Its plant origin
The chestnut is a majestic tree, measuring 25 to 35 meters, with long branches and jagged leaves. This species is found around the Mediterranean, in Corsica, Ardèche, in the southern Alps, Limousin, Auvergne, Dordogne or even Brittany. Everything is good in the chestnut tree: it is possible to create basketry articles with the young shoots, to make compost with the bugs (prickly husks), cattle fodder with the leaves and in the past, the dried leaves could be used to fill the mattresses! The chestnut tree has been nicknamed "the breadfruit tree" for the nutritional qualities of its fruits. Chestnuts have advantageously replaced bread and potatoes during the great periods of famine.
Its flowering and harvest
The chestnut trees bloom from mid-June to the end of August. The harvest takes place from early August to mid-September. The extracted honey is dark. It is always liquid and limpid. Its crystallization is very slow. It can be fine or coarse, depending on the species foraged. The honey will darken to dark brown with shiny highlights. It keeps very well and for a long time, if it is of course harvested in the rules of the art and stored away from heat and humidity.
His taste
Chestnut honey is full-bodied, very fragrant with great aromatic power that gives off strong and sweet smells. Very loaded with tannins, it has a robust and warm taste. It is a strong and persistent honey. His sign of recognition: this bitterness that arrives at the end of the mouth and leaves no one indifferent.
A forgotten honey
For a long time, surely because the fashion was for sweeter honey, such as acacia, chestnut honey was considered a "second class" honey, good to be used in the manufacture of confectionery or to make honey blends "all flowers", from the mountains... For some time, it has made a big comeback in gastronomic circles where amateurs appreciate the authenticity of its taste and its power.
