Honey, You're Sweet

Honey. An all natural sweetener that provides an energy boost, delay’s fatigue when exercising, and has one less calorie when compared gram to gram than sugar! Honey is becoming a popular restaurant ingredient as of late, but not just the standard honey bear honey, honeys that are locally grown and honeys from flowering plants that restaurants are planting for their own blends of honey resulting in amazing flavors that go beyond the typical floral and reach rich, intense flavors like chestnut, buckwheat and avocado.

So, what do you do with these honey flavors? Taste them, on their own and see what flavor tastes best to you, and start using honey! Add honey to the usual items like tea and yogurt, and then to muffins, pie, and cheeses. Offer local honey to customers to put atop slices of your freshly baked bread with some local goat cheese, in your oatmeal, cookies and quick breads. Let customers know where your honey is coming from and how to get their own and be proud to support local farmers. If you want to get a little crazier, check out the link on the honey board’s website to find specific types of honey, try a link on The Honey Board's website, the honey locator, (link at end). The Honey Board says there are more than 300 types of honey and last year we each ate 1.3 pounds of honey and there was a rise in interest in beekeeping classes. A clear sign that honey is becoming more and more important…the Culinary Institute of America held its first ever summit for chef’s, an educational seminar on honey. For more info on honey, check out all the facts on The Honey Board's website,http://www.honey.com, www.honeylocator.com http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/food/stew/chi-honey-lets-cooks-play-with-floraltorobust-flavors--20110830,0,5791610.story?obref=obinsite,