Cranberry Honey: What It Tastes Like and Where It Comes From

Nettie’s Bees began on a cranberry bog. Nettie was helping a local grower in Rochester with a single hive, the hive did well, and one became two, then four. So cranberry honey is close to our hearts. It’s also one of the less common honeys in America, because it can only be made where the bogs are, in a few weeks of early summer, and only when the weather plays along.

Quick answer: Cranberry honey is honey bees make from the nectar of cranberry flowers, which bloom on bogs in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey and the Pacific Northwest from mid-June to mid-July. It contains no cranberry fruit or juice. It’s usually medium amber, sometimes with a reddish tint, with a mild, fruity flavor and a light tart finish. It’s made in small amounts, since it depends on hives being placed on bogs and on good weather during bloom.

Where does cranberry honey come from?

Cranberry honey comes from the flowers of the American cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon), a low, trailing evergreen vine native to the bogs and wetlands of northeastern North America.

Southeastern Massachusetts is the plant’s historic heartland. Massachusetts is the second-largest cranberry-growing state after Wisconsin, and most of its bogs sit in Plymouth and Bristol counties, including towns like Rochester, Wareham and Carver. The UMass Cranberry Station, the state’s research center for the crop, is in East Wareham.

Cranberries need insects to set a good crop, so growers rent honeybee colonies for the bloom. That’s when beekeepers get the chance to make cranberry honey. Our post on how honeybees pollinate cranberries explains the bog side of the story.

Why is cranberry honey hard to make?

Three things work against it.

1. The bloom is short. Cranberry vines flower for about three to five weeks, usually from mid-June into July on the South Coast.
2. Cranberry isn’t a bee’s favorite. Cranberry flowers make modest amounts of nectar, and honeybees will happily wander to clover, sumac or blackberry nearby. Pure cranberry honey is rare; most is a cranberry-dominant blend of whatever bloomed alongside.
3. Weather matters. Cool, rainy or windy weather during bloom keeps bees home. Some years there’s little or no cranberry honey to harvest.

To keep it separate, a beekeeper has to harvest right after the bloom, before summer wildflower nectar is mixed in.

What does cranberry honey taste like?

It doesn’t taste like cranberry sauce. Nectar doesn’t carry the fruit’s flavor. What people usually notice is:

• Color: medium amber, sometimes with a faint red or rosy tint.
• Flavor: mild and fruity, with a soft tartness at the finish.
• Texture: smooth when fresh; like most raw honey, it crystallizes in time.

Because it’s never a pure single-flower honey, the taste shifts from year to year with what else was blooming near the bogs.

How do you use cranberry honey?

Its gentle fruitiness makes it an easy everyday honey, and a good one for the holiday table.

• On a cheese board with goat cheese, brie or a sharp white cheddar. Our honey and cheese pairing guide has more ideas.
• In tea, especially black tea or a fruity herbal tea.
• As a glaze for roast turkey, pork or carrots, mixed with a little mustard and orange zest.
• In cranberry sauce, in place of some of the sugar, for a sauce that’s all bog.
• On yogurt or oatmeal with dried cranberries and walnuts.

Is cranberry honey healthier than other honey?

It hasn’t been studied enough to say. Cranberry fruit is famous for compounds called proanthocyanidins, but those are in the berries, not the nectar. Treat cranberry honey like any good raw honey: a flavorful food with enzymes and plant compounds intact, used in moderation.

Frequently asked questions

Does cranberry honey have cranberries in it?

No. True cranberry honey is pure honey made from cranberry flower nectar. Products called “cranberry honey” that are bright red or taste of fruit are usually honey blended with cranberry juice or flavoring; check the ingredients.

When is cranberry honey available?

It’s harvested in July, right after the bogs finish blooming, and is usually in jars by late summer. Supplies are small and vary with the weather, so it can sell out.

Is cranberry honey raw?

It can be. Ours is never heated above hive temperature and is only strained, so it keeps its pollen and enzymes. Ask any producer how theirs is handled.

Why is cranberry honey sometimes different colors?

Because bees also visit other flowers during the cranberry bloom. The mix changes every year, so the color ranges from light to medium amber, sometimes with a reddish cast.

Where can I buy Massachusetts cranberry honey?

From beekeepers whose hives pollinate the bogs. On the South Coast, ask at our Honey House in Rochester. See our Southcoast Massachusetts honey guide for more.

Sources

• UMass Amherst Cranberry Station, East Wareham, Massachusetts.
• USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, cranberry production by state.
• Delaplane KS, Mayer DF. Crop Pollination by Bees. CABI, 2000.

Every jar of cranberry honey is a small record of a few weeks on the bogs. If you’re nearby in late summer, come taste it at the Honey House before it’s gone.