In Episode 9, we bring on Amina Harris to talk all things honey. Amina is the Director of the Honey and Pollination Center at the Robert Mondavi Institute of Wine and Food Science, UC Davis. In addition, Amina is the owner of Z Specialty Food, LLC with her husband and son. Moon Shine Trading Company, a division of Z Specialty, has been offering unique American varietal honeys for over thirty years winning national awards from the Specialty Food Association and the National Honey Board.
If you’ve ever wondered about what the words raw, heated, filtered, organic or non-GMO mean in the case of honey, Amina explains it all to help you source the best honey to make your mead better. We also make mention of the Honey Flavor and Aroma Wheel (look out for a bonus episode later on its development), which we’ll be using in our next episode to taste some honey with Amina. Look out for it on July 6, 2015.
The Honey and Pollination Center is hosting their next mead class, The Beginner’s Introduction to Mead Making, on November 13-14, 2015.
And don’t forget, The MeadMakr Podcast is now in iTunes. Drop us a review to let us know how we are doing.
Right click here to download the mp3 directly.
Drinks in this Episode
Tysen: Brut by Bee D’Vine (for those wondering about the varietal, it is orange blossom per the website)
Allen: Raspberry Melomel by The Hive Winery
Amina:
– Bernardynski Royal
– Jadwiga
Links in this Episode
- UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center
- Robert Mondavi Institute of Wine and Food Science
- Z Specialty Food
- National Honey Board
- Honey Flavor and Aroma Wheel
- The colors of honey (and much more)
- The Beginner’s Introduction to Mead Making
- Marla Spivak’s TED talk, Why bees are disappearing
- The Varroa Mite
- Brother Adam in The Monk and the Honey Bee (watch this now, it’s been removed from YouTube in the past)
Make sure to come back in two weeks when Amina guides us through a honey tasting. For a teaser, here is a photo of the four honeys we will try.
