Taste Exotic Honey and Learn Why Most Bees Don't Make Honey

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

DAVIS, CA- If you've ever wanted to taste exotic honey and if you have ever wondered why native bees don't make honey, then you're in luck.

The Honey and Pollination Center at the University of California, Davis, is hosting an international honey tasting event on Tuesday, April 5 in the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science (RMI) Sensory Theater.

The event, billed as 'The World of Honey: International Honey Tasting', will take place from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at RMI, located on Old Davis Road, UC Davis campus.

Participants will experience four exotic international honey: stingless bee honey from Brazil, coffee blossom from Guatemala, Viper's Bugloss from New Zealand, and chestnut honey from France.

Amina Harris, director of the Honey and Pollination Center, will lead the tasting. The event opens with a short talk and PowerPoint on stingless bees and native bees by Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.

"Stingless bees were raised by the Mayans for honey," Harris says. "Today stingless bee honey production is very low."

In his talk,Thorp will discuss the diversity of bees (20,000 species in the world) and why most bees do not produce honey. He also will cover "which ones produce honey that we do harvest, primarily bees of the genus Apis and some of the many stingless bees."

Student tickets are $12.50 while tickets for UC Davis affiliates are $25, and $30 for the general public. To register, visit the Honey and Pollination Center website or contact Elizabeth Luu at luu@caes.ucdavis.edu or Amina Harris at aharris@ucdavis.edu. The last day to register online is Sunday, April 3.

Photo courtesy of Kathy Keatley Garvey