HoneyLove.org's 4th Annual Honey Tasting Workshop: a blind competition

What's beekeeper to do in Winter? Not much is needed in the beeyard, so I was really excited to receive HoneyLove.org's January newsletter with a honey-tasting call-for-entries. I sent a jar of triple-strained honey from the Top Bar Hive. Some of the honey I chose had too much moisture, and some had already begun to crystallize but I figured the two combined would be perfect. I warmed them just enough to pass most of it through a 200-micron filter, keeping the course stuff out of the finished product. Not disturbing the honey is key to producing an award-winning honey, a patience-testing process in the middle of Winter. The two jars in the picture are the result.

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Whoops...I put one of my #honey labels on "wrong." Which jar do you think I should send to @honeyloveorg for the #HoneyTasting competition? #YayBees #backyardbees #303 #beekeeping

A photo posted by BBHB (@backyardbee) on Jan 15, 2015 at 8:15am PST

There were 17 entries into the competition, including one from Top Bar hiver Sam Comfort! Here's how we did.

And our WINNERS- tied for 1ST PLACE at HoneyLove.org annual honey tasting workshop @onestronghive (Silverlake) and @backyardbee (Aurora, CO) #urbanbeekeeping #yaybees

A photo posted by Honey Love (@honeyloveorg) on Jan 25, 2015 at 3:29pm PST

To see more pictures from the competition and to learn about HoneyLove.org, be sure to visit their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/honeylove.org

We've Got Honey! And we sent it to LA!

A little bit of sweetness from Aurora, Colorado. So very proud of the Backyard Bees!

If we move to LA, HoneyLove.org is the beekeeping club we'll join. They're a 501(c)(3) that is very active in their community with a focused effort on legalizing urban beekeeping in LA. It surprised me that they'd accept a submission from Colorado, but the bigger surprise was that the Backyard Bees won first place! There were 18 honeys in the field from around the world, and our Linden-informed honey came out on top. Here are the details of the competition.

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2nd Annual HONEY TASTING 
Competition held @ PARK BAKER & SONS, Los Angeles, CA, September 2012

Thank you to all of the beekeepers who submitted their honey, and to all of our fabulous HoneyLovin’ judges!!

BLIND TASTE TEST WINNERS: 
1st Place: Backyard Bee Hive (Top bar hive after a linden flow)
TIE in 2nd Place: Harry’s Raspberry Honey & White Himalayan Honey
3rd Place: Harry’s Whipped Honey (2011’s 1st place winner)

Honeys: Organic Blue Borage Honey, White Himalayan, Chileano Ulmo, Ohi’a Lehua Hawaiian, Tupelo, Backyard Bee Hive, Zick’s Orange Blossom, Bill’s Bees Sage, Bill’s Bees Wildflower, Backyard Bees Orange County, Golden Honey from the Dale, Mandeville Canyon, Harry’s Honey Whipped, Harry’s Honey: Raspberry, East Mar Vista Raw, Ceebs from Manning, Ceebs from HoneyLove Sanctuary, and HoneyLove Honey.

Click here to view event photos.