Kočevski gozdni med

Kočevski gozdni med ("Kočevje forest honey") is honey with an EU protected designation of origin (PDO) from the wooded country around Kočevje and the Kolpa river in Slovenia. The name covers four kinds: forest honey (mixed honeydew), spruce honey, fir honey and lime honey.

Forest honey is light to dark brown with a red or green tint, smelling of resin, walnuts and spruce-tip syrup. Spruce honey is reddish brown and fairly viscous; fir honey is dark grey-brown with a green sheen, tasting of caramel and fresh conifer wood; lime honey is light to medium yellow with a menthol aroma. Water is at most 18.6 %, glucose plus fructose at least 45 g/100 g, specific gravity 1.40–1.45 g/cm³, and heating is limited to 40 °C.

Bees are not fed during foraging, chemical repellents are banned, and the honey is bottled inside the area. The area almost matches the Natura 2000 site Kočevsko-Kolpa, where forest covers 95 % of a central 800 km² block. St Ambrose, patron saint of bees, is honoured here, and a fresco of 1557 at Laza ob Kolpi shows the long tradition.

Why this matters to you: every batch is assessed before bottling, and the honey must score at least 9.5 out of 12 points for appearance, scent and flavour.