> Prior to that we purchased some honey in Minnesota and I tasted a subtle, minty flavor. The beekeeper thought it was due to nearby Basswood trees.

This prompts me to comment on a letter to the editor I sourced in an  ABJ (1985, Vol 125, No 11) regarding a beekeeper (b/w photo included) that mentioned his bees
working red mint candy.

What sent me looking for this letter was that, in preparing our bees this year for the pollination season, we discovered strongly mint flavoured, bright red honey
in hives in two apiaries about 50 km apart! Candy? Hardly! A bottle of cough mixture thrown out? Bees working 50 km radii? Hardly!

Delving a bit deeper we discovered the potential source of this honey: Eucalyptus elata (= E. andreana) also called River peppermint gum! This has not been
confirmed with pollen analysis yet.

So one learns!

Robert Post