Know Your Sweeteners: Honey: Part Two

Know Your Sweeteners: Honey: Part Two

Brewing at Home and on the Road With Diego Campos

We talk to the first Colombian World Barista Champion and Diamante Coffee Farm founder Diego Campos about his brewing habits. BY TANYA NANETTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos courtesy of Diego Campos The focal point of a coffee worker’s professional life is, obviously, coffee. Whether for a customer, to check a specific production batch, or to verify the […]


Oklahoma’s T3 Roasters Completes a Historic Opening

Oklahoma-based coffee company T3 Roasters has opened a flagship brick-and-mortar roastery and coffee bar called T3 Coffee Co., inside a thoroughly remodeled historic building in downtown Collinsville. The building is…


Get Ready for The Barista League’s 2024 Season

The Barista League has announced 12 competitions across four continents. BY J. MARIE CARLANBARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE Photos courtesy of The Barista League When The Barista League announces new events, it’s worth paying attention! This year, the schedule will be organized by geographic location, bringing together coffee people in various communities. At The Barista League in […]


Medium-sized farms play an important role in specialty coffee

For many consumers and industry professionals, specialty coffee and direct trade are inextricably linked. Building strong and mutually beneficial working relationships between producers and roasters is often seen as a cornerstone of establishing a truly sustainable supply chain. So with this association between specialty coffee and direct trade, there can be a narrative of smaller-sized […]

Know Your Sweeteners: Honey: Part Two

Coffee News Recap, 26 Jan: Researchers create new genetic map to “future proof” arabica production, UAE & Italian Coffee Champions crowned at WoC Dubai and SIGEP & other stories

Every Friday, Perfect Daily Grind rounds up the top coffee industry news from the previous week. Here are this week’s coffee news stories. The word of the week is: competitions. Mon, 22 Jan Timemore launches crowdfunding campaign for upcoming Millab E01 portable electric coffee grinder. The wireless electric coffee grinder features a 5,000 mAh lithium battery […]


Girlsplaining Workshop Unites Women in Coffee in Quito, Ecuador

Meet Camila Khalifé, the brains behind Girlsplaining, a unique coffee learning experience with an emphasis on creating space for women in the industry. BY JORDAN BUCHANANSPECIAL TO BARISTA MAGAZINE Photos courtesy of Camila Khalifé Men may hold most of the positions of authority and teaching roles within the specialty-coffee industry, but Camila Khalifé, the owner […]


The Slingshot Chalice Puts a New Spin on Espresso Dosing

Hong Kong and Australia-based coffee equipment maker Slingshot Technology recently launched the Chalice Distributor Cup, a multipurpose espresso preparation tool for baristas. Displayed in its…


Out Now: The February + March 2024 Issue of Barista Magazine!

In our new issue we feature Lisa Lawson from Glasgow, Scotland, take a look at the newest grinders, explore spring drink inspiration, see how more women are getting involved in coffee tech, and much more! BY SARAH ALLENBARISTA MAGAZINE We’re stoked to announce the release of the February + March 2024 issue of Barista Magazine, […]

Know Your Sweeteners: Honey: Part Two

Test Drive: Update Your Grinding With More Comandante Grinder Accessories

The popular hand grinder has more to offer with a new line of tools and accessories now available. BY TANYA NANETTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Feature photo by Tanya Nanetti To brew the perfect cup of coffee, it’s important to choose the right coffee equipment. One essential is a reliable coffee grinder. Most coffee lovers start with a […]


Understanding the Process: Koji Fermentation

Continuing our series on coffee processing, we learn about koji fermentation, a unique process usually associated with the brewing of sake. BY TANYA NANETTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos courtesy of Forest Coffee If brewed properly, a cup of coffee can offer countless variations of flavor and aroma. The quality and complexity of these attributes depend on many different […]


An Unfiltered History of Vietnamese Coffee

We explore the history of coffee in Vietnam and how the industry’s perception of Vietnamese coffee is evolving.  BY EMILY MENESES BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE Featured photo by frank mckenna via Unsplash What do you think of when you hear the term “Vietnamese coffee”? For Kim Dam, founder of Portland Cà Phê, it extends far beyond […]


Three Questions with Gabriela Parfait of The Good Sourcing

After eight years working for the French green coffee importing company Belco, Gabriela Parfait has launched a coffee-focused company called The Good Sourcing.  The new venture is intentionally small, although…

Know Your Sweeteners: Honey: Part Two

Know Your Sweeteners: Honey: Part Two

minimum dose size?

Jan 31, 2024 |

I use the Hario switch to brew my coffee and am trying to reduce my caffeine consumption. Hence I would like to brew smaller cups of coffee. I am currently using 10g of coffee with 160g of water. (1:16 Ratio) I am wondering if there is a minimum amount of coffee...

Know Your Sweeteners: Honey: Part Two

BY EMILY JOY MENESES
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE

Feature photo via Unsplash

This week we started our discussion of honey, uncovering how it’s produced, the differences between varieties of honey, and what exactly “raw honey” is. Today, we’re continuing our exploration by turning our attention to environmental concerns.

Though honey has been a café and culinary staple for as long as most of us can remember, the ingredient has come under fire in recent years, with questions of sustainability emerging. So what’s the truth—is honey actually bad for the environment? When uncovering the answer, there are a few things to consider. 

Bee on a pink flower.
While the “Save the Bees” movement has good intentions, it often places emphasis on honey bees—which only make up about 5% of the bee population. Photo by Daniel Dan via Unsplash.

“Save the Bees”: Distortions in Messaging

Chances are that you’ve heard of the “Save the Bees” movement, a call to help preserve and restore bee populations, under the pretense that bees’ pollination of flowering trees and plants is essential to maintaining biodiversity. However, in this article for Scientific American, Alison McAfee, Ph.D., a honey bee researcher and postdoctoral fellow at North Carolina State University’s Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, points out the distortions in the campaign’s messaging and how it’s harming, rather than helping, the environment.

According to Alison, the media disproportionately covers the need for honey bees over native bees, though only about 5% of the global bee population is made up of honey-producing bees. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Americans have taken up honey beekeeping as a hobby, believing it to be a conservation practice. In reality, native bees are the ones at risk of extinction and in need of attention and support. The increased presence of honey bee colonies has also led to increased competition between native bees, with honey bees monopolizing floral resources and taking sustenance away from already-in-decline native bee populations.

A wooden slat in a beehive is removed to expose the honeycomb.
Though questions of sustainability and animal rights have come up for honey production, many argue that honey is still a more sustainable sweetener than sugar. Photo by Bianca Ackermann via Unsplash.

While “Save the Bees“ has good intentions, it’s important to note that honey bees aren’t the only ones in need of saving. If biodiversity is what we’re after, we need to turn our attention to native bees, too.

A Double-Edged Sword

Even amidst concerns around honey beekeeping and honey production, it’s important to compare honey’s effect on the environment to other sweeteners. While honey has its own problems, many still point to the fact that it’s more sustainable than sugar for a number of reasons.

First off, honey production doesn’t require land cultivation the way that sugar production does. Sugarcane fields require acres of land, leading to deforestation and the destruction of thousands of animals’ natural habitats. In addition, honey production emits fewer greenhouse gasses compared to sugar production. It requires less equipment and, typically, less travel; most sugar in North America has to be imported from South and Central America, Australia, and the Caribbean.

Knowing all sides of the debate around honey, you can make informed decisions about your honey consumption. Photo by Emily Joy Meneses.

Making Choices as a Consumer

We can’t tell you what the right answer is for you when it comes to honey consumption—but, knowing the varying sides of the debate, you can make more informed decisions in your everyday life. Stay tuned for future installments of our “Know Your Sweeteners” series, where we’ll discuss molasses, agave, and more.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Emily Joy Meneses (she/they) is a writer and musician based in Los Angeles. Her hobbies include foraging, cortados, vintage synths, and connecting with her Filipino roots through music, art, food, and beverage.

Subscribe and More!

December 2023 + January 2024 Issue cover

Out now: It’s the December 2023 + January 2024 issue! Read it for free with our digital edition. And for more than three years’ worth of issues, visit our digital edition archives here.

You can order a hard copy of the magazine through our online store here, or start a subscription for one year or two.

The post Know Your Sweeteners: Honey: Part Two appeared first on Barista Magazine Online.

Know Your Sweeteners: Honey: Part Two

Perfect Little Beans

Chinmey Hill Coffee uses specialty-grade beans with zero primary defects (such as black beans or sour beans) and less than five secondary defects (such as broken beans). This is important because primary defects will greatly affect the taste of the coffee. Having zero defects allows the coffee to be the most optimal flavor.

Window for Optimal Flavor

Chimney Hill Coffee ships our coffee the same day it was roasted, so you will receive it before it enters the window of optimal flavor.  This means you’ll never miss the opportunity to enjoy the coffee’s peak flavor.

Coffee Ratings

Coffee undergoes many scoring processes by professionals who achieved their Q Grader certification. Coffee is first graded when it’s green. If there are defects the coffee is determined to be “not-specialty grade”. For those coffees that pass green grading, they are sample roasted and cupped. (Cupping is the official term for critically tasting and scoring coffees. The official cupping form is standard worldwide, and where the 100-point scoring system comes from.) A coffee’s dry fragrance, wet aroma, flavor, aftertaste, body, acidity, balance, and overall impression are taken into consideration while uniformity issues and defects, will lower the overall score.

Specialty Coffee

Specialty coffee, coined by Erna Knutsen in 1974, refers to a coffee that receives a quality grading score of 80 percent or higher. While “premium” or “gourmet” seem like they’re synonymous with “specialty,” they simply are marketing terms with no defined standards. Specialty coffees are grown in specific and ideal micro-climates, and have distinctive and unique flavor profiles, with little to no defects.

Third-Wave Coffee

We’re currently in the third wave of coffee. The first wave of American coffee put pre-ground, vacuum-sealed cans in kitchens across America. The second wave started with the late ‘60s introduction of Peet’s coffee (by Alfred Peet) through the proliferation of Starbucks. The third wave of coffee focuses on origin transparency, nuanced flavors, and artisan roasting. The term “third wave” is synonymous with specialty coffee.

Know Your Sweeteners: Honey: Part Two

Shopping cart0
There are no products in the cart!
Continue shopping
0