A while back, my brother got into infusing honey with herbs. Although I am a huge fan of honey, I have never infused it myself. Such a great idea, honey is possibly the best sweetness there is, add herbs to the flavor and you’ve just taken your sweetener to a whole new level.
While I’m not necessarily a “sweet” person, honey has always been my “number one best” sweetness preference. It has been a daily indulgence as of late, with my morning ritual of drinking warm lemon honey tea with turmeric and ginger. An herbal infused honey can make every morning (noon or night) just a little more special. Let’s start with lavender!
- Lavender - 5-6 Tablespoons
- Honey - 16 oz jar
- One empty jar
- Fill clean jar with lavender, about a quarter of the volume, 5-6 Tablespoons
- Add honey about half way, stir lavender and fill with more honey.
- Set the jar in a warm sunny spot for about one week, turning it a couple times per day.
- Strain lavender from honey into a new jar. Use cheesecloth and a funnel to help.
- Enjoy your fancy honey!
Check out the details below!
The ingredients are simple: Lavender buds and Honey.
The method is straight forward, basically, add lavender to honey and let it be. I used 2 typical 16 oz honey jars to make my batch. One jar of fresh Sunny Hill Honey, a local honey brand that I love, and another empty jar that had been thoroughly cleaned (dish washed and boiled).
The amount of lavender added and the time you allow it to infuse can be adjusted to fit your personal flavor preference. Too much lavender can leave you with a soapy taste. The longer you let it infuse, the stronger the flavor. It would be quite difficult to mess this up, your honey is going to taste delicious!
I added lavender to fill my jar about a quarter of the volume. In my case, I was using a standard honey jar, so it amounted to about 5-6 Tablespoons.
Pour honey into the jar with lavender. Before you fill it to the brim, use a chop stick or a utensil of your choice to stir the lavender into the honey. Top off your jar leaving a small amount of headspace. You will likely not be able to fit all of the honey in your jar due to lavender occupancy.
Allow your honey to sit in a sunny warm spot for about one week. The lavender will float to the top, turn the jar a couple times each day to help mix it up. Feel free to taste the honey at different points during the week if you’re curious.
Strain the lavender from the honey. I used a funnel lined with cheesecloth. It was a somewhat slow process. Turn your jar upside down before you get started so the lavender will be situated at the bottom of the jar.
Pour the clearest honey first and allow it to strain through the cheesecloth into your clean jar. Repeat until complete.
Enjoy your Lavender Honey in tea, on oatmeal, in lemonade, with granola, eat it straight, or use it like you would normally use honey…. but enjoy it a little more.
