Jim noted that most of us cannot tell what plant a honey comes from. 
Tony Jadczak brings a variety of honeys to meetings and I never get them 
right nor do most.

What is a fair truism, which I have observed at fairs, is the young and 
people who eat little or no honey prefer lighter honeys while the older 
folk and honey eaters like dark honey. I have shown this over and over 
in blind taste tests. It is all in the flavors of the darker honey. More 
"substance".

The other observation I have is a that anyone who thinks their honey is 
the same from year to year, even in the same location, is fooling 
themselves.You can get entirely different tastes and color from colonies 
which are side by side in the same season..

It is never "my" honey. It is the bee's honey and they get it from 
wherever they want. I will have an occasional year when basswood comes 
in and it is, depending on your taste, an excellent honey that smells of 
mint. It can be a great seller, but, again, it is from the same colony I 
got a nice bland honey the year before. The colony right beside it might 
have none.

About the only group that can claim a fairly uniform honey are the 
commercial beekeepers (AKA CV beekeepers- continuously vilified) who 
pollinate specific crops, but even then you can get the weeds that 
border the fields. Purple vetch under my apple trees draws the bees 
better than a host of apple blossoms. And the first honey of spring is 
more apt to be maple than dandelion.

We are selling a product that is non-uniform except for the seller. We 
are the constant and forget taste and color and whatever else you want 
to add, it is really your ability to sell that is the number one factor. 
That has been very obvious from my time behind the counter at Fairs. If 
you go after the customer you sell. If you smile at them they pass you by.

My brother was and is a great salesman. He had some serious health 
problems when young so his growth was stunted. He sold papers and would 
look at you with those "painted on velvet" waif's eyes and you had to 
buy a paper. I took his route when he was sick and had to explain I was 
his brother and he was getting the money. It is all in the salesman. The 
product was the same.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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