As far as I'm concerned, what is (most) tea without honey? Eventually, I'm going to show you guys how to choose a honey based on your taste and the type of tea you are brewing. However, for right now, I want to focus on what is widely considered the finest grade honey on the plant: white tupelo honey. The white tupelo (Nyssa Ogeche) tree grows in the swampy areas in the southeastern portion of the united states, but certified fine tupelo honey comes almost exclusively from the northern edge of Florida and the southern edge of Georgia. It blooms for approximately two weeks in April each year, and so beekeepers who wish to produce certified tupelo honey (which, according to Florida laws only needs to be 51% tupelo pollen, but will often be upwards of 95% tupelo pollen because of the short blooming window) must be careful to clean the hives just before the white tupelo trees bloom, to avoid pollen crossing in the honeycombs with other flowering plants that bloom just before or after the white tupelo trees, such as the black tupelo or ti-ti. Tupelo honey has a very high fructose content, which resist crystallization for years on end, and tupelo honey is widely considered to really never fully crystallize. It has a delicate, buttery flavor, and is wonderful for lighter, delicate green or white teas. Due to the extreme difficult for producing the honey, plus the high demand for such a high quality specialty honey, tupelo honey is premium-priced, and it often seasonal, depending upon how good the crop was for any given year. I buy the vast majority of my honeys from the Savannah Bee Company, and tupelo honey is no exception. Their prices are competitive, at $6/3oz, and their honey is gathered from the white tupelo tree only, not the black tupelo, which only produces bakery quality honey. All that having been said, you really haven't had honey until you've had tupelo honey. It just doesn't get any better.
