A Bitter Taste In My Mouth (Tesco Value Clear Honey)

Member Name: Vialdana

Product:	Tesco Value Clear Honey
Date:	14/06/09 (29 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap

Disadvantages: bitter taste that spoit the flavour of other foods it was put with

Now I'm not really a huge honey fan - it's probably best if I tell you this to begin with. I don't like it on toast, and I can't stand getting it on my fingers when I'm cooking. It's sticky and tastes nasty to boot. However, when I have a sore throat there's nothing better than a mug of hot honey and lemon to soothe, and I do cook a variety of dishes which contain honey which I enjoy very much.

At Christmas when I buy a duck I like to smother it in honey, I do a dish of chicken in honey and tomato which tastes lovely (my grandmothers recipe), and I love a pork chop smothered in honey and mustard and then grilled.

This honey comes in a 340g jar, and costs 68p which is a very good price these days for honey, which due to the downward demise of the honeybee around the world is getting steadily more and more expensive. The price however is very much a false economy as this honey seems to have a very bitter taste to it, and one which comes through in everything it's added to. Stick a spoon of this in your honey and lemon and it'll leave a bad taste in your mouth rather than soothing your throat - trust me I tried it!

I have looked at the ingredients and I can't see any reason why this would be so bitter, it's a blended honey so it's not from a specific flower, but then there are lots of other blended honey's on the market which taste fine, so it can't just be that. Anyhow, whatever it is that they do to it, it's seriously not nice.

About the only thing I've found it's ok in, is baking - if you're doing a cookie or flapjack that requires honey as well as many other ingredients then it seems to be ok and doesn't leave bitterness, but for anything savoury where you want the honey as an ingredient which you're going to notice choose another honey or you're likely to spoil the meal. (My mum has honey instead of sugar in her tea which she drinks black - she says this honey really spoils the flavour of that too, and hubby who likes a piece of toast with honey on occasionally wasn't keen on this either, so it's not just me either.

Summary: A bad buy - cheapness doesn't make it worthwhile having on this occasion.