Honey gets its flavour and consistency from the floral nectars on which the bees are foraging. Each nectar varies in the type of sugars, proteins, minerals, trace elements present and also importantly in the small quantities of aromatic oils that differ between all flowering plants. Monofloral honey comes from the nectar of flowers of one species, eg. heather, clover, oilseed rape, orange blossom. Polyfloral honey comes from the nectar several different species of flower. Bees will forage 2-3 miles from their hives and it is the mix of nectars within that foraging area that make up the stored honey and determine its flavour.

Industrial farming has laid waste the natural bee forage of most of Britain. Hedges uprooted, every weed sprayed, grasslands fertilised by nitrogen instead of clover. Today, only at the margin, in places such as Colonsay, can a wide diversity of wildflowers still be found. Colonsay and Oronsay have varied habitats from the machair near the shore, to non intensive farmland, hedges, woodland, exotic gardens and open heather moorland. Over 50% of all British wildflower species grow in this small area. A very mixed and varied feast for the bees!

The important nectar flows that make the bulk of the honey are sycamore and bluebell in the spring, hawthorn, bramble and clover in the summer months and then the bell and ling heathers of the autumn. But it is the fragrant nectars of the numerous wildflowers that gives Isle of Colonsay Wildflower Honey it’s unique and special flavour. The strong aromatic oils of the wild thyme, growing on the sandy machair, are just one example.