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By Root 611 0

did they judge honey but they also tasted meads and critiqued beeswax candles, arts, and crafts and anything else having to do with the honeybees. Each judge was accompanied by a steward, a judge in training, who takes notes on the judge’s observations. Judges use a special tool called a refractometer to determine the water content of a honey, and a set of colored glass plates to identify exact color grades. Sometimes a flashlight is used to observe the clarity of the jar or to see if there are any air bubbles or pollen particles afloat in the honey. A single trace of honey on the inside of the lid will disqualify a perfectly prepared jar of honey—no exceptions. All of the entries were sorted out by specific classes, and placing each entry in its correct category was of the utmost importance, or a perfect entry could be disqualified. First-place winners were awarded a humble dime-sized sticker with a red star.

Single-Varietal Honeys

Honeybees tend to visit a single flower species on any one foraging trip; examining pollen as the bees return to the hive has proved this constancy. As long as the source flower is in bloom, bees will continue to gather nectar from that flower and make honey from this single flower. This loyalty lasts for varied lengths of time and creates single-varietal honeys (also called, monofloral or unifloral honeys).

The botanical and geographic provenance of any bottle of honey can be determined through the study of its pollen sediments. All geographical areas have their own specific flora and fauna associations, and terroir plays a part in these associations. To confirm the provenance of a particular bottle of honey, you have to identify the combinations and characteristics of pollen sources particular to that region. A honey’s entire biography is right there in the bottle.

The second-largest category of entries was the beeswax products. Cleaning and properly preparing your beeswax was apparently an art unto itself, and the English beekeepers took this art seriously.

A favorite category for the judges was undoubtedly the tasting of the meads. There were as many types of mead as there were honey. Meads made with fruits, spices, and herbs were all on display and back-lit to emphasize their wide variations in color. The area of handmade entries exhibited unconventional crafts illustrating anything to do with honeybees. On exhibit were collectible honeypots made of delicate porcelain, clay, and ceramic and molded into the shapes of skeps, honey bears, and honeybees. I encountered many original works of art that were painted with beeswax. This painting technique, called encaustics, was used more than three thousand years ago in ancient Rome and Egypt, but was made famous by classical Romano-Egyptian Fayum portraits, which today hang in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Being an artist, I was absolutely smitten with the process of melting of beeswax, mixing it with colored pigments, and painting with it. At future beekeeping events I would watch demonstrations and even try my hand at a painting. For me, encaustic painting is where beekeeping meets art.

One judge told me that the English beekeepers are envious of how many different floral sources we have in the United States, but to my great surprise, I was only one of five Americans in attendance that session.

Once back home, I sought out a honey-judging certification at the University of Georgia so that I could learn more about the technical aspects of appreciating honey. Soon, it became clear to me that people all over the world knew about honey and bees, and it became my mission to spread the good word about honey in this country.

GRADING OF HONEY

In the United States commercial honey is graded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) according to a standard system. These standards are based upon a technical point system that accounts for water content, flavor and aroma, clarity, and absence of defects. Similar to the grading used for maple syrups, these grades are listed mostly on commercial honeys found in grocery stores rather than artisanal