Cashew honey is a monofloral honey from the blossom of the cashew tree (Anacardium occidentale, Anacardiaceae); it is produced across the Southeast Asian cashew belt -- especially Vietnam -- and was characterized as a Brazilian "caju" honey.
Cashew honey -- "caju" honey in Brazil -- comes from the blossom of the cashew tree (Anacardium occidentale). When the orchards flower, bees work the bloom and produce a light, aromatic plantation honey. A flavor-composition study identified 59 volatile compounds in caju honey -- lactones, eugenol and guaiacol over a benzyl-alcohol floral base -- giving it a complex aroma well out of proportion to its pale color.
Cashew honey -- "caju" honey in Brazil -- comes from the blossom of the cashew tree (Anacardium occidentale), a tropical tree of the Anacardiaceae family grown across the tropics for its nut and its fleshy cashew apple. When the cashew orchards flower, bees work the bloom and produce a light, aromatic plantation honey. It is a named monofloral in both its Brazilian heartland and its modern Asian plantation belt.
The modern plantation-honey landscape is Southeast Asia, especially Vietnam -- Binh Phuoc province, the country's "cashew capital," carries a large share of national cashew acreage, and managed Apis mellifera beekeeping in southern Vietnam works the cashew and rubber plantation flows. The Vietnam origin record notes that beekeepers there "work the blossom of rubber and cashew plantations." The characterized literature origin is Brazil, where "caju" honey is a long-named monofloral -- the flavor-composition study below worked on Brazilian caju honey.
Cashew honey is light -- extra-light to light amber -- but aromatically rich. A flavor-composition study identified 59 volatile compounds in caju honey, with a striking impact-odorant set: furfuryl mercaptan, benzyl alcohol, delta-octalactone, gamma-decalactone, eugenol, benzoic acid, isovaleric acid, phenylethyl alcohol and 2-methoxyphenol (guaiacol). That combination -- lactones, eugenol and guaiacol over a benzyl-alcohol floral base -- gives cashew honey a complex aroma well out of proportion to its pale color. It is a light honey that drinks aromatically complex, and like most plantation honeys it is quick to granulate.
Cashew is a pale honey with an aromatically complex profile -- a flavor study identified 59 volatile compounds, from lactones and eugenol to guaiacol over a floral base. No Palate Signature family scores are shown yet: these come only from real Melvea tasting sessions, and none have been logged for cashew.
If you produce cashew honey— or know a beekeeper who does — we'd love to add them to the directory and surface their jars to readers who arrive here looking for the real thing.
Light in color but aromatically complex. A flavor-composition study identified 59 volatile compounds in caju honey -- lactones (delta-octalactone, gamma-decalactone), eugenol and guaiacol over a benzyl-alcohol floral base -- giving it a complex aroma well out of proportion to its pale color.
The modern plantation-honey landscape is Southeast Asia, especially Vietnam -- Binh Phuoc province, the country's "cashew capital." The characterized literature origin is Brazil, where "caju" honey is a long-named monofloral and the subject of the flavor study.
Light -- extra-light to light amber. Its pale color is part of what makes the aromatic complexity surprising: the volatile profile reads much richer than the color would suggest.
It is the floral nectar honey bees gather from the cashew tree's blossom (Anacardium occidentale), not the nut or the cashew apple. The same tree gives all three; this page covers the honey's origin and flavor only.
Flavor / volatile characterization of Brazilian cashew (caju) and marmeleiro honeys (GC-MS + sensory impact-odorant work).
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