Blackberry honey

Blackberry honey, also called bramble honey, is a single-variety honey drawn from the nectar of wild blackberries (the genus Rubus, including Rubus ulmifolius). Brambles grow in the undergrowth of broadleaved woods and on open ground across Western Europe.

Three protected names list it as a type of its own. Miel de Galicia requires at least 45 % Rubus pollen and describes blackberry honey as light to dark amber, with a floral or fruity smell, mainly sweet, sometimes with some sharpness, a savoury note or bitterness. Miel des Cévennes describes a pale to pale amber honey, often crystallised, with a smell of stewed fruit and a marked, lingering acidity. In Miel wallon, bramble honey has more than 45 % bramble pollen, a pale to dark straw colour, faint fruity and slightly woody notes, warm caramel and red-fruit flavours, and conductivity of 0.20–0.50 mS/cm.

Bramble nectar gives a honey with a high fructose/glucose ratio, so it crystallises slowly and forms coarse crystals. Walloon beekeepers therefore turn it into creamed honey by controlled crystallisation.

Why this matters to you: coarse crystals in blackberry honey are simply how this nectar behaves, while a creamed jar from Wallonia has been stirred to keep the texture fine.