Acacia Honey: What It Is, Why It Stays Liquid and How to Use It
Acacia honey is a pale, clear, mild honey made from the blossoms of the black locust tree. It tastes of light flowers and a little vanilla, it is barely more than sweetness on the tongue, and it stays liquid for a remarkably long time. It is the honey to choose when you want sweetness without the taste of honey taking over: in tea, over fresh cheese, on fruit. Here is what it is and how to use it.
Acacia honey isn’t really from acacia
The tree is Robinia pseudoacacia, the black locust, a North American native that reached Europe in the early seventeenth century and has been called acacia there ever since. It now grows across central and southern Europe, and Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Italy and France are its great honey producers. True acacias, the thorny trees of Africa and Australia, make a different honey. When a jar in Europe or the United States says acacia honey, it means black locust.
Why acacia honey stays liquid
Honey is mostly two sugars, fructose and glucose, and it is the glucose that crystallizes. Acacia honey is unusually high in fructose, so it can stay clear and pourable for a year or more, where some honeys set within weeks. When any honey does crystallize, it has not spoiled; standing the jar in warm water returns it to liquid. More in How Long Does Honey Last?
What acacia honey tastes like
Very little, in the best sense: light floral notes, a hint of vanilla, almost no bitterness or acidity, and a clean finish. The color runs from nearly water-white to pale straw. That restraint is the point. It sweetens without announcing itself, which is why tea drinkers and cooks keep a jar.
How to use acacia honey
- Tea. It dissolves easily and leaves the tea tasting of tea. Try it with a floral black tea such as Nina’s Marie Antoinette.
- Cheese. Over ricotta, fresh goat cheese and burrata, and with young pecorino or a creamy blue, where it softens the salt without competing.
- Fruit and yogurt. Over figs, peaches, pears and thick yogurt, or in our tea-poached pears with acacia honey mascarpone.
- Baking. In madeleines, cakes and glazes, where you want moisture and sweetness more than honey flavor. Our Marie Antoinette tea madeleines use it with lemon.
- Breakfast. Whipped into cream for French crêpes with wild strawberry jam, or simply on buttered toast.
- Dressings. A teaspoon in a mustard vinaigrette balances the acid without tasting sweet.
Acacia, lavender or rose?
Our three honeys cover the range. Famille Perronneau acacia honey is the everyday one: light, gently floral and liquid, for tea and cooking. Famille Perronneau French lavender honey is fuller and more herbal, and belongs on warm toast and with fresh cheese. THETA rare rose honey, a Greek wildflower honey with a delicate rose fragrance, comes in its own gift box and is the one to give. Read why we chose Perronneau’s acacia, or browse all of our honey, confitures and flower confits.
Why good acacia honey costs more
Black locust flowers for only a week or two in late spring, and cold, rain or wind in that window can cut a year’s harvest sharply. Its mild flavor also makes it easy to blend with cheaper honeys, so it is worth buying from a named producer.
Questions
Does acacia honey crystallize? Eventually, but slowly, often not for a year or more. If it does, warm the jar gently in water.
What is the difference between acacia honey and regular honey? Most everyday honey is a blend of floral sources: darker, stronger and quicker to set. Acacia is a single-flower honey, paler, milder and slower to crystallize.
Can you cook with acacia honey? Yes. It is one of the best honeys for baking and dressings because its flavor stays in the background.
How long does acacia honey last? Sealed and kept dry, honey keeps indefinitely. See How Long Does Honey Last? for storage.