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When we talk to you about honey, you immediately think of bees (and you are right) and the flowers that they eagerly gather to offer you delicious honey nectars. But our yellow and black workers, very greedy, do not lack imagination when it comes to feeding themselves when honey-producing flowers are rare in certain regions. Indeed, there is a perfect substitute for flower nectars that bees love: honeydew.
But then what is honeydew?
It is a viscous and very sweet liquid, secreted by certain biting-sucking insects (in particular aphids, scale insects, psyllids or even whiteflies) and which covers the leaves and trunks of certain trees with non-honey-producing flowers such as pines. , firs, oaks, ashes, birches...
How is it created?
The insects concerned gorge themselves on sap to feed. Very fond of it, they are capable of swallowing a quantity equal to their own weight! Obviously, under these conditions, they assimilate only a tiny part of the sap as food and reject the rest. Their surprising anatomy allows them to contract their intestines so that the unassimilated sap simply passes through their body without being completely forced through the different stages of digestion. It is the expelled sap which is called honeydew.
How does it work then?
Hungry, the bees will then gather this rare liquid deposited on the leaves, branches and trunk of the tree. Proud of their loot, they hasten to return to the hive to begin their meticulous work as cooks. The result is the creation of honeydew honey; a rare honey prized by all.
Why does the manufacture of honeydew honey require the presence of an intermediary?
First of all, the bees' proboscis is unsuitable for penetrating into plant tissues to collect sap. Furthermore, although the excess sap is almost immediately rejected by insects, it still undergoes a biochemical modification to produce the famous honeydew.
Besides the raw material collected by the bee, how does honeydew honey differ from flower honey?
Firstly, honeydew honey will always have a darker color than nectar honey and generally have a more pronounced aroma. In addition, honeydews contain less sugars but are richer in amino acids and minerals. Thus, their beneficial properties are multiple.
At Hédène , we have two of the most popular honeydew honeys: fir honey and oak honey . If you love sweet honey, opt for our fir honey with a delicate, woody flavor accompanied by notes of blackberries and maple syrup. On the other hand, if you prefer honeys with character, let yourself be seduced by our oak honey with its intense flavor and its subtle notes of liquorice. As always, our honeys, of French origin, are certified 100% natural and do not undergo any processing (unheated and unpasteurized) to guarantee aromatic typicity and taste authenticity.
For the record, bees are not the only ones who love honeydew. Indeed, our friends the ants are also big consumers of this sweet liquid and even go so far as to breed aphids to then collect the honeydew.