Strawberry-tree honey ✦

Miel d’arbousier

What it is

The arbutus flowers from October into December, which makes this the only European honey harvested in winter — and in air so damp that Italian law raises the permitted water content for this one honey alone. The bitterness, coffee and quinine at the finish, is not a fault in it; it is the reason anyone buys it.

In the kitchen

Serve it against salt and fat — a shard of aged pecorino, a slice of foie gras — and count a scant teaspoon. Baked into a batter the bitterness stops being a counterweight and turns to a metallic aftertaste.

Goes with

Pecorino Romano Foie gras Walnut Ricotta Blue cheese Chestnut Dark chocolate

Same species

Arbutus berry

In season alongside

Beechnut Chaga Doraji (balloon flower root) Chrysanthemum greens

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