Honey Tasting Contest Results: The Best

OK. Here's the second serving on the Great Hampden Honey Tasting of 2009. In the first posting, I explained that we had eight (8) honeys, which were tasted blindly by guests at a birthday party. Each honey received two scores:

• Distinctiveness, and
  
• Agreeability
  

Each was scored on a scale of 1 - 10.

The Honeys

Random Number	Honey Name
#1	Lord Byron - Wildflower
#2	Wedderspoon Active +16
#3	Zambezi
#4	Wedderspoon Autumn Forest
#5	Ulmo Tree
#6	Really Raw
#7	Trader Joe's Creamed Clover
#8	Trader Joe's w/ Honey Comb

Thirteen people participated as judges in the tasting. The highest possible score for being either Distinctive or Agreeable was 130. The highest combined total score would be 260. The best honeys are summarized below, with scores in parentheses.

The Best of the Group of Honeys

Judging Category	First Place	Second Place	Third Place
Distinctiveness	Honey #5 (95)	Honeys #3, #8 (94)	Honey #6 (81)
Agreeability	Honey #8 (102)	Honey #1 (82)	Honey #6 (80)
Total Score	Honey #8 (196)	Honey #5 (165)	Honey #1 (161)

Some Comments

Honey #8, Trader Joe's Grade A with honey comb. This is a classic golden honey and is proven to be very agreeable according to the judges of this contest. Comments follow:

• Disgusting
  
• Very good, simple, classic
• Yum!
• Tastes like real honey

Honey #5, Ulmo Tree Honey. This honey is nearly a mono flower honey. The beautiful Ulmo tree (Eucryphia cordifolia) is native to Chile. It is a large but very slow growing evergreen shrub that can grow to form a tree reaching 6 to 9 metres high. It is part of the temperate rain forests that grow from Valdivia in the Lakes Region of Chile to as far south as Chiloe. Here are the judges comments:

• Thick, but simple taste. Good.
• Root beer! ??
• Tart sweet
• Sugary
• Hint of root beer

Honey #1 Lord Byron's wildflower honey is local to Maryland, USA, came in lowest on distinctiveness and 2nd lowest total score. It is a high grade standard honey we have around the house. Here's what some of the judges had to say:

• Sweeter than sweet!
• Pleasant, normal
• Very simple, very clean
• medicinal
• warm with subtle zing
• earthy

Honey #3 Zambeze from Zambia African jungle flowers. 100% organic, Fair Trade. It intentionally has cyrstals. Advertized as having a complex, lingering, rich but subtle flavor. Personally, I liked it and think the judges might have been prejudiced by the crystals, so take the following comments with a grain of honey. Here are the comments on Zambeze:

• Grainy (mentioned twice)
  
• Like proplis and chunky
• Not good, very crystalized
• Ick
• I hate the taste
• Yeasty
• Bitter bite
  
• Good

Honey #6, Really Raw Honey (I need to find out which variety). Really Raw is a local honey from Maryland. It is advertized as "still contains pollen, propolis, honeycomb and live enzymes." We didn't include the gritty "cap" that lies on top of the honey when you first open the jar. Here's what the judges had to say:

• I like it. It has kind of a blank taste
• Sweet. It is really raw honey (remember, this was a blind tasting!)
• Sweet, not in a good honey way
• perfumy
• tart sweet
• creamy
• like this one
  

Comments on honeys that ranked lower can be found HERE.

More GDAEman Blog Posts on the Honey Tasting:

• Honey Tasting Contest (Intro)
  
• Results: The Least Best
• How to Host a Honey Tasting