Tupelo, lavender, sourwood, linden tree, sage, buckwheat, eucalyptus and Bradford pear are mere sweet drops in the honey pot.

More than 300 distinctive types of honey are produced in the United States.

"Each region of America grows different plants and therefore has different honey," explained Mark Brady, president of the American Honey Producers Association.

"Texas, for example, produces honey from white brush, cat claw and mesquite plants. Nebraska is famed for its clover and alfalfa honey; South Carolina and Florida, for tupelo."

In Ohio, clover is the main honey, along with buckwheat and goldenrod, according to Cheryl Wachsmuth, president of the Central Ohio Beekeepers Association.

Despite the wide range of choices, most Americans have tasted only honey blends, not single-source varieties.

"Companies that supply supermarkets mix honey from many different beekeepers," said Troy Fore, executive director of the American Beekeeping Federation.

Although single-plant honey is as good as any other, he said, its nuances can be lost.

"Not many of us realize that the plants (that) bees visit drastically affect the flavor of their honey," said Brian Frederickson, owner of Ames Farm, which sells several types of single-source honeys from Minnesota.

"If beehives are placed near linden trees, the honey will have a delightfully light mint taste, which tastes completely different from honey the bees make when they gather nectar from buckwheat blossoms, which tastes of molasses and brown sugar."

The best way to appreciate the wide range of tastes is to try a honey you've never had before, according to Bruce Wolk, director of marketing for the National Honey Board.

He recommends visiting the board's Web site ( www.honeylocator.com) to discover the varied flavors. The site yields hundreds of types of honeys, each with detailed descriptions of the plant that produced it, as well as the beekeepers who sell that particular kind.

(For local varieties, log on to www.centralohiobeekeepers.com.)

"You can approach tasting honey like you would wine," said Alexandre Brard, sommelier for the Michelin two-star Joel Robuchon Restaurant in Las Vegas's MGM Grand.

"Each of the 300 varieties has its own flavor. And, just like no two Burgundy wines are the same, there is variety even within one type of honey."

To appraise honey, Brard recommends three steps:

Size up its color, which can range from almost clear to deep amber.

Take in the aroma. Does the honey have a floral bouquet, fruit fragrance or spice scent? Blueberry honey has a lemony aroma; dandelion and tupelo honey smell of summer flowers; clover honey has hints of spicy cinnamon; and sourwood honey has a sweet anise aroma.

Take a tiny taste. Roll the honey in your mouth, and let it softly melt first on the front of your tongue, which has mainly sweet taste buds; then let it flow toward the sides and back to reach the sour, salty and bitter taste receptors.

Sara Moulton, host of the new public-TV series Sara's Weeknight Meals and bestselling author of Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals, loves honey.

"What's so great about it is not only its luscious sweetness but also its thick, viscous quality," she said. "That's what makes it such an absolute perfect accompaniment to a cheese plate. The silky smooth texture of honey balanced the graininess of hard cheeses and counters the slight chalkiness of some goat cheeses."

Moulton, who grew up enjoying afternoon tea with a spoonful of honey, added: "Another of my favorite ways to taste honey is drizzled over thick, tart Greek yogurt. Honey is also beautiful with fruit, or in place of maple syrup, slathered on scones or warm biscuits, or drizzled on waffles, pancakes, oatmeal or, of course, as the sweet component in a homemade batch of granola."

Moulton, also Gourmet magazine's executive chef and food editor of ABC's Good Morning America, uses honey when preparing spicy foods.

"Honey's sweetness tames and balances the heat of recipes heavy on cayenne, chilies or black pepper," she said. "Honey always has a place in spicy recipes because besides countering the dish's heat, it adds body and depth of flavor. With its wonderful thick texture and sweet ability to balance heat, (it) is an ideal ingredient in barbeque sauce."

In addition, Moulton touted honey as a "terrific replacement" for granulated sugar in baking.She recommended replacing half the sugar called for in a recipe with honey.

Because honey is moist, she cautioned, some of the liquid in the recipe must be reduced; and honey's thickness might require more leavening to give baked goods a lighter texture.

She also suggested turning down the baking temperature to keep baked goods from browning too quickly.

Dispatch Food Editor Robin Davis contributed to this report.

A honey sampler

Here's a selection of different honeys. Those labeled "wildflower" don't have enough honey from one single plant to be called that honey, and contain attributes of many:

Alfalfa: Produced from the purple alfalfa blossoms, the light honey has a pleasingly mild flavor and the lovely aroma of beeswax.

Avocado: Dark amber in color, the honey has a rich molasses, buttery taste and spicy aroma.

Basswood: Also known as linden tree, basswood honey is light in color with a lovely lingering flavor of green, ripening fruit and herbal notes.

Blueberry: Taken from the tiny, white flowers of the blueberry bush, the nectar makes a honey that is typically light amber in color with a full, well-rounded fruit flavor and flowery, lemon aroma.

Buckwheat: The honey is dark and full-bodied with an aroma reminiscent of the best single-malt Scotch. It has been found to contain more anti-oxidant compounds than some lighter honeys.

Clover: The honey has a pleasing, mild taste that, depending on the location and type of clover, varies in color from white to light amber to amber. It contributes more to honey production in the United States than any other group of plants and is the most widely produced honey in Ohio.

Fireweed: Light in color and mild in flavor, the honey comes from a perennial herb with pinkish blossoms that grows in open woodlands.

Goldenrod: The honey can vary from light to medium color with a bit of bite to it.

Orange Blossom: Often a combination of citrus sources, this light and mild honey has a fresh scent and light citrus taste.

Sage: Light in color yet heavy-bodied, with a mild but delightful flavor, the honey is extremely slow to granulate, making it a favorite among honey packers for blending with other honeys to slow down granulation.

Star Thistle: Bright-yellow flowers ringed with long, sharp spines create this white or extra-light amber honey, whose delicate flavor has hints of cinnamon and summer fruit.

Tupelo: The honey is a light, golden color with a greenish cast and a lovely spice and mint taste. Because of the high fructose content in Tupelo honey, it granulates slowly.

For more information, visit the National Honey Board's Web sites: www.honey.com or www.honeylocator.com.

The importance of pollination

In addition to providing us with delicious honey, bees are essential for other reasons.

"Bees' greatest contribution to mankind is pollination," said Frank Blanchard, a South Carolina beekeeper for more than 35 years. "Anyone with a flower or vegetable garden knows that you get bigger, tastier and better crop if you keep bees in your backyard.

"And it isn't just local gardens, either. Bees pollinate over 80 percent of America's fruits and vegetables. The entire California almond crop, for example, is dependent on honeybee pollination. No bees, no almonds."

Honeybees are so important that throughout America various organizations, both public and private, are encouraging people to become hobby beekeepers through educational programs and free equipment. "It's shocking, but in the 1940s America had upward of 5 million bee hives; now we have half that," said New Jersey apiarist Tim Schuler. "As we become less rural and more and more urban, we are squeezing wildlife out. Honeybees are essential because they pollinate the plants eaten by wildlife."

In the past few years, beekeepers, especially commercial ones, have reported a mysterious dying off of colonies for no apparent reason, dubbed colony collapse disorder.

Cheryl Wachsmuth, president of the Central Ohio Beekeepers Association, said many area beekeepers have been affected, though her own hives, which produce about 1,000 pounds of honey a year, have not.

But local chefs are trying to help with the honeybee crisis. Dean James Max and Tony Miller of Lattitude 41 in the Renaissance Hotel downtown are hosting a wine pairing dinner on Aug. 24 with proceeds to benefit The Foundation for the Preservation of Honey Bees, Inc. Dr. James Tew of the Honey Bee Lab at Ohio State University will speak at the event.

Apiarist Schuler is also among researchers trying to find the cause, and hopefully the solution. It's one of the reasons he hopes more Americans will keep their own hives. He stresses that beekeeping can be done anywhere, even in big cities.

"In fact, in a city you have large, old shade trees like linden and locust that will yield pounds and pounds of absolutely delicious honey," he said.

Some private companies are lending a hand to help raise awareness of America's bee crisis. Haagen-Dazs, for example, has launched the Web site www.helpthehoneybees.com and introduced a new Honey Vanilla Bee ice cream to focus consumer attention on the issues. A portion of the sales of the new flavor, made with clover honey from North and South Dakota, will be donated for research.

"Honeybee health and sustainable pollination is a major issue facing American agriculture that is threatening our food supply and endangering our natural environment," said Diana Cox-Foster, Ph.D., a leading CCD researcher at Penn State, and Haagen-Dazs Bee Board member.

"Honeybees help to pollinate many of the ingredients like strawberries and apricots that go into 40 percent of Haagen-Dazs flavors," said Katty Pien, spokeswoman for Haagen-Dazs. "In addition, ice-cream production is dependent upon honeybees for pollination of alfalfa, a key ingredient in milk production. Dairy cows rely on alfalfa for feed; without the cows we would not have milk, and without milk we would not have ice cream."

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