Honey varieties

Sourwood honey

Bees make this honey from the nectar of sourwood trees in the southern Appalachian Mountains.

Sourwood honey

Color class not documented

The honey

Color: Usually amber, sometimes with a gray tint. [1]
Aroma: Not documented
Flavor: Buttery and sweet, with caramel notes and a slight aftertaste like gingerbread. [1]
Crystallization: Not documented

Blossom (nectar)Botanical variety

Sourwood
Oxydendrum arboreum
primary source · nectar
Published honey references and standards name this source. In other regions, the honey can come from more or different species.

The catalog names these countries. Honey of this type can come from other regions too.

Becky Dill published the photo of Oxydendrum arboreum on iNaturalist under CC0 1.0: iNaturalist observation 232124336 (opens in a new tab).

Emerging Profile

Published evidence exists but is limited, for example a government or trade-board description or one small study.

An N.C. Cooperative Extension article gives the color and the flavor. No study that we read gives the aroma or the crystallization yet.

Sourwood: a Honey of a Tree
Stone, B.
North Carolina Cooperative Extension, Lee County Center, 2022
An N.C. Cooperative Extension article on the sourwood tree and its honey.
Open the source (opens in a new tab)

Main European unifloral honeys: descriptive sheets — International Honey Commission
Standard for Honey CXS 12-1981 — FAO / WHO Codex Alimentarius
Council Directive 2001/110/EC relating to honey — European Union
Criteria for identifying monofloral and multifloral manuka honey — New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries
United States Standards for Grades of Extracted Honey — United States Department of Agriculture
Honey for nutrition and health: a review — Journal of the American College of Nutrition

We reviewed this record on Oct 14, 2026.