Honey can be classified according to a number of criteria, but the most common criterion is the source of the “raw material” that bees transform into honey, which is always sweet.
Thus, honey can be:
❧ floral – from the nectar and pollen of flowers;
❧ honeydew (extrafloral) – usually obtained from the sweet secretions of small insects (aphids) that feed on tree sap.
Floral honey can be monofloral or multifloral.


Monofloral honey is characterized by the fact that it is obtained predominantly from one single type of flora, with a purity degree (i.e. nectar and pollen from the given flora source) of up to 90% or even more. It has a taste and smell specific to that species; and the higher the percentage of nectar from that species, the more pronounced it is. Obtaining honey with 100% purity is virtually impossible, as bees cannot be guided to a particular flower source, they fly to the nearest food source, so they stop at all the melliferous plants on their way.

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The purity of a honey is determined by several factors, including:
– how extensive and compact is the specific crop (for example, highly monofloral honeys are the rapeseed or sunflower types, as we can find very extensive crops);
– flora competition, i.e. flora having the same period of flowering. For example, plants flowering at the beginning of the season (early spring) or at the end (late fall) have little nectar competition, because there are few other plants flowering at that specific time, so bees have few other food sources. Such honeys are almond or apple honeys (spring); respectively ivy honey (late fall).
On the other hand, multifloral honeys originate from a particular geoclimatic area and a certain season, with specific flora characteristics. These honeys are often referred to as ‘meadow honeys’, as the beehives are located in areas with wild flora, in a particular season. Thus, they differ from area to area and from season to season. For example, a Romanian Bărăgan honey collected in May is different from a Romanian Bărăgan honey collected in August, because the plants that flower in May can be different from those that flower in August, even if the geographical area is the same.
When bees do not find enough nectar food, they tend to compensate by foraging other sources of sugars they can find in proximity. This is how honeydew honey is obtained, which can be:
❧ predominantly from a single tree species (oak, pine, fir, beech, cedar), being assimilated to monofloral honeys (although the name is misleading, as this is not a floral honey obtained from nectar, but a honeydew honey);
❧ from more than one tree sources, in which case it is usually referred to as ‘forest honey’ or simply ‘honeydew honey’.

Just as monofloral honeys cannot be 100% pure, it is extremely unlikely to find anywhere in the world pure-honeydew honeys. Even in forests with very tall trees, where the ground is very shady, melliferous flowers can grow, so bees will visit them. Therefore, all honeydew honeys also contain some nectar, which actually makes it a mixed honey: honeydew-floral.