Asheville Bee CharmerSourwood Honey

$8.00$36.00

Sourwood Honey hails from the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. Pure, raw, and delicious, Sourwood Honey is the quintessential mountain honey.

Sourwood Honey Notes

Nectar Source:
Sourwood tree, Oxydendrum arboreum
Hails From:
Western N.C., Smoky Mountains, Southern Appalachian Mountains
Color:
Light golden amber
Pairs Well With:
Everything! But especially, with charcuterie boards, cheese, fruit, tea, yogurt, biscuits – you get
Tasting Notes:
Smooth and buttery with notes of caramel

Each August, busy buzzing honeybees feed on the sweet nectar of the beautiful fleecy white flowers of Sourwood Trees, and eager beekeepers are ready and waiting to capture one of the most sought-after raw monofloral honeys in the whole world. Sourwood Honey has a beautiful straw color, and a soft, buttery, caramel aftertaste. The texture is smooth, and the taste, delicious. Sourwood is our signature honey, and because of its high demand, we sell out of it every year.

Our Sourwood Honey comes in five sizes. The 11.9 and 17.9 oz elegant Spanish-style bottles make for great gifts or bottles to bring to a dinner party. The 3 0z mini bottles make great stocking stuffers, wedding favors, or taste testers. We also offer 12 oz and 16 0z jars to stock your pantry.

Sourwood Honey 12 oz jars
Sourwood Honey jars

Where Sourwood Honey Comes From

Sourwood honey is specific to the United States since sourwood trees only grow within our eastern mountain corridors. The top sourwood honey producers, however, come from the southern Appalachian mountain regions of western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and northern Georgia.

Sourwood honey is created when honey bees collect pollen and nectar from sourwood tree flowers. Due to the density of sourwood trees in the southern mountains, honey bees can feed almost exclusively from their flowers during peak season, which results in pure monofloral honey. (Learn more about monofloral honey)

Sourwood tree in bloom

About Sourwood Trees

The Latin name for the sourwood tree is Oxydendrum arboreum. They are a key member of the mountain forest landscape in the southeast, and are most known for their brilliant crimson autumn leaves and, of course, the honey bees favorite part: their cascading fleecy white flowers which emerge in the early summer.

The sourwood tree can reach up to 30 feet tall, and the largest stands can be found in the Great Smoky Mountains. The tree bark is distinctly scaly, and the trunk is narrow and spindly.

Taste and Flavor Profile

Sourwood honey tastes like buttery caramel and has a beautiful amber color. The aftertaste has a slight twang that has been likened to gingerbread. Sour honey smells like cinnamon and cloves and has a smooth and syrupy texture.

Sourwood Honey Health Benefits

In general, raw honey is known for its antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. As with other pure local honeys, Sourwood also has a reputation for helping allergy symptoms, especially those related to pollen found in the sourwood tree’s native areas.

Where to Buy Sourwood Honey

Sourwood has been deemed North Carolina’s most famous honey. Every August, Black Mountain, North Carolina, hosts the Sourwood Festival, celebrating the beautiful Appalachian native sourwood tree, and its delicious, unparalleled honey. Hundreds of vendors and families attend the festival, which has everything from music and dancing to arts and face painting. In addition, local beekeepers attend the festival to sell their praise-worthy Sourwood Honey. But you don’t have to travel all the way to North Carolina to experience the taste.

Reviews & Ratings

  • Genevieve Wenning

    On a trip to Asheville, I walked into ABC. Tasting it in the store definitely swayed me to buy it on the spot. What made me sad when I got home was how quickly I ran out of it at home bc I only bought the small bottle! Luckily you can order online! Whew! Crisis averted. 🙂 Go ahead and buy the bigger bottle. You won’t regret it.

  • Lowell

    Simply the best honey ? I ever had extremely delicious. I like to eat it with a spoon or pour it on my buttermilk pancakes. ?

  • mark

    i am from pennsylvania, where we have good honey, but had researched honey and had to try sourwood. i ordered online what was supposed to be it…i wasn’t too impressed. i mentioned to a friend who has relatives in north carolina and the next thing i knew…they showed up with a jar of this…OMG..so very good, and, i know it is legit. i JUST got a huge jar of my local honey, but…when it gets low…DEFINITELY will be ordering from here…awesome honey!!!!!!!!

  • Mark

    On a trip to view fall foliage in Asheville, I stumbled upon ABC. Hesitant at first that honey could command a premium price for…honey, I was stunned when given a sample of of this local honey product. I bought a small jar and I regret not purchasing a larger. If I’m not enjoying it by the spoonfuls, I’m using it in my hot buttered rum toddy’s during the “frigid” Houston winters. It’s worth it’s weight in gold.

  • Bob

    I used to prefer Tupelo Honey over Sourwood until I received a bottle of your Sourwood Honey for Christmas. Sourwood Honey is always good but yours was the absolute best honey I have ever tasted. When I’m not eating it by the spoonful, I like it best on blueberry pancakes.

  • Jeanne Moreland

    The best honey in the world. Worth every cent…

  • Meg

    This honey was delicious! Also the bottle is very beautiful, I used it as a flower vase afterwards. My only complaint is the cork stopper broke after one use and I had to use a wine stopper as an emergency fix.

  • maryann bahorski

    addictive!

  • Lauren Johnson

    Sourwood honey is THE BEST honey bar none. Smooth, sweet, and deliciously buttery. & this is a beautiful bottle that I leave out on my kitchen counter, which has garnered many compliments from friends. If you have never tasted Sourwood Honey, do yourself a favor and make the purchase. Your sweet tooth won’t let you regret it!

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