Heather honey is a natural product that bees eleborate in their stomachs with the nectar of Heather flowers. ¡Another of the most demanded honeys in Spain!.
Fantastic selection of top quality heather honeys from Spanish beekeepers.
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Summary: Heather honey is a dark, mineral-rich honey with a powerful and delicious taste. All our heather honeys come from beekeepers committed to the environment and are available in our shop in Las Rozas de Madrid.
Related articles: Unpasteurised raw honey. The 5 best honeys
1. Our raw heather honey
Firstly, we show you the most important characteristics of this honey:
a) Color:
Heather honey has a dark amber color. However, when it crystallizes it takes on a much more brown colour, with clearly reddish tones.
b) Aroma
This raw heather honey also has a very intense and persistent aroma, especially in the retrosanal. As a consequence, it reminds us of the deciduous forests in autumn, humus and mushrooms. Likewise, when tasting it, one can appreciate salty notes and marked bitter components, with greater or lesser intensity. However, this depends on the type of heather and its purity.
Next we show you a video about the heather plant
Video 1: Heather flowering
c) Crystallization
Finally, if this honey is accompanied by some blackberry honey, it will have higher humidity, acid notes. In addition, it will tend to crystallize with separation of the solid and liquid phases. On the other hand, if this honey is accompanied by oak-oak mielatos, the honey will be darker. As a consequence, its aroma will be less sweet and with more marked salty notes, malted aromas. It will also have less tendency to crystallize.
d) Not homogenized
Honey from a single source. Our beekeepers do not mix honeys from different places.
e) The shrub
Heather is a shrub that breeds on plains, slopes, hills, rocky mountain areas. It flowers in summer, and it can extend its flowering at the end of summer in areas of lower altitude. Therefore the new heather harvest always starts in the middle and end of summer.
f) Flowering and Recollection
In addition, the harvest of Heather honey is variable. Because its flowering is often early and irregular. It is also very sensitive to long periods of drought and rain, so we can find years without arm honey.
Video 2: Our heather honeys
g) It is raised
We can find heather on the plains, slopes and hills of the whole Iberian Peninsula, which is free of lime up to an altitude of 2,600 metres.
f) Pollen
Heather honey will contain mostly heather pollen, Erica Sp in its scientific name. However, we can also find some fabaceae, crsitaceae, blackberry and asteraceae pollen.
g) Useful life
By useful life, we mean preferential consumption. Therefore, at the moment in which this honey would lose some of its properties and could exceed 40 mg/Kg of MHF.
Its useful life is 2 years from the moment of packaging.
h) Destination population
Furthermore, this honey is suitable for everyone. In the case of children under the age of two, medical supervision is recommended.
k) Ecological or conventional
We offer both organic and conventional heather honey. As for the organic one, we have requested the certificates to ensure that it is truly organic.
l) Gift of nature
In addition, honey, a gift of nature that we obtain without eliminating any living being.
m) Committed to the environment and rural development
All our beekeepers also take their beekeeping practices with great care of nature and help rural development.
2. Benefits and properties
Heather honey is a natural product very beneficial for health. A product that brings us great health benefits. These benefits are due to two reasons of the constitution of the honey.
Firstly, honey provides very beneficial properties due to its high sugar concentration and enzyme content. The second reason is because of the components provided by heather nectar itself.
In summary, we are going to indicate the following effects that this honey has, according to numerous sources that we have found both researchers and doctors:
- Urinary system: helps clean the urinary system and therefore reduces the chances of infection. According to numerous scientific articles, this honey helps to eliminate cystitis, a type of infection of the urinary system.
- Prostate: I haven’t found any scientific research here that certifies this. However, I have many clients who have been recommended by their doctor. They have a very positive effect.
In short, honey is a natural product that has been used for millennia for many different health uses. However, as Spanish law indicates, it is not a medicine.
a) Contraindications
Honey is a very calorific product. Therefore, we recommend a moderate consumption for people seeking to lose weight. Likewise, if you suffer from diabetes, we recommend that you ask your doctor for his or her opinion on its consumption.
3. Recommendations for Heather Honey
Heather honey is a less sweet and more aromatic honey, ideal for people who do not want to give such a sweet taste to their dishes.
A honey in general, ideal for sweetening coffee and spreading on toast.
Great chefs, due to the great consistency of this honey, recommend it to give a very special touch to ice creams and sponge cakes. It is also ideal for pairing with citrus fruits, cheese and in the preparation of fish dishes. It is also ideal to combine with spicy dishes and hot dishes.
4. Indications
Raw heather honey can take a long time to crystallize, as it is a honey with a lower glucose content and rich in minerals, two factors that delay its crystallization. However, its crystallization will be influenced by the content of other nectars and myelates.
5. Origin
Our heather honey is obtained from several beekeepers, which are as follows:
Beekeeper |
Location |
Characteristics |
| Antonio Simón | Madrid | Organic |
| Apícola Moreno | Guadalajara | No organic |
| Como una Reina | Valencia | No organic |
| Rancho Cortesano | Cádiz | Organic |
Table: Description of our beekeepers
We know these beekeepers well. We have visited their facilities, their beehives and extraction sites in order to ensure the seriousness in the elaboration of their products. Consequently they offer us with all guarantee of quality and completely natural honeys.
a) Other origins
Heather is found in most European countries. However, the varieties of heather are different from the Spanish one. Also, countries such as Norway, and the north of the United Kingdom, exactly, are very well known for their heather honeys.
Furthermore, in European countries it is easy to find this honey in supermarkets such as: Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda, Waitrose, M&S, Holland and Barret.
6. History
Discórides also deals with this plant in chapter 97 of his book I and here he already indicated the importance of the honey produced by the bees of this bush. Later, in the 25th century, pharmacists such as Mattioli and Laguna already spoke of the benefits of heather in urinary treatment.
7. Frequently asked questions
In addition, these are the most frequent asked questions:
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How strong is heather honey?
Heather honey is a less sweet honey, as it has a lot of minerals that reduce its sweetness.
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Is heather honey good for the prostate?
This information should be given also to you by your doctor. It is true, however, that many clients tell me that they take heather honey for their prostate and it is very good for them.
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What other honeys are similar?
Heather honey will also be present in honeys such as mountain, forest and thousand-flower honeys.
8. More information
Below we show you the physical-chemical parameters that any heather honey must pass.
Characteristics of heather honey |
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| Colour (mm Pfund) Maximum 49 -114 | Humidity (%). Max. 18 | Fructose + glucose: Minimum 60 |
| Sucrose: Maximum 5 | Electrical conductivity (mS/cm): minimum 0.5 or higher 0.80 | Free acidity (meq/kg): Maximum 50 |
| HMF (mg/Kg = ppm): Maximum 40 | Diastasases (Schade Units): Minimum 8 | |
Table 2: Directive 110/2001 EC, RD 1049/2003 in Spain.
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