Lori and I joined friends & neighbors Marie and Ed for a honey tasting at the unique Honeybee Embassy at Bright Raven Farm and Apiary in Trumansburg. What a revelation! I realized I had never tasted pure raw honey before–almost everything available in grocery stores etc. is typical American hyper-processed industrial imitation often heavily infused with corn oil. Real honey without industrial chemistry and over-processing has a wonderful complex taste. The season of the year, the plants in bloom, the terroir, all contribute to a distinctive taste and texture when it isn’t blended and processed into generic honey-like substance. We tasted 6 different honeys, each with highly distinctive color, texture, and taste depending on what the bees had available for production at the time.

Besides learning what real respectfully-harvested honey tastes like, we learned a lot about honey and bees from the owners who have many years of experience and learning behind their enthusiasm for this remarkable substance and its producers. Apparently humans are still learning new things about the amazing honey bees.