This past week my eye
fell on an online ad for the Tea Hive Café, a little spot nestled comfortably
in the Honeybee Centre, located on Fry’s Corner. It was a very small menu
indeed, but since I hadn’t been to the Honeybee Centre in ever so long my
sister and I decided to go and buy some honey and check the café out.
You have to go. Not just
for the pie at the café, which is really, really good, but for the pleasure of
looking and testing the different kinds of honey, taking a self-guided tour,
and checking out the courses they offer, like beekeeping and candle-making. (By the way, this is a very kid-friendly place.)
We were greeted as we
came in the door with a warm smile by Karen Downey, who couldn’t be more
enthusiastic about the benefits of honey. She explained that all their honey
was unpasteurized; since the honey is not heated up, valuable enzymes in it are
not destroyed.
We ordered the apple pie,
mine accompanied by a lovely pear green tea, my sister's paired brilliantly with a delicious chai redolent with spices similar to those we traditionally use in apple pie, and then went into the “greenhouse”
to sit and wait for our orders to come to us. The place was charming. One side has several tables and chairs
and the other has more of a sunroom feel, with small glass-topped tables
surrounded by wicker easy chairs. There is a small bookcase with books and
magazines you are free to browse through while you wait. A little goldfish pond
sits in one corner, pretty with plants, and everywhere there is information
about bees and honey.
Karen told us they order
the apple pie from a gourmet bakery, and I believe her. It was full of
chunks—not slices—of apple. A scoop of vanilla ice cream nestled beside it and
both pie and ice cream were drizzled with Rewarewa honey, changing it from good
to fabulous. The honey took on the characteristics and flavor profile of caramel.
Absolutely delicious. Do try it with the green tea—the sweetness of the dessert
off-sets the teas natural mild astringency and makes for a memorable
combination.
After our treat we went
back into the store area and began tasting the honey at the honey bar set up
for just that purpose. Karen explained that the nutrients are different for
each honey, depending upon what the bees were feeding on.Unprocessed honey has antibacterial properties because it contains natural hydrogen peroxide and it has an acid PH. But Manuka honey, for instance, has additional antimicrobial activity because the Manuka bush the bees feed on contains something called methylglyoxal. I didn't like the Manuka honey. It tasted medicine-y to me. I did, however, like the buckwheat honey, which is somewhat reminscent of molasses and is probably amazing in bbq sauce applications, and the clover honey tasted, as my sister so aptly put it, "like our childhood". I remember our mother always buying clover honey. The blueberry and cranberry honeys were amazing. Once we finished tasting we selected a jar each--my sister the cranberry and I, our childhood--and paid for our choices. We were a little sticky. If you go, take wipes.
Karen gave me a couple of brochures (I could do a blog on the Honeybee Centre alone) and let me know about their website. You can visit the website by clicking on this URL:
Go. Enjoy. Taste honey. Learn about bees. And don't forget to try the apple pie.
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