Honey is one of those culinary treasures that's worth its weight in gold. The bee-created sustenance isn't just delicious, it's nuanced too: Depending on where it originates from, you can find varieties that appear and taste much different from one another, and . In fact, one of the rarest varieties of honey in the world comes from the United States, specifically from the tropics of Hawaii.
Kiawe honey has a creamy texture and a light hue to it, and it's particularly rare because the kiawe tree is threatened in its natural habitat of Ecuador, Columbia, and Peru, but it still grows in Hawaii. It's a monofloral honey, meaning each batch comes from bees that have only fed on nectar from the kiawe tree, which makes it doubly unique. Those who have had kiawe honey describe it has having a tropical flavor; some catch gentle shades of menthol, vanilla, or almond in it.
And because of its rarity, kiawe honey comes at premium prices, ranging from $9 for a 3 oz. jar to just over $40 for a 20 oz. one at retailers such as .
Part of what makes kiawe honey so unique Some versions of kiawe honey have a unique characteristic that immediately set it apart from the honey you have in your pantry right now: It's white. This is because it crystalizes rapidly, which also gives it a texture described as creamy. But harvesting it takes some serious skill, because if the honey becomes overripe, it'll solidify to the point where it can't be extracted without the application of heat — which can chang.