The Taiz mountains: where Yemeni Sal honey comes from
Our Sal honey does not come from Hadramout. It comes from the highlands of Taiz in south-west Yemen, several hundred kilometres away, from a different plant, in a different landscape, and it tastes like nothing else we sell.
The plant
Sal honey comes from wild Euphorbia ammak, a tall succulent of the mountain slopes. The plant is not edible in its natural state. What the bees do to the nectar is what makes the honey safe to eat, and it is also what carries the warmth: compounds from the plant survive into the honey and give Sal its ginger-like heat, which rises after you swallow and can last from minutes to hours.
That heat is the honey's signature and its own authentication. It is difficult to imitate, and it is the first thing people ask us about. See what Sal honey tastes like.
Why Sal is rare
Three things make Sal scarce, and none of them is marketing.
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The season clashes with Sidr. Sal is harvested from early October, exactly when Sidr flowers. Sidr sells for more, so most beekeepers choose Sidr. Only those based where Euphorbia dominates produce Sal at all.
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The terrain is mountain terrain. Hives sit where the plant grows, which is not where roads go.
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Taiz has been at the centre of the conflict, and the number of active beekeepers there has fallen.
There have been seasons when we could not secure Sal honey at all. When that happens, we sell none and say why, rather than filling the jar with something else.
Taste, and the Yemeni habit
Sal is green-yellow, earthy and herbal, dense in the spoon, and less sweet than Sidr. In Yemen it is kept for the throat and the chest in the cold months, taken by the spoon, and it is the honey traditionally given to smokers. That is a tradition and what our customers tell us, not a treatment: Sal has not been studied clinically, as our research page says plainly.
If the heat is too strong, Yemenis mix it with another honey or stir it into warm tea or milk. Many children find it too much, and tradition does not give Sal to pregnant women. Like all honey, it is not suitable for infants under 12 months.
From the mountain to your jar
- Combs are pressed cold in Yemen, with no heat at any stage.
- The honey is air-shipped to Australia under controlled conditions.
- It is poured and weighed by hand into glass jars in Victoria.
- Each batch carries its origin and harvest year on the product page. We publish no laboratory result for Sal, and we do not borrow the numbers from our Sidr honeys.
What comes from these mountains
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