American Honey Library American Honey
Library

For beekeepers

Send eight ounces. Get your honey described.

A trained panel tastes your sample blind and writes up what they find — aroma, flavor, sweetness, persistence, texture — in plain language. Your profile joins the library under your apiary's name, or anonymously if you prefer. Tasting and analysis are completely free — you just cover the cost of mailing your sample jar.

Start an intake form

How it works

1

Tell us about the honey

Floral source, region, harvest month, and how it was extracted. Two minutes on the form below.

2

Mail the sample

Eight ounces in any clean sealed jar. Crystallized is fine. Fill out the form below, then pay for and print your own shipping label right on this site.

3

The panel tastes it

Your jar is recoded and assessed blind at a monthly session by several certified tasters working from a fixed vocabulary.

4

You get the readout

A one-page written profile, yours to use however you like, plus the library entry it becomes.

What a readout looks like

Plain language, no scores

Sourwood · Blue Ridge, North Carolina · July 2026

Sample 2026-041 · assessed by six panelists

Aroma

Light and floral, with anise and warm bread underneath.

Flavor

Moderately sweet, faintly buttery, closing with a clean gingery bite.

Texture

Thick, slow to melt on the tongue, no crystals detected.

Persistence

Long. Panelists still described the anise a full minute after tasting.

Sample intake form

Everything we need to log your jar. Sending more than one kind? Add each one below — takes just a couple of minutes.

Please fix the highlighted boxes below.
About you

So we can send your shipping label and your honey reports.

Please tell us your name.
Please enter a valid email.
Please enter a phone number.
Your honey

We're after single-source honey where you know the main bloom — blackberry, tulip poplar, and the like, not mixed wildflower. Add each honey you're sending; each gets its own code, and about 8 oz a jar is plenty.

Crystallized honey is welcome. Do not warm your honey.

Send it exactly as it is. Heat changes the aroma and flavor the panel is there to describe, even gentle warming to loosen it up.

Where you'll ship from

We use this to quote your shipping label.

Enter your street address.
Enter your city.
Pick a state.
Enter a valid ZIP.

Shipping your honey sample

To make sure your sample reaches the panel safely, please pack it this way.

  1. Send it as it is. Crystallized honey is fine. Do not warm or liquefy it before shipping.
  2. Label your container. Use a water-resistant marker or a piece of tape to write your submission code clearly on the side of the container. (You'll get your code after you click “Continue to shipping.”)
  3. Seal the lid. Tighten the cap firmly. Wrap a strip of heavy tape around the seam of the lid in the same direction the cap turns to tighten, so it can't work loose in transit.
  4. Bag it. Put the taped container in a zip-top bag and seal it completely.
  5. Box and cushion. Pack the bagged sample in a sturdy cardboard box or rigid mailer. Don't use unpadded envelopes. Add enough padding, such as kraft paper, bubble wrap or cardboard, that the container doesn't rattle or shift when you shake the box.

What happens next?

When your sample arrives, we log the code, check the seal, and keep it in temperature-stable storage until the blind tasting panel meets. We'll email you once your sample is logged in the Library archive.

Your package

Enter your package shipping details.

Enter the package weight in ounces.
Enter a length.
Enter a width.
Enter a height.
One more thing (optional)
The map listing is only added once your jars arrive. Leave both unchecked to stay private. We will always email you once when your readout is ready.

Ship it in — here's your codes and your label.

Write each code on its jar so we can match it to what you told me:

    Shipping your honey sample

    To make sure your sample reaches the panel safely, please pack it this way.

    1. Send it as it is. Crystallized honey is fine. Do not warm or liquefy it before shipping.
    2. Label your container. Use a water-resistant marker or a piece of tape to write your submission code (listed above) clearly on the side of the container.
    3. Seal the lid. Tighten the cap firmly. Wrap a strip of heavy tape around the seam of the lid in the same direction the cap turns to tighten, so it can't work loose in transit.
    4. Bag it. Put the taped container in a zip-top bag and seal it completely.
    5. Box and cushion. Pack the bagged sample in a sturdy cardboard box or rigid mailer. Don't use unpadded envelopes. Add enough padding, such as kraft paper, bubble wrap or cardboard, that the container doesn't rattle or shift when you shake the box.

    What happens next?

    When your sample arrives, we log the code, check the seal, and keep it in temperature-stable storage until the blind tasting panel meets. We'll email you once your sample is logged in the Library archive.

    Pack your jars in the box you weighed and measured, then pay for the label below — it's generated instantly from your package details.

    Getting your shipping rate…

    Your label's ready!

    Print it, stick it on the box, and drop it off — you're done.

    Download shipping label

    Questions beekeepers ask

    My honey has crystallized. Can I still send it?

    Yes. Crystallization is natural and doesn't affect the tasting. Please don't warm it to make it liquid again. Heat changes the aroma and flavor, and the panel needs to taste your honey as it came from the hive.

    Does my honey need to be certified or tested?

    No. We are documenting flavor, not issuing grades. Any honey you can identify a predominant floral source for is welcome.

    What if the source is mixed?

    Tell us what you know. Wildflower and mixed-source honeys are recorded too, filed by region and season rather than by plant.

    How long until I hear back?

    Samples are tasted at the next monthly session with room on the docket, so usually four to eight weeks from the day your jar arrives.

    Who sees my information?

    Panelists taste blind and never see your name. Published entries credit your apiary only if you ask us to.

    Can I send more than one?

    Yes, and please do — different sources, different years, different yards. Add each one to the same form.