On Thursday 23^rd July, Dr Phillip Donkersley from Lancaster Environment Centre, Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and the University's resident bee expert, invited attendees on a globe-trotting tasting adventure exploring the remarkable world of honey.

Hosted at the Runner Duck Wine Room in the centre of Lancaster, the event saw guests sample eight distinctive honeys from around the world. Guiding the tasting, Phillip introduced the unique flavours, aromas and stories behind each variety, revealing how the different flowers visited by the honeybees influence the taste and colour of the honey they produce.

Without needing their passports, the 25 attendees travelled across continents, with Phillip carefully curating the tasting so that it began with lighter, more familiar honeys before moving towards richer, more distinctive varieties.

The tasting tour began close to home with Bulmers Cider Orchard Honey from Herefordshire. Produced by bees foraging among the blossom of Bulmers cider apple orchards, the abundance of pollen creates a light golden honey with a floral sweetness.

Phillip then kept the tasting firmly rooted in Britain with Tilia (Lime Tree) Honey. Sourced from bees visiting the summer flowers of large-leaved and common lime trees, this honey was the first big shock of the evening as it tasted like mouthwash!

The next stop was the breathtaking Scottish Highlands, where attendees sampled Scottish Heather Honey. Behind its distinctive flavour lies an extraordinary journey. Every summer, beekeepers transport their colonies overnight to the flowering heather moorlands to make the most of the brief but spectacular nectar flow. Once the heather has finished blooming, the bees are moved back to lower ground, making heather honey one of the most labour-intensive varieties to produce. Its musty smell and thick texture proved to be one of the evening's most divisive flavours!

Phillip then unveiled one the evening’s biggest surprises - mustard honey! While mustard is more commonly found alongside a sausage sandwich, the yellow flowers grown for Colman's famous mustard in Norfolk provide bees with an excellent source of nectar. The resulting honey carries subtle mustard-like notes, leaving many tasters pleasantly surprised (depending on whether they like mustard or not!)

From the flat landscapes of the Norfolk Broads, the tasting headed Down Under, where attendees sampled Australian Redgum Honey. Despite its relation to the eucalyptus, the overwhelming flavours here were dates, sticky toffee pudding, and treacle.

Next, the tasting returned to Lancashire for a very controversial honey. Himalayan Balsam is an invasive and highly destructive plant plaguing the waterways of the north-west. However, when it’s in flower, our honeybees go mad for it! There’s a distinct tension between the public wanting to protect our canals and rivers from ecological destruction and the desire of beekeepers to produce a huge amount of honey from the flower. Philip wanted the attendees to taste this - admittedly very standard sweet and thin honey - because arguably, he believes it is not worth it.

The next destination was the snow-capped Himalayas. Unlike most varieties, Himalayan Cliff Honey is not harvested from managed hives but from the enormous open-air nests of the Himalayan giant honeybee, which builds its colonies on sheer cliff faces 3,000–4,000 metres above sea level. For centuries, Gurung honey hunters have scaled precarious bamboo rope ladders suspended from the cliffs to collect this deep amber honey.

Yet, perhaps the evening's biggest talking point was stingless bees which produce a honey unlike any other. With its tangy acidity and thin watery consistency, it was the most unusual of the night’s samples with a flavour profile akin to balsamic vinegar or marmite.

The event was a sweet success, demonstrating how research can be brought to life in novel and exciting ways. Speaking about the event, Phillip said:

“I think we have this preconceived notion of honey as a sugary sweet syrup, probably informed by the generic poor-quality stuff you can pick up from the supermarket shelf. But if you go looking, you'd be amazed at the variety of flavours and textures, the sheer wonder of the experience of honey.”

Massive thanks to the attendees for coming with to the event with adventurous taste buds, Dr Phillip Donkersely for organising the event, and to the Runner Duck Wine Room for hosting.

Keep an eye on the Runner Duck webpage for upcoming tastings as Phillip is planning more events in the near future!