Rosemary

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is a typical plant of Mediterranean vegetation. It grows wild along the coasts, and as an aromatic plant it is cultivated over a wider area. Bees visit it eagerly, but the main flow is in early spring, so this valuable nectar source cannot always be exploited.

Rosemary honey is made in the Mediterranean countries of Europe (mainly Spain), North Africa and Turkey. It is very light, has a fine flavour and a good commercial value. In Provence rosemary flowers from February to March. Rosemary pollen is under-represented in the honey.

Why this matters to you: rosemary honey depends on early spring, so in cool years there may be little of it or none at all.

Rosemary honey is gentle: very light in colour, with a weak to medium fresh floral odour, medium sweetness, weak acidity, no bitterness and a short aftertaste. Crystallisation is moderate, and diastase activity is low, so the EU allows a minimum diastase number of 3 for such honeys. Seven Spanish rosemary honeys averaged 38 pollen types each and about 76,700 pollen elements per 10 g. A few Spanish and French samples exceed 5 g/100 g sucrose, up to 6.6 in the survey, but that is a rare exception.