Country bees went up against city bees this weekend at the home of fellow urban beekeepers: Melissa Berney and Shawn Caza.   The invitation to participate in a “honey party” came earlier in the week and it turned out to be sweeter than ever imagined.  In attendance were a few of my colleagues from the Toronto Beekeepers Co-op, the keeper of the bees at the Toronto Brickworks, as well as a member of Toronto Bees—a group of urban beekeepers based out of the University of Toronto.

Melissa and Shawn pulled out all the stops with a thoughtful selection of cheeses and fresh pies sweetened with honey.  A range of Meads were also poured.  Their vintages spanned from a very young five-month fermentation to an eight year old bottle of liquid gold. The youngest, poured from what looked like a moonshine jug, had strong honey notes with citrus accents that were as intense and lively as lemonade. Its vessel, a former VQA wine bottle, disguised the origin of the eldest mead. It was smooth and left a long finish on my palate.  It was perfect for the array of cheeses that lay before me.

The six samples of urban honey and four samples of country honey were the main attraction at this afternoon honey mixer.  From the city bee yards came representation from: the Toronto Portlands (spring and summer); Downsview Park (spring 2011 and summer 2012); The Brickworks; The Fairmont Royal York Hotel (spring 2011).  And finally, the country samples of 2012 were derived from the following countrysides: Orangeville, Woodstock, Creemore and as far away as Costa Rica.

As the afternoon tasting unfolded the virtues of one region over another were exchanged amongst the beekeepers.  Flavour profiles were compared, melting techniques debated and non-pasteurized honey was held to be the preference of all. Of note were the delicious minty similarities found between the Portlands and The Fairmont Royal York’s honey.  That was expected, given their close proximity to each other’s forage. Both the Orangeville and the Creemore samples had a similar delicate complexity to their flavour profiles.  They also appeared to have the same orange tinge to their golden base color. The Woodstock honey was less complex and stood out as the most subtle of all. An overpowering sweetness dominated the Downsview Park vintage of 2011. The Costa Rican honey was the darkest of all and its strong smoky flavour was a unique counterpoint to the others.

All in all it was a honey of an afternoon.  The next time is soon to be repeated at BEEGrrl headquarters.  Stay tuned for BEEGrrl Bee Salon updates…