Tuesday 23 September 2014

Lime Flower Honey from Hilltop Honey

Does your mind store smell and image associations? For me, the smell of lime blossom is forever etched in my mind as a symbol of my childhood, with our school yard, lime trees, and me climbing up on the tree among all the sweet smelling blossom. Its delicate perfume is perfectly preserved in raw and organic lime flower honey from Hilltop Honey. This is a relative newcomer to the honey market in the UK. According to Scott Davies, Hilltop's founder, the UK is unable to produce certifiable organic honey, hence they started searching further afield for new honey producers. And so it happened that they set to launch a range of four new European organic honeys as part of their expanding line of raw honeys.
As a family, we eat a good amount of honey, I love adding it to tea instead of sugar, or sweetening the hot milk for my little man. Pancakes, all sorts of baking, salad dressing, the possibilities of using honey are endless.



Words "lime flower honey" bring to mind Russian folk tales about bears. My Mum would take me to the farmers' market to buy a jar of lime flower honey. This was considered to be a cure for almost any cold-related ailment. Sniffles and colds were treated with hot drinks like milk and tea liberally sweetened with honey. It is great in a soothing drink for sore throats and colds. Honey has also been used as an ingredient for hair rinse, or treatment for arthritis.



Lime flower honey from Hilltop Honey is a new and organic variety, which contains more fructose than British raw honey, hence its consistency is runnier. It is a light, mildly zesty honey, with a beautiful distinct aroma. It comes in a squeezy bottle. The colour is yellow amber.
The message on the bottle reads: "Not only is our lime flower honey organic, it's also raw! This is important because we don't heat the honey so much that it kills the enzymes that makes honey good for you".
This cold extracted and unpasteurised honey has a lovely taste with a delicate woody scent.
It goes beautifully with fruit salads. And plain pancakes, drizzled with honey, are a true food of gods.




As this honey has a delicate taste, it makes an ideal baking ingredient. I have used it to make chocolate chip madeleines. Honey and chocolate go really well.



It happened so that after I received a bottle of lime flower honey for testing and reviewing, I have seen different varieties of Hilltop Honey in our local Holland & Barrett, and I am going to try them as well.

To find more about Hilltop Honey, find them on FacebHook - Hilltop Honey and Twitter - Hilltop Honey.

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