Saturday, August 2, 2008

honeycomb heaven

Yes, ANOTHER bee-related post from Cinnamon Kitten (hey, I love my honey, ok?)

I've never had honeycomb before and had never even considered it something to purchase and consume. Only after reading Robbing the Bees did I think to myself, "hmmm, wouldn't it be fun to buy some honeycomb and try it?"

I didn't really go out intending to buy honeycomb, but I was in a specialty food store purchasing peppercorns and came across some honeycomb. Pure Canadian honeycomb. Which was different from the Billy Bee mix of Canadian and Argentinian honey that I'm used to. It was only $5.99 for a huge slab so I grabbed one to bring home with me.


Now the next issue was how to eat honeycomb? I figured that the best way to get the real experience was to have it pure. So I cut off a small piece and popped it into my mouth.

Some really crazy textures exploded in my mouth at the same time. There was the ooze of the honey out of the comb as I pressed my mouth closed. The waxy comb and the liquid honey intermingled. After I had deftly separated the honey from the comb and swallowed the honey, I was left with a small ball of beeswax in my mouth. I chewed on that for awhile (tasteless) and then spit it out.

I must say that the honey that came from the comb was the sweetest, most "fresh" tasting honey I've EVER had. I can't describe it any other way. It was pure, the "real thing" and it was really delicious. The wax was something I couldn't really get used to, but it wasn't really an issue if it meant I could have such yummy honey.


I've started looking into other ways to eat honeycomb besides straight from the box, and I've read some suggestions about spreading the entire comb onto toast - the heat apparently melts the wax so that you can swallow the entire thing and not end up with a wax ball in your mouth, so I may give that a try next!

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