Hi Faith/All
 
Faith it is good to hear you had a great time in central african and
that you tasted some honey there.
 
There are a number of reasons the honey was smoky:
 
1) African bees are aggressive - hence some beekeepers use a lot
of smoke. Some beekeepers use materials with lots of tannins that
leave a smoky residue in the honey - things like grass, burlap, pine
needles, wood, elephant dung, cowdung and so on all leave a residue
easily with even a little too much smoke.
 
This will not be a problem in a country like the Congo where the
majority of honey is locally consumed - by people exposed to the
smell of burning things all the time (cooking fires) so the smoke
smell will go untasted.
 
2) As you say - the honey may have been proccessed over a wooden
fire (help!) and given that central african has a reported hive
density of at least 100 colonies per square kilometer that
proccessing must have occurred indoors - definite smokey honey making
conditions.
 
3) If it was wild gathered honey there is a comon practise in
tropical africa of smoking bees out of a hive completely (wild hive)
before taking the honey. Scutellata swarms will abscond readily at
certain times of year and taking the honeyn is much easier once the
bees are gone. The brood is also kept for food. (In Zimbabwe in rural
areas people will often place a car tyre below a wild colony - eg in
a tree and light the tyre/tyres to cause the bees to abscond - I
think that honey would have a strong smell and definitely not pass
as healthy to eat)
 
On the plus side - there are many african honeys that have no smokey
smell and given the very low use of pesticide in many areas are also
free of most other residues.
 
I dont think it would be from flowers that the taste came though.
 
Keep well
 
Garth
Garth Cambray           Camdini Apiaries
Grahamstown             Apis mellifera capensis
Eastern Cape Prov.
South Africa
 
Time = Honey
 
After careful consideration, I have decided that if I am ever a V.I.P
the I. may not stand for important.
(rather influential, ignorant, idiotic, intelectual, illadvised etc)