The American Honey Tasting Society (AHTS) is presenting the next Honey 101: Introduction to Honey Tasting course on October 28-29 in Connecticut. Attendees will learn the methods used by sommeliers to taste and evaluate honey through olfactory and gustatory exercises. We will learn how to recognize and identify the nine basic aromas and flavor families on the honey wheel, identify descriptors for honey and how to write detailed tasting notes for 15 important domestic and international honeys. The course will also cover the basics of honey composition, crystallization, defects, storage and handling. Based upon the methods taught at the Italian National Beekeeping Institute (CRA-API) in Bologna, Italy for more than 20 years, this course is a full immersion training using the sensory analysis methods to evaluate honey. C. Marina Marchese will be leading the course with colleague Raffaele Dall’ Olio, both members of the Italian National Registry of Experts in the Sensory Analysis of Honey. Seats are limited and there is a $50.00 discount for those who sign up and pay on or before September 15. Travel and accommodations are not included, a complimentary lunch will be provided for all attendees on both days. C. Marina Marchese and Raffaele D’all’Olio established the American Honey Tasting Society (AHTS) in 2013. With the growing number people keeping honeybees and interested in the diverse flavor profiles of varietal honey, the AHTS fulfills a true need in the United States for an educational resource for beekeepers, chefs, food professionals, brewers and mead makers interested in learning the fine skills of tasting and evaluating honey.
The American Honey Tasting Society’s mission is to standardize the protocol for evaluating honey and to raise the awareness of its diversity through educational courses. “The American Honey Tasting Society is the first organization of it’s kind in the United States that provides educational insight into the finer points of identifying the flavors in honey and matching them with their floral source and region,” says Marchese. “The art of being a honey tasting expert is as complex as being a wine or olive oil sommelier, and both food industry professionals and beekeepers are seeking this knowledge and experience.”
For additional information about the sensory training courses in honey,
visit www.americanhoneytastingsociety.com or email ahts.usa@gmail.com
