Our 2020 Sourwood Honey Has A Sweet Surprise

This year's sourwood honey is light in color with rose and amber hues. It has a slight sweetness compared to previous years due to the basswood and other sweeter floral sources that mixed into this 2020 harvest. As mentioned in an earlier blog post about the late spring up in the mountains this year, the two to three week delay of the Sourwood blooms meant that they overlapped with the blooms of the nearby basswood trees creating a unique flavor profile for 2020. Our sourwood honey still maintains that distinct, aromatic anise and spice bouquet that classic sourwood honey is known for however - never overly sweet, and very complex. It's still your classic mountain sourwood honey. 

The sourwood tree (Oxydendrum arboreum) or, The Lily of The Valley Tree, grows only in a small region of the world —the Appalachian Mountains. But the trees are most prodigious in the great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina with their highest density along the Blue Ridge Mountains. The leaves are long and thin with white flowers shaped like bells, hanging in elegant 6-inch tassels at the end of the tree’s highest branches. Sourwood trees grow up to 60 feet tall, with trunks a foot or more in diameter. Many sourwood trees share a common trunk with three to four trees growing from the same base. One interesting fact: the sourwood leaves were used by native Indians as a laxative.

Sourwood honey is extremely aromatic with scents of cloves and spice. It has a distinctive floral taste with after-notes rich in caramel and anise.

High quality sourwood honey commands a premium price. Both tupelo and sourwood are the most sought after honey in America, but when it comes to richness and complexity of taste, nothing compares to sourwood honey. 

Our 2020 sourwood honey is available in both 8oz muth or 12oz cylindrical jars ready to ship your way for pure honey satisfaction.