I have just read about Mad Honey. Has anyone here tried it? In an article today the Guardian Newspaper reports that: Turkey’s Black Sea region was also for a long time a major centre for the production of hemp, which Kutluata says the bees enjoyed and which added depth and complexity to the local honey. So there's double the interest for me... It is no surprise that a substance powerful enough to take out 1,000 battle-hardened mercenaries of the Roman republic has been the subject of fascination for millennia. Stories cataloguing the delights and the dangers of deli bal, or Turkish “mad honey”, crop up throughout history. Apparently the stuff comes only from Turkey, where the bees eat from the rhododendron plants in the area. The locals make wooden bee hives and hang them high in the trees to keep them away from the local bears. Mad honey is still produced in small quantities by beekeepers in the Kaçkar mountains above the Black Sea, the only place in the world other than the foothills of the Himalayas where indigenous species of rhododendrons produce a potent neurotoxin called grayanotoxin. If bees feed on enough rhododendron nectar, the mud-red honey they produce has a sharp scent, bitter taste – and for human consumers, a potential high. Creating a buzz: Turkish beekeepers risk life and limb to make mad honey
from my understanding of a tad bit of chemistry/ this action seems to go along the lines of what chemicals used to kill insects do. Its overdose dont sound to pleasant ..
When younger I would enjoy visits to the neighboring island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. We'd go hiking about the cow pastures high on the mountiansides in the early mornings foraging for mushrooms. Those big golden colored broad flat top ones... we'd dry them a bit - chop them up - and fill a jar with them, then top it off with local honey. We'd take the jars home and enjoy mushroom honey infused teas. It was wonderful. The Mad Honey from Turkey sounds a bit more intense than that however.
That was an amazing video, a bit long, but good. Thanks for posting that. It ended at 4:20 pm local time
I like this Mad Honey (not to be confused w/ Mudhoney). It sounds very exotic, @ZenKarma ! Let us know how it turns out should you decide to acquire some!
Hi Nepal has mad honey too and really potent one but one has to risk his life to harvest it from the cliffs so they are bit costly as well. I have had tired and do try in every harvest from the rhododendron season which makes u high as eff and you should really give it a try as well but just do a teaspoon or two not more than that. You can find it here Mad Honey, If you want to know a bit more about the history and honey hunting.
I've tried it in the past and it felt kind off weird. I wasn't sure if it would be good for my heal I've tried it in the past and it felt kind off weird. I wasn't sure if it would be good for my health to use this. I have found some information about Mad Honey on Rhododendron honey 100% natural | RealMadHoney.com but is ther someone that can confirm to me wether it's bad for your health or not?
From Wikipedia: Consumption of the plant or any of its secondary products, including mad honey, can cause a rare poisonous reaction called grayanotoxin poisoning, mad honey disease, honey intoxication, or rhododendron poisoning. It is most frequently produced and consumed in regions of Turkey and Nepal as a recreational drug and traditional medicine. It is a NEUROTOXIN, do you really want to mess with that just to get high? I would not do that. Speaking as a wise old ancient mariner who has tried a thing or two in the past myself... but rhododendrons are poisonous. And so is the honey.
I have tried mad honey a few times, but I have the feeling that it's losing it's taste/effects due to the shipping. Does anyone have some advice where I can buy mad honey which does not have this problem
My memories of honey go back to my school days when we lived near to a honey farm owned by the school. In the spring, we were sent out on patrol to snip the blooms off all the hundreds of privet hedges in range of the bees and until we explained the reasons, people were chasing us out of their gardens. Just a few bees taking the pollen back to the hives would result in the whole honey crop tasting so foul that people would spit it out instantly, so he entire harvest from the infected hive had to be pumped down the drain, or kept until winter. This allowed us to harvest all he honey in the hives at the end of summer, then return the infected honey to keep the bees alive during the following winter. Clever mother nature was at work here, preserving the honey for the bees, by making it unpalpable for predators such as bears and rats. In London, it was just a pain to us.
