You can spend days just talking about honey,” said Mark Baumgartner, Langnese Honey’s head of sales and marketing for Southeast Asia.

 

He was speaking in a conference to familiarize the media on the quality and uses of this German brand of honey.

 

Indeed there’s so much more to honey than meets the taste buds. Consider the bees who produce them with the sweet nectar they collect from wildflowers. Consider the wide variety of flowers where these nectars come from. And finally, there’s the production process to turn this viscous liquid into the familiar kitchen staple.

 

Langnese itself has a long history dating back to 1925 when Karl Rolf Seyferth bought 500 kg of California honey on the Hamburg exchange. After a few initial setbacks, trade began to flourish and in 1927 he acquired the biscuit brand Langnese “for the price of 300 reichsmarks and the cost of a gourmet meal.”

 

Since then the company has grown to become the leading honey brand in the German market. Being all-natural and unfiltered, it retains the natural goodness of honey without compromising its taste and nutritional benefits, said Baumgartner. Langnese has also become global, being distributed in 45 countries, including the Philippines.

 

In the world of Langnese, honey is never simply honey.  Like fine wine, there’s a honey for every mood and use. “Whatever your lifestyle needs, there is a Langnese honey for you,” said Ernie San Beda, senior product manager of Fly Ace Corp., Langnese’s local distributor.

 

The subtle taste of acacia honey, for instance, makes it ideal for pouring on pancakes, breakfast cereals, fruits and toasts. Black Forest honey, with its dark color and full-bodied taste, makes it an ideal pick-me-up on a busy day.

 

Wildflower honey is perfect for cooking and baking, while wild lavender honey, with its mildly sweet floral taste, makes a good salad dressing. Then there’s the golden clear honey, best for spooning into coffee or tea.

 

To showcase its versatility, Wholesome Table prepared a menu using Langnese honey in every course. The Cordillera salad, a mélange of kale, romaine, organic duck egg, feta cheese, Sagada oranges, was tossed with a citrus vinaigrette sweetened with wild lavender honey.

 

An appetizer of crispy calamari had a lemon garlic dip laced with acacia honey. The miso-glazed salmon was marinated with wildflower honey while the dessert of sago’t gulaman was sweetened with Black Forest honey.

 

Here’s a recipe for a refreshing glass of iced tea using Langnese golden clear or wildflower honey.

 

Iced Tea with Honey

 

3/4 c freshly brewed tea (you may use Thai black tea or Jasmine tea)

3/4 c canned lychees with its juice

2 tbsp Langnese golden clear or wildflower honey

Ice cubes

 

Let tea cool for a few minutes. Pour the cooled tea into a pitcher. Stir in the canned lychees with its juice and the honey. Add the ice cubes and stir well to blend. Pour into two tall glasses and serve. Makes two servings.