut back on sugar but love sweets? Although the only real solution is to wean yourself off sweets altogether (at least to a degree) there are other ways to quiet your sweet tooth without going the refined sugar route. Here are a few ideas, many of which are great for baking.

Honey Made up of a combination of fructose, glucose, maltose, and sucrose, honey is as much as 50% sweeter than sugar and has a distinctive flavor that can vary depending on location, time of year, and the bees diet. Honey also offers some nutritional benefits in the form of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other nutrients.

Maple Syrup Real maple syrup (not the 'maple-flavored' syrups) contains magnesium and zinc and comes from sugar maple trees. It's boiled down to the desired thickness and is usually about 60% sweeter than traditional table sugar.

Agave Nectar A fructose syrup that's slightly thinner than honey and originates from the Agave plant in Mexico, it's 25-30% sweeter than white sugar and has a mild flavor along with some nutrient properties (mostly minerals). It also has a lower glycemic index than sugar so is often favored by diabetics.

Molasses A byproduct of the sugar refining process, molasses is dark and heavy and has a very strong flavor. It is sweet (made up of fructose, glucose, and sucrose) but slightly less so than sugar itself. Molasses is high in iron and calcium and also contains several B-vitamins.

Raw Sugar If you must have sugar then go for raw sugar, or sugar that has not been refined and still maintains its nutritional value. Tastes very much like brown sugar (essentially it is, although even less processed).

Stevia Made from the leaf of the stevia plant, stevia sweetener is 200-300 times more potent than sugar and is usually found in liquid and powder form. Stevia leaves (although not always the end product) contain many nutrients like iron, calcium, and zinc.

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Tags: agave nectar, AgaveNectar, baking, cooking, dessert, desserts, dining, honey, main-pedia, molasses, stevia, sugar, sweets-pedia

Own A Share In A Beehive

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

These days it seems like everyone has the homesteading bug. Canning classes, chickens in the backyard. Regrettably I'm far too lazy for that. Owning a share in someone else's labor is a bit more my speed. A New Zealand company, Your Pure Honey sells off shares of beehives and receive a supply of Active Manuka honey collected from a single hive. Whereas normal honey is often blended from a bunch of hives, each hive has its own distinctive flavor. It's a bit like a wine made from a single vineyard or whisky pulled from a single cask.

The idea is in the same vein as the Catch A Piece of Maine lobster trap shares, Your Pure Honey provides videos and images that show the hive in its natural surroundings. The chemical-free beehives use organic materials and are moved to remote sites around New Zealand to gather the best nectar from isolated native forests. Each beehive provides the funds to sustain five acres of natural forest.. Buyer can pick up a one-year stake in a beehive – ranging from exclusive rights to a 10 per cent share – which will produce honey for them from September to May.

There are 100 beehives total and three levels of ownership: Premium Partnership provides sole rights to a hive and all the honey it produces (about 40 500g jars); Syndicate Partnership provides a quarter share (about 10 500g jars); and Community Partnership provides a one-tenth share (about four 500g jars). Prices start at $285 including delivery. The entire hive costs $2,500 and will produce 40 jars of honey for the season.

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Tags: bees, giftideas, honey, manuka honey, ManukaHoney, new zealand, NewZealand

Life Mel Honey

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

One of the biggest trends in food is not just to care about where your food comes from or what is in it but also to monitor what goes into your food before it goes into you. Wine makers are focusing on biodynamic practices, beef that is grass fed is all the rage and now, a similar concept comes to honey. Honey made from different pollens tastes differently and Life Mel honey is made by bees fed on a specially formulated diet which includes selected herbs such as Siberian Ginseng, Echinacea and Uncaria Tomentosa. Life Mel is not artificially treated and no ingredients are added after extraction from the hive. It recently went on sale at Harrods for £42 per pot and is said to be popular with celebrities such as Sienna Miller and Kylie Minogue for its health benefits.

[via Sky News]

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Tags: bees, harrods, honey, life mel, LifeMel

Savannah Bee Honey

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

For the holidays I like the idea of giving a standard food item but a rather special version of it. Earlier I covered the gourmet olive oils from O & Co.; now we turn to honey and the sweet temptations from Savannah Bee. They sell a variety of different honeys, some in tall flutes that make them look like a bottle of fine dessert wine. Their latest is organic acacia honey. It is produced in the Southern Italian Alps and has a light vanilla taste. They recommend serving it drizzled over toast or with Italian cheeses such as Parmigiano-Reggiano. It sells for $25.

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Tags: gourmet gifts, holidash, honey, savannah bee

Silver Plated Honey Bee

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor

No diamonds and pearls here, just a classier way to serve your honey this summer. As much as I love those cute little bear-shaped honey bottles they tend to get sticky, which is nasty to put in the cabinet. Leaving them on the counter doesn't look so great either, so something like this Silver Plated Honey Jar lets you have honey on hand in a way that complements your kitchen's decor and makes your table a little prettier. It has a cute little silver honey scoop, and comes complete with a jar of Black Sage Honey by Savannah Bee Company. $45

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Tags: bee, black sage, BlackSage, honey, honeybee, kitchen, silver, table

Sidr Honey

by Nicole Weston (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Sidr Honey is said to be the single most expensive honey in the world. It comes from the Hadramaut Mountains in the Southwestern Arabian Peninsula, where it is harvested only twice per year. The honey is from bees who feast only on the pollen of the Sidr tree, considered by many to be a holy tree and is one of the most resilient, ancient tree varieties in the area. Sidr honey is reputed to have many medicinal benefits and has an unusually high level of antioxidants, not to mention a rich, unforgettable taste. It can be found online and sells for $200/kg.

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Tags: honey, honeys, most expensive honey, sidr honey, SidrHoney, world

Bee Raw Varietal Honey

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

We've seen all sorts of varietals in wine and chocolate and even olive oil, now the varietal idea comes to honey. At Bee Raw they work with artisanal beekeepers to create honey that varies in shade and flavor. The honeys offer a wide variety of tastes from the floral and aromatic orange blossom to the smoky and smooth basswood. A set of the four fruit varietals, orange blossom, raspberry, blueberry and cranberry in single ounce glass vials set in a wooden display box sells for $45.

[via The Cool Hunter]

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Tags: bees, food, honey, sweetener, terroir, varietal