Reference point
Smell a cluster of longan flowers in bloom, in the morning.
Do this before you read on. An entry only works when you have just smelled the thing.
Honey-sweet, slightly waxy, with a thin green layer underneath. It is closer to honey than to a flower.
That is no coincidence: longan-blossom honey is the most common honey in Vietnam, and the flower already carries most of the traits of the finished honey.
It differs from pomelo blossom in having nothing white and clear about it. Longan blossom is cloudier and warmer.
How to smell it
Smell in the morning, when the flowers have just opened and the bees are arriving. Then smell a spoonful of longan-blossom honey — what they share is so obvious it needs no pointing out.
Why this one is hard
Because longan flowers are small and grow in dense clusters, people seldom smell a single flower. The impression is always of the whole cluster, which makes it hard to separate from the general smell of the orchard.
Don’t confuse with
This entry
Longan blossom
Floral family
Longan blossom is cloudy, with a waxy honey note; pomelo blossom is clear and has nerolidol, so it lingers longer in your hair.
Scientific note
The compounds behind the honey note of longan blossom have not been described in detail in the literature available to us. The resemblance to longan-blossom honey is easy to observe, but we have no data to name the compounds responsible.
In Vietnamese life
Hung Yen and Son La are the two largest longan-growing regions. Longan-blossom honey is considered the finest honey in the country, and its price depends on a flowering season of about three weeks.