KNYSNA NEWS – A local honey producer was recently honoured at the 11th annual Black Jar International Honey Tasting Contest in Asheville, USA, for having the best-tasting honey in Africa.
The Black Jar International Honey Tasting Contest has been choosing the best-tasting honeys from around the world since 2011, serving as a different kind of honey competition.
According to the Center for Honeybee Research's website, in other honey contests, 'perfection' is key to judging.
"Honey is judged on moisture content, clarity, foam and particles, with points being deducted for each defect found.
"The Black Jar is set up to rely solely on the taste of each entry. The honey that makes it to the finals is covered in black fabric so the judges cannot see the visual characteristics or what's in the honey. We choose this form of judging because we respect the unique flavours that bees bring back to the hive as they visit different flowers, and understand the varieties and flavours that will be found all over the world."
For the 2022 edition, owners of Honeychild Beekeeping (a honey producer based in Brenton-on-Sea), Owen and Christa Williams, decided to send their honey over to the USA for the competition.
"We sent in what we consider our stock multi-flora honey, not expecting to get far in the competition," Owen said.
"Sure, it's an exceptional quality honey, created by the bees from the floral sources of fynbos, indigenous forest trees and karri gum, but it's not quite up there taste-wise against the subliminal vanilla toffee flavour of the pure karri gum honey, or the fruity taste of the pure coastal fynbos honey."
Much to their surprise though, their honey outperformed every other submission from the African continent. Owen attributed this success to the hardworking team at Honeychild - a team made up of Owen and Christa, Zachary Prins and Trevor Feni.
"While the 'Heart of Knysna' has floral sources which provide exceptional quality nectar (not quantity) for the honeybees to convert into quality honey, it still takes precisional care and management of bee hives, to ensure they are healthy and never stressed," Owen remarked.
Three members of the four-part Honeychild team: Owen and Christa Williams and Zachary Prins (left).
Past Knysna success
Honeychild also now manages Hart's Honey, whose owner, Eddie Hart, won the Black Jar International Honey Tasting Contest's Grand Prize for the best tasting honey in the world in 2013 as an independent honey producer.
Carl Chesick, executive director of the Center for Honeybee Research, remarked on something unique about the honey that leaves Knysna's shores.
"I have a little of all three Knysna's winning entries in my personal stash (honey doesn't 'go bad')… each year honey has subtle differences - even from colonies in the same place - and I can confirm there are differences between the three. Yet all have a unique taste, which to my palate has an overtone of butterscotch," he said.
He also remarked on the start of the competition. "It started as a fun local challenge and grew on its own without much promotion. It became evident this is something beekeepers really want. Do you know there are an estimated five million around the globe? All we did was keep it going (it's A LOT OF WORK!) including through Covid when everyone else was cancelling," he said.
"The centre does raise money for its research from the event surrounding the finals, and this year we staged a city-wide Asheville Honey Fest. It was a resounding success which welcomed all sorts of folk who are not beekeepers. We hope it will grow into a world quality event," Chesick said.
"The contest has become bigger every year and we've set the 12th Grand Prize at $6 000."
Entries are already open for the 2023 edition of the Black Jar International Honey Tasting Contest, and you can visit www.centerforhoney-beeresearch.org for more information.
'We bring you the latest Knysna, Garden Route news'
