Honey

Honey is one of the oldest sweeteners known to humanity, produced by honey bees that collect nectar from flowers and transform it through enzymatic activity and evaporation inside the hive. Its colour, flavour, and aroma vary enormously depending on the floral source — from pale, mild clover honey to dark, robust eucalyptus or ironbark varieties.

In the kitchen, honey is far more versatile than a simple sugar substitute. It adds moisture to baking, balances acidity in dressings and marinades, and pairs beautifully with cheese, yoghurt, and roasted nuts. Australian honeys, particularly those from native flora like leatherwood, yellow box, and manuka, are prized for their distinctive character.

Honey is best stored at room temperature and will crystallise over time — a natural process that doesn’t affect quality. Gently warming the jar returns it to a liquid state.

Farmed
photograph to come — from twenty years of markets, farms and kitchens

How it's made

Beekeepers harvest honey by removing frames of capped honeycomb from the hive. The wax cappings are sliced off, and the frames are placed in a centrifugal extractor that spins the honey out of the comb. The extracted honey is then strained to remove wax fragments and other debris, and may be lightly warmed to aid flow. It is bottled without further processing in its raw form, or may undergo fine filtering and gentle pasteurisation for commercial products.

Nutrition (per 100g)

Energy 278kcal
Protein 0.3g
Carbs 72.3g
Fat 0g
Fibre 0g Sugar 72.3g
Mass Distribution

1 packet (0.5 oz) is about 14 g — roughly 40 kcal of this.

What it costs the planet (per kilo)

Carbon 1.57kg
Freshwater 1.62L
Land 37.9m²

Where it comes from

In the kitchen

Used as

natural sweetener and glaze

Goes well with
lemon ginger cinnamon yogurt
Classic dishes
  • Baklava
  • Greek yogurt with honey
  • Honey-glazed ham
  • Mead

Keeping it

Keep it: in the pantry, never the fridge.

In the pantry: about 730 days (from date of purchase).

Advice from Cubud’s own keeping notes — how to keep it, not a measured number.

Keeping one at home? Track yours in your cubud →

Where this data comes from

Nutrition data from

FSANZ + USDA

How it was calculated

Analysed

Full credits, licences, and methods: the sources page →

Where to next

made fromHoney Bee, honey goes well withlemon goes well withginger goes well withcinnamon goes well withyogurt shares a sourceHoneycomb
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