How Italian honey is made

Honey is a healthy, natural sweetener. It dates back to Roman times and comes in all sorts of varieties ranging from light to dark. It is used with baking, can be used to make wine, can lighten up just about any drink, and in Italy it was even used to pay taxes at one time!

Honey is one of the oldest sweeteners and is from bees. The worker bees build wax honeycombs and other bees collect nectar. Once the bees digest the nectar, it's broken down into sugars, which is  deposited in the honey combs, forming honey.

Acacia honey is very popular in Italy. It comes from the pollen of the acacia tree, typically found in Veneto and Tuscany. Piedmont’s chestnut honey is also popular in Italy--this is a darker, bitter honey that is commonly used in baking in many Italian homes.

Honey can be pasteurized, which is a form of cleaning the honey. This will ensure safety but lightens the honey and takes out a lot of the taste, plus removes vitamins and useful enzymes. Pasteurizing is done by heating the honey to a safe temperature of 60 degrees Celsius. Raw honey that has been filtered is practically straight from the comb. This honey has all its original flavor and still carries beneficial enzymes and vitamins.

There are so many different types of honey in the world, all full of flavor and differing greatly,  depending on where the nectar originates. It is no surprise that honey is so popular in Italy because they have such a wide array of blossoming plants. Italian honey is paired with everything from cheese to cake-- they even use it in cheese cake. So whether it is light, dark, sweet, or bitter, Italians incorporate honey beautifully into cooking and baking.