Why is tupelo honey more expensive

As with any demand outpacing supply scenario, the price of Tupelo honey has soared, reaching all-time highs. It's not just the flavor and texture of Tupelo honey that makes it unique, but also the very chemical composition of the honey. All honey varieties contain the sugars fructose and glucose. These compounds are used by our bodies as a primary energy source.

Tupelo honey has an unusually high fructose to glucose ratio. This quality allows the body to release the energy contained in the sugar molecules over a longer period of time and significantly reduces the feeling of a "crash" that is often associated with sucrose, also known as white or refined sugar.

In addition, this unique sugar ratio dramatically slows down the crystallization process. All honey varieties will eventually crystalize given enough time. Honey varieties with higher glucose content tend to crystallize more quickly than those with a lower glucose content. We have a jar of Tupelo honey here in the Savannah Bee office that is over 10 years old and shows absolutely no signs of crystallization! So now it's Tupelo season again and I have heard mixed reviews about this year's harvest.

Reviews from the Okefenokee region are positive and it looks like some great Tupelo honey has been produced. However, the reports from the Apalachicola region are not as promising. It looks like some high-quality Tupelo has been produced, just not very much of it. After a couple of low Tupelo honey production years, we sure would like to see a bumper crop this year but it is impossible to know the spoils of the season until we get the honey back here into our production facility.

The story of Tupelo honey swirls with legend, lore, pop music, and big screen theatrics. It is a sweet, golden substance produced during a 3-week spring bloom in the dark Southern swamps. Third, tupelo honey is very slow to sugar.

In some years, the tupelo honey is so pure that it many never crystallize - even after years in your cupboard. But tupelo honey rarely lasts that long. Once you have one spoonful, you will understand why. In short, people are wowed by this honey. Some of the customer comments that we have received include: "There may be better honey than your tupelo somewhere on this earth, but we've never found it.

He was right. Now I know what all the buzz is about. Some time back, a customer asked us how we could call it tupelo honey when we were not located in Tupelo, Mississippi. The short answer is that tupelo honey comes from the tupelo tree, not from the city where Elvis was born.

The city was named after the tupelo trees that grew there. Other names for this tree include "ogeeche lime", "river lime", "white tupelo", "white gum" and "bee tupelo. Tupelo trees like to have wet feet. The name "tupelo" is derived from the Native Indian phrase "ito opilwa" which means "swamp tree. But these wetlands cannot hold stagnant water; there must be at least some movement to the water to keep it fresh and flowing around the base of the trees.

Tupelo trees have a moderate growth rate; a mature tree will average 40 feet in height and a span of 25 to 30 feet. It's a rather plain looking tree, and can be hard to spot except for the short time each spring when the trees are in bloom.

Honey does not flow out of tupelo trees like sugar sap flows out of maple trees. Tupelo Honey comes from the nectar of flowers. Nectar producing flowers can be found on a wide range of plants, including trees, flowers, bushes and grasses. Other common trees that have nectar-producing blossoms include almond, basswood linden , black locust acacia , sourwood and various citrus trees grapefruit, lemon, lime, orange and tangerine. Each year, beginning in early April, the magic happens.

Small, pea-shaped buds form at the end of tender stems. Over the next few weeks, these small buds will swell into something that looks like a miniature cauliflower.

Then, sometime between April 15 and April 30, these buds explode into a round ball with small, delicate spikes. White tupelo honey is sometimes called fine tupelo honey and is the most expensive honey because it is the most expensive to produce.

Care must be taken by the beekeepers to clean the combs at the right time so that when the white tupelo gum tree blossoms, only the honey from these blossoms is collected.

It is a prized, sweet and delicious light amber table honey with a greenish hue to it and it won't granulate or crystallize. Black tupelo honey is made from the blossoms of the black tupelo gum tree, Nyssa sylvatica , and it produces a darker honey that will granulate.

It is not prized for table honey and is often used as a bakery grade honey. Both white and black types are produced by placing bees on platforms on the tupelo gum trees in the spring months. As the bees travel through the swamps, they produce the honey from the gum trees' nectar.