Chestnut honey

Sweet Chestnut Honey from France – bold, spicy, dark

The Sweet Chestnut Honey (Miel de Châtaignier) from Beauharnais Carlant is a dark, bold, and spicy varietal honey from the chestnut forests of France, primarily from the Pyrenees. Featuring a slightly bitter note and an intense aroma. Creamy to liquid, unpasteurized.

Sweet Chestnut Honey (Miel de Châtaignier) from Beauharnais Carlant is a dark varietal honey obtained from the nectar and honeydew of the sweet chestnut – a majestic tree that grows up to 35 m tall and opens its white catkins in June and July, primarily in the lush chestnut forests of the French Pyrenees. 250 g in a jar, unpasteurized.

A honey like a walk through an old chestnut forest in midsummer. Anyone who spoons it onto their breakfast toast will immediately taste that this isn’t a mild blossom honey, but a character with depth and edge.

Bold brown, spicy, slightly bitter

The sweet chestnut honey appears a deep dark brown in the jar, with a consistency between creamy and liquid – both are signs of its untreated purity and shift depending on storage.

The fragrance reveals a sharp spice, robust, malty, with a fine pungency and a hint of tannin. On the palate, it is bold, spicy, floral – with a rather dry sweetness, a distinctly bitter note, and a long, almost woody finish. A honey for adult taste buds that doesn't sugarcoat anything and is all the more popular for it.

For blue cheese, in black tea, on warm bread

Its bold depth makes sweet chestnut honey the perfect partner for intense flavors – whether with cheese, in tea, or in warm cooking.

On a piece of ripe Roquefort or Stilton, accompanied by a slice of walnut bread and a glass of port wine, it makes for a classic trio that evokes long winter evenings. In tea, it works particularly well in a bold Assam or Lapsang Souchong, whose smoky notes pick up the spice of the honey. As a spread with a little salted butter, it creates a sweet-bitter-salty contrast that serves as a delightful surprise for the palate.

A teaspoon in a marinade for a venison or wild boar ragout, along with red wine, juniper berries, bay leaves, and peppercorns – the sweet chestnut honey gives the stew a warm, dark sweetness that blends wonderfully with the gamey flavor. Simmer in the oven for 4 hours at 150 degrees (300°F), and the meat will be tender enough to fall off the bone.

From the chestnut forests of France, selected by Carlant in Strasbourg

Sweet chestnuts are majestic trees that can live for hundreds of years – in the French Pyrenees, there are still old forests where these trees stand with wide-spreading canopies and deeply furrowed bark. When they bloom in June and July, long white catkins are produced that generate so much nectar and pollen that bees fly for kilometers from the surrounding valleys.

Behind Beauharnais is the delicatessen house Carlant from Strasbourg, founded about 25 years ago on the Rue de Wasselonne. Beauharnais is not a beekeeper itself – as Carlant emphasizes, the company carefully selects its honeys from the harvest regions of their partner producers and fills them into 250g jars in their own workshop.

The sweet chestnut honey comes directly from beekeepers in the Pyrenees and remains untreated – meaning not heated, not filtered, but exactly as it comes from the hive. Quite impressive.

Dark and cool, it stays aromatic for a long time

Spoonable at room temperature between 12 and 18 degrees Celsius, and stored in a dark, cool place – that is how sweet chestnut honey remains aromatic for a long time. Should it crystallize later, that is a mark of quality: place the closed jar in warm water at around 40 degrees for 5 to 10 minutes, stir briefly, and it will become fluid again. Alongside the aromatic Lavender Honey IGP and the herbaceous Provence Blossom Honey from the same house, three small spoonfuls side by side create a mini-tasting of France at your kitchen table.