Several posts seem to be about taste. Some directly and some indirectly.

In many posts I have pointed out that people who are casual users of 
honey prefer light honeys that have little flavor. The discussion on 
water white honey seems to bear this out. It is obviously used to get a 
uniform color, but it is also taste. The industry knows that it must 
capture the casual user. Dark honey will not do it. Dark honey is the 
preferred honey of the long time user and the industry has that person 
already.

Allen's post on how he had many containers of the same honey but allowed 
people to pick their favorite flavor showed both good marketing and our 
own problems with taste. I trialled seeds for a Maine based seed 
company. Part of the trial was taste. With three different people 
tasting the same veggies, it was unusual to get a consensus that one 
stood out. (Try to differentiate between 12 different varieties of 
onions. Never did them again.)

The post about organic veggies tasting better than commercial has more 
to do with variety and how long after picking than organic vs. 
non-organic. I can put out a Jet Star tomato locally grown and it will 
taste better than any tomato out there (at least to me) be it organic or 
not because it is a low acid, sweet tomato. You will not find it in a 
grocery store as it is not a keeper. Any farm stand tomato is superior 
to a store tomato because of variety and they do not have to be 
transportable and keep fresh over many days. That also is a factor in 
the sale of local varietal honey. If it says blueberry on the label, it 
sells, even if a darker, cheaper "wildflower" honey tastes better. It is 
the perception that you are going to get the blueberry essence that is 
important to taste. Plus, it costs more so it must be better tasting.

My eyes were opened by the spinach contamination, that it came from an 
organic grower from a not yet certified organic field. The same grower 
had the same product grown the same way but one was organic and the 
other not, only because of the field, not how they were grown. Just one 
cost more. The taste would be the same but it would not be to the buyer.

Taste is very subjective and often, as shown by Allen, can be 
manipulated. It was my method of choice when I sold honey for our State 
Beekeeper's Chapter. First I asked them if they ate a lot of honey. Let 
the customer try the both light and dark honey . Then tell them which 
they liked better. It helped sell a lot of honey.

Taste or perceived taste can be an excellent marketing tool. I am not 
sure about organic honey. I recently priced honey at a local "natural" 
market. The non-organic honey was about $3 per pound. The organic ranged 
between $5-15 per pound. My guess was that only one may have been 
organic since it had granulated while the others probably had been 
heated since they wer still liquid. The granulated one had the USDA 
label and was the most expensive. The store only had three organic 
honeys, each in single file, while the local non-organic and no 
nutrition label filled about eight slots. It was obvious that price was 
dominant along with local (actually in State but not near) and variety 
which implies taste. Organic was not a selling point.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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