Honey is divided into varieties, depending on which honey bees the nectar was collected from. In Russia, more than fifty of the most famous honey plants are isolated. Also, honey is also called by geographical location, which is associated with its origin. To determine which grade the honey belongs to, sometimes just tasting it is enough.
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Honey, which is collected by bees from any particular plant, usually has a unique characteristic taste and aroma. For example, chestnut honey has a rather pronounced bitter taste and tart sharp aroma. Linden honey has a delicate sweet taste and its unique delicate aroma. Sunflower honey is pretty sweet and practically odorless. It is difficult to confuse buckwheat honey with any other. A slightly bitter taste, the tingling effect produced by it in the throat, delicate aroma and dark chestnut saturated color distinguish it from all other varieties. Willow, tobacco and some other varieties of honey - along with a sweet taste, also have quite sharp bitterness. It must be understood that getting honey from only one melliferous plant is very difficult, since next to the apiary, as a rule, several honey plants bloom simultaneously. Also, when pumping along with fresh honey, previous stocks of the bee family, which were collected earlier from other plants, may fall. In this regard, only experienced beekeepers can accurately determine the origin of mixed honey according to its taste. Natural flower honey of any kind has a sweet taste, and in addition it has an irritating effect - astringency of different intensities is felt. Artificial sugar honey does not have such properties. The sweetness of honey is affected by the concentration of compound sugars and their origin. The sweetest taste is honey, which contains fructose to the greatest extent. Honey obtained from bees fed sugar syrup, petmes (boiled thick syrup from juice of various fruits and berries), artificial glucose is less sweet than flower honey. If honey has been stored in a metal container for a long time, it acquires a metallic aftertaste. When determining the origin of honey, in addition to its taste characteristics, one should take into account the speed of its crystallization. For example, buckwheat, sunflower, alfalfa honey crystallizes very quickly, and acacia, cherry, sage and mortar crystallize slowly. Crystallization of dandelion honey occurs literally in a matter of days. The taste and aroma of honey from different herbs is extremely diverse, as a result of which it often does not seem possible to determine its origin.