Kim Flottum of Bee Culture magazine e-mailed me about
yet another new product with "Honey" in large print
on the label, but no honey in the actual product.

This one is more interesting than many, as they call it
"Cane Honey", and claim that the term "Cane Honey", or
"honey from the reed" is a "Chinese name from antiquity".

The swill being sold is nothing but liquid cane sugar
concentrate.
http://www.sukkaronline.com/home.html

We've shoved the product up against the
Wall O' Shame, of course:
http://bee-quick.com/wall/sukkar.html

And it clearly qualifies as one of the
"worst of the worst":
http://bee-quick.com/wall/worst.html




In regard to the language claim, are there any eastern
language scholars on the list who can confirm/deny the claim?

I found a reference to a modern English translation of the
(Greek) "Periplus Maris Erythraei" (a trade and shipping
guide from the 1st century A.D.) that credits the phrase to
India as a description of "Sacchari" (cane sugar) from India,
but the Chinese character for sugar:
http://www.formosa-translation.com/chinese/ss/s257.gif

Looks nothing much like the characters for "flower"
or "honey" ("flower" on left, "honey" on right, and
as shown, the combination is read as "nectar").
http://www.formosa-translation.com/chinese/nn/nzz104.gif

The reason why I am so interested in such a trivial detail
is that any sort of inherent confusion in the Chinese language
between "honey" and "sugar" might explain the distressing
regularity with which honey from China is found to be adulterated.  :)

                        jim

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