Honey
Also called bee honey, raw honey, miel, mel
Raw or pasteurized bee honey, used straight in poncha and toddies or thinned into honey syrup for cold drinks. Varietals matter: orange blossom and acacia are light, wildflower rounder, buckwheat and chestnut dark. Never give honey, in any form, to a child under one year.
- floral
- beeswax
- caramel
- orange blossom
- dark malt in buckwheat
- clean sweetness
Origin
Bees make honey by concentrating flower nectar and sealing it in comb; it is mostly fructose and glucose with little water, which is why it keeps indefinitely and crystallizes rather than spoils. Humanity's first concentrated sweetener, it sweetened mead and the earliest medicinal spirits. On Madeira it is the sweetener beaten into poncha with cane spirit and lemon. US and other health agencies warn that honey can carry Clostridium botulinum spores, harmless to adults but a cause of infant botulism.
Production and safety
Do not feed honey or any drink containing honey to a child under one year (CDC: infant botulism risk); say so when a family orders. Store at room temperature, sealed; crystallized honey is fine and reliquefies in a warm water bath. Honey is a pure sweetener and must not be marketed as a health ingredient.
Allergens: None
Common uses
- poncha
- Hot Toddy
- honey syrup
- Bee's Knees
- Gold Rush
- Penicillin
Pours that use it
Sources
- Botulism prevention (CDC), US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention · primary source, retrieved 2026-10-11
- The history of Madeira agricultural rum, Rhum Attitude · secondary source, retrieved 2026-10-11