From A to Bee

Atop Piccadilly sits a row of beehives, humming with life. They are the first step in an inspiring plan to ensure there will always be ‘honey still for tea’

Words: Toby Moore

Not many bees pass through their own triumphal arch as they gather their nectar and pollen. But not many bees are owned by Fortnum & Mason. For the first time this year, the store will be selling English honey from its own beehives. The eye-catching hives are grand affairs, involving gold and copper flourishes. Each has either a Roman, Mughal, Chinese or Gothick-style portico, and the six-foot-high structures were built in solid oak by a master cabinet-maker. Finished in Fortnum’s famous blue-green eau de nil livery, these witty and graceful designs were stars in the Fortnum & Mason garden at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2007– but without their residents for fear of alarming visitors. 

'By bee standards, these are palatial residences.’

‘I knew if we were going to produce our own honey that the hives just had to be something special,’ explains Jonathan Miller, the sweet grocery buyer for Fortnum’s. It was his idea for the store to offer its own bespoke brand as part of a full overhaul of the honeys it sells. Impressively, he designed the hives himself, drawing on a personal passion for architecture. ‘I wanted something distinct and fun but utterly in keeping with Fortnum’s,’ he says. ‘I decided to use different styles, but all classical ones, the sort that a good Georgian architect would have understood. One result is that the bees have got plenty of space. By bee standards, these are palatial residences.’
 

Bee Different

Jonathan took advice on the practical side of what was needed from Steve Benbow, a skilled beekeeper who also advised on what to put in them when completed. He recommended Carniolan bees, considered a docile type. This was an important consideration, as Jonathan explains: ‘The hives are on top of the roof in Piccadilly, facing south, so the last thing we want is bees likely to attack anyone. The ones we’ve chosen aren’t vicious.’ I wondered whether the bees could have been bought with a definite pedigree, something rather distinguished to reflect their illustrious central London address, perhaps? ‘Actually, I did ask that myself,’ says Jonathan, ‘because they do breed but they do also often mix with other bees and mutate. So the answer is a bit cautious: possibly, it depends.’ Still, these must be the most exclusive bees in the world? ‘That’s certainly the idea,’ Jonathan replies firmly.

They certainly travel that way. For their first summer, which was in 2006, the Fortnum’s bees – all 260,000 of them, which is still only enough to produce about 700 jars – were sent by London black taxi to Leigh Manor, a country estate in Shropshire. The site was chosen carefully, so was the means of transport. Nobody wants angry bees buzzing around them in an enclosed space if they brake hard, and taxis have useful partitions between driver and passengers. Their Shropshire home was selected for its rural setting. Bees gather nectar from around a three-mile radius, and it was a good bet that in this location they would find heather bushes near to where their hives were placed.

‘The hives are on top of the roof in Piccadilly, facing south, so the last thing we want is bees likely to attack anyone. The ones we’ve chosen aren’t vicious.’

In 2007, the colonies were closer to their final home and spent the summer in Oxfordshire, a last breath of country air before taking up permanent roof-top residence in Piccadilly in 2008. This may all seem rather more care and attention than honey deserves. At least, that was my initial reaction. But after spending an afternoon tasting with Jonathan, I learned that the best honey is like good wine: filled with bouquets and sensations, something to be passionate about and far from the
bland, homogenous taste found in mass-produced brands. Without mentioning any names, these often come from beekeepers with as many as 10,000 hives, rather more than the average of 300 hives kept by those supplying Fortnum’s, and they are blended to produce a uniform taste. Fortnum & Mason touches none of it.

The new honey, branded as ‘Fortnum’s Bees’, takes its place in a range that Jonathan spent 15 months changing, in ‘a revolution not an evolution’, to make it all more intriguing. ‘We’re a British company and we really had to make sure we had a good range of British honeys at the top, which I think we now have. I then wanted to look for ones that were fascinating or distinctive.’ As a result, he has amassed one of the biggest selections of honey available in Britain, 33 varieties from around the world, some exceptionally rare.

‘As a fairly rough rule, the nearer the equator you get the more complex honeys tend to be,’ Jonathan notes. ‘In Britain, we’re at the northern extreme of bee-keeping with shorter periods of flora for them to feed on. The further south you go, the richer the flora, and it’s spread through the year.’A consequence of geography is that British honeys tend to be ‘intense but quite simple,’ particularly when compared with the French or Italian varieties.
‘The thing to remember, too, is that honey on sale from our bees after their time in Shropshire will taste different to what we produce from Oxfordshire and from London the next,’ Jonathan points out.

The best honey, I learn, has memories – sometimes subtle, sometimes strong – of plants visited by the bees.

The best honey, I learn, has memories – sometimes subtle, sometimes strong – of plants visited by the bees. It comes with a proper provenance and from hives based in a specific location where the producer has a good idea of what the bees have been feeding on. The London honey will be very exclusive indeed. ‘In addition to the royal parks, the biggest garden in their radius is Buckingham Palace, which should be interesting. We’ve also been joking about whether they’ll go south of the river,’ says Jonathan.

My taste buds are salivating at this point and Jonathan takes pity, producing a spoon and an unmarked pot. It is Fortnum’s own honey, the first jar. ‘Exquisite,’ I say, and I mean it after taking a spoonful. The flavour is delicate and seductive but lingers all the same. That is the mark of a good honey, says Jonathan. ‘What’s happening five minutes later is a good test. Most mass-produced honey is quite primitive, just a quick sugar hit.’ He likes his creation, too. ‘Quite light and a lovely texture with a reasonable amount of finish,’ he rules.

Flavours in the Extreme

Jonathan is happy to startle the taste buds. ‘Not bland is the key,’ he says. ‘I like people to have a reaction, to either love something or loathe it, but not to be indifferent. That’s why I want a lot of variety and look for tastes that are very characteristic. It’s about finding points of difference. I’m not saying I encourage a violent reaction, but I don’t want people saying: “Oh, that’s sort of okay.”’ He recommends lighter honeys, such as English borage, for breakfast, ‘when the palate is more alive’, before working south of the equator as the day wears on, perhaps to African Miombo Forest honey, which is collected from hives in Zambia. ‘This is extraordinary because beekeepers climb 90 feet up a tree and take the honey from the most basic hives made from bark.’ There are other, equally inaccessible options. Vietnamese Longan Garden honey comes from one island in the middle of a river. Prickly Bee honey, which again comes from Zambia, has a collection fraught with hazard. ‘If it stings you, apparently you’re done for. Or so we’re told!’

'Vietnamese Longan Garden honey comes from one island in the middle of a river. Prickly Bee honey, which again comes from Zambia, has a collection fraught with hazard. ‘If it stings you, apparently you’re done for. Or so we’re told!’

There is also the rare Sea Lavender honey, which comes from a few sites on the Norfolk coast. But the real curiosity will be Fortnum’s own brand after the bees reach their final home in London. Steve Benbow expects something very rich when the hives atop Piccadilly produce their honey, and he should know: he keeps bees above his flat near Tower Bridge. ‘London honey really rocks,’ he says. ‘Mine is quite toffee-like, really lovely, and I expect the honey from Fortnum’s bees in London will be similar.’ Steve says that the capital is ideal, providing a nectar supply from March until October, far longer than normal, and in a huge variety of flavours thanks to the many large gardens and parks and their diverse selection of plants.

‘London honey really rocks,’

People can rest easy about pollution, too. ‘There’s none,’ says Steve. ‘The hives are on a breezy rooftop and the nectar is very deep inside a plant, so it is sucked up by the bee’s proboscis, then transported to the hive and sealed. Essentially, the whole process is enclosed.’ Meanwhile, even as Fortnum’s awaits the arrival of the first batch of Fortnum's Bee's, Jonathan Miller is one step ahead. ‘I rather like the idea of baroque bee hives,’ he says, laughing. ‘Now, that really would be fun.’

TASTING NOTES

Jonathan Miller selected five ‘interesting’ honeys for Toby to taste

FORTNUM’S BEES £10 for 227g
Jonathan: Delicious, isn’t it? What a good example of an English honey; very intense and quite clean, with a lovely texture – glutinous almost.
Toby: Exquisite! Very soft, light as a feather, and I definitely tasted a bit of heather in there, too. 

ENGLISH BORAGE £6.75 for 454g
This is from Essex and is the lightest Fortnum’s honey
Jonathan: It’s got a very delicate flavour, I think, and very elegant. It would help if it hadn’t set slightly, which always makes flavours a bit tighter.
Toby: This does have a lovely summery feel, bright and light. I could imagine it with my morning toast.

NEWMARKET £6.90 for 454g
The bees are feeding on lime and clover near the famous racetrack
Jonathan: What you’re getting here is lime blossom and clover with zest of lime; quite sophisticated.
Toby: Hmm. Well, a bit too strong for me. It’s got quite a powerful flavour that’s almost medicinal.

DORSET BELL HEATHER £6.75 for 340g
This owes its distinctive taste to the Bell Heather that grows on the Isle of Purbeck, the only large site of the flower in the country
Jonathan: This is a very light heather honey from a site opposite Poole Harbour, slightly syrupy but very clean. This is probably the least sugary.
Toby: I like this a lot. It had me thinking about soft fabrics for some reason.

PUGLIAN ORANGE £6.25 for 340g
From the far south of Italy and from one long, shallow valley famous for its orange groves – which is where the beekeeper puts his hives
Jonathan: I think you’re going to like this a lot. You can really taste the orange in this can’t you? It’s subtle, a slight zestiness, that musty taste you get when you peel an orange.
Toby: Wow!This is my favourite without doubt. A firm taste of orange but soft-hued and smooth with lots of other things going on as well.

Jonathan: French and Italian honeys are very popular we find, remember what I said about the further south you go. The taste is just more complex.