When it comes down to honey, Greeks may indeed do it better.
As a lover of all sweet foods (and things), I'd like to share with you my newest obsession: The Saviolakis Family Cretan Honey, especially dear to me as it hails from Greece, and may in fact be the best honey I've ever had.
Growing up, honey was a pantry staple. We would add it to tea, on bread, in yogurt, and even sauces. I never questioned the origins, I assumed it came "from the village" meaning it was given to us by someone who made it. It was never store bought-a huge "faux pas" in rural Greece.
Coming to the U.S, I would smuggle honey from home, doubting the quality of the brands found at the conventional supermarket shelves, but never really questioning the origins or methods of production.
If you asked me where does honey come from I would say the bees? Shrug. It is-or it was-before my new found knowledge- as clear as that, a well known fact and not one that is subject to opinions or up for debate. Not knowing anything more than what mentioned above, I decided to educate myself and thus read several articles, spoke to beekeepers and here is what I learned:
“Honey” is defined as a sweet food produced by bees from nectar collection and stored for their own use. We humans gather it and use it as a natural sweetener and for its medicinal properties.
The scariest part I definitely ignored, is that, according to the Guardian, 75% of honey found in US supermarket shelves contains no pollen at all. Pollen, the honey's DNA, is the way to know the country of origin. Without pollen you may as well be consuming high fructose corn syrup and due to the high demand of honey in the US, (400 million pounds versus the 150 million produced), countries like China are capitalizing on this sweet deal and creating heated, watered down, "honey" removing all pollen, resulting to 3/4 of honey found in the US today not being real honey.
And this brings me back to my initial new obsession, this real, raw, thyme honey.
Raw VS Conventional Honey:
What makes raw honey truly raw is that is has not been heat treated (pasteurized) in any way, thus keeping all its health nutrients and medicinal properties that make honey so great. Filtering is minimal to remove debris like bee wings. You may notice honey crystallizing-that is a good thing! It means that you have the real thing, and can turn back into the original liquid form by lightly warming it up. Conventional honey is heat treated and filtered, containing little or no pollen, NOT honey.
Greek Honey:
In Greece, it is common knowledge that the best honey comes from Crete. The unique climate it boasts, with cold dry winters, hot summers, and the White Mountains at an altitude of 4000 ft, creates a great environment for honey. Thyme honey especially, the name coming from the thyme the bees feed on, is known for its uniqueness in flavor, color, as well medicinal properties. The Saviolakis family, definitely has experience, having made the honey for more than 250 years and being primarily beekeepers, rather than manufacturers. Even today, their honey is 100% raw and natural.
In the Greek product market, both in Greece, as well as the US, unless you buy local honey, or “have a guy” that provides you with honey, you are must likely to buy one of the two big popular brands, one hailing from Athens, and the other from Crete. Although definitely better than most brands, they do not compare in flavor or quality with this new obsession of mine. Again that is because, honey is collected from various sources versus one. And for one to claim their honey is "thyme", it needs to have at least 18% thyme content. Collected from a protected area in the mountains close to Sfakia of Crete, the Saviolakis thyme honey, contains more than 30%.
Great part is you don't have to go all the way to Crete to get it, they now sell in the US. I would highly recommend checking out their site and treating yourself to something sweet!