Warwickshire sits in the middle of England in more than a geographical sense: mixed farming, old woodland and a dense canal network give its bees a broad, unspectacular, reliable range of forage. The result is honey that tastes the way most people imagine English honey should.
The remnants of the Forest of Arden in the north and west supply lime, sycamore and field maple, while the Avon valley farmland to the south brings oilseed rape, beans and hedgerow hawthorn. The county's canals matter more than they look: their banks are unmown, unsprayed corridors of bramble, willowherb and balsam running for miles through otherwise farmed land, and they hold colonies through late summer when the fields have finished. Around Leamington, Warwick and Stratford, parkland and mature garden planting extend the season at both ends. There is no single dominant crop here, which is exactly why Warwickshire honey varies so much between apiaries a few miles apart.
Classic mixed blossom honey — medium amber, floral, sets to a fine grain. Apiaries near the canals often produce a darker late-summer crop.
Flowering times are typical and can shift by two to three weeks with the weather, season and altitude.
Warwick, Leamington Spa, Stratford-upon-Avon, Rugby, Nuneaton, Kenilworth, Bedworth, Alcester
Because the county has no single dominant crop. An apiary on the Avon valley farmland works rape and beans; one three miles away on a canal bank works bramble and balsam. Forage range is roughly three miles, so neighbouring beekeepers genuinely produce different honey — worth trying more than one.
Usually Himalayan balsam, which grows thickly along the canals and rivers and flowers into September. It gives a distinctive dark, slightly musky honey — and gives the bees a ghostly white dusting of pollen that is easy to spot at the hive entrance.
Browse the complete UK honey directory
