Pine Honey substitute

Best substitute

Buckwheat Honey

Use the same amount as the pine honey you are replacing

Best for drizzling over thick yogurt, tahini or clotted cream

Close match

The best substitutes for pine honey are buckwheat honey or chestnut honey, used one for one, because both are dark, malty and low in obvious sweetness. Any jar labelled forest honey, honeydew honey or fir honey is essentially the same product under another name. Mild honey with a quarter teaspoon of molasses stirred in per tablespoon is the pantry fix.

Other pine honey substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Chestnut Honey
Close match
Use the same amount
The closest European match, dark and tannic with a distinct bitter edge.
What changes
Best for
serving with aged and blue cheeses, spooning over ricotta or kaymak, anywhere pine honey's bitterness matters
More openly bitter and astringent than pine honey and a touch thinner. That bitterness is a feature next to salty cheese and a problem stirred into tea, so match the use rather than the spoon count.
3Forest, Honeydew or Fir Honey
Close match
Use the same amount
The same category of honey sold under a different regional name.
What changes
Best for
any recipe calling for pine honey, European groceries where cam bali is not stocked, when you want no compromise at all
Look for jars labelled honeydew honey, forest honey, Tannenhonig or Waldhonig. These are all made from insect honeydew on conifers rather than from flowers, so they share the darkness, the low sweetness and the slow crystallisation. No adjustment needed.
4Mild Honey plus a Little Molasses
Different taste
Use 1 tbsp honey + ¼ tsp molasses for every tbsp of pine honey
The pantry build: takes ordinary clover or acacia honey somewhere darker.
What changes
Best for
baking and glazes, when the honey is going into a mixture rather than onto a plate, getting the colour right in a hurry
You get darkness, a mineral edge and roughly the right look. The aroma is caramel and treacle rather than pine resin, and the mixture is still noticeably sweeter than pine honey, so cut a little sugar elsewhere if the recipe is already sweet.
5Dark or Robust Maple Syrup
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount
Woody in its own way, and dark, but thinner and considerably sweeter.
What changes
Best for
pancakes, porridge and oatmeal, baking and marinades, vegan cooking
Because it is much runnier it slides off yogurt and toast instead of sitting in a glossy pool, and there is none of pine honey's tannic bitterness. Use the darkest grade you can find and expect a sweeter, more caramel result.
6Date Syrup or Grape Molasses (pekmez)
Different taste
Use the same amount
Dark, thick fruit syrups that behave much more like pine honey than a pale honey does.
What changes
Best for
the classic Turkish breakfast pairing with tahini, drizzling over yogurt and nuts, vegan alternatives
Both have the right body and the right low-key sweetness, and grape molasses in particular has a faintly mineral edge that reads as similar. The flavour is fruity and raisiny instead of resinous, and neither has honey's floral background at all.

What is Pine Honey?

Pine Honey is not a flower honey at all but a honeydew honey, made by bees from the sugary secretions insects leave on pine and fir trees, which is why cam bali from Turkey's Marmaris region is dark, thick, resinous and markedly less sweet than ordinary honey.

Cooking tips

Use it where you can actually taste it. Pine honey is a finishing honey, so it belongs over thick yogurt, kaymak, tahini, walnuts, ricotta or a sharp cheese rather than stirred into a batter where its aroma is wasted.
It is very thick and will stiffen in a cold cupboard. Stand the jar in a bowl of hot tap water to loosen it and keep it well under a simmer, since the aromatic compounds you paid for start to go once it gets properly hot.
Because honeydew honeys are less sweet than flower honeys, a spoonful will not sweeten tea or coffee the way clover honey does. Expect to use noticeably more if sweetness is the goal.
Pair it with something salty or tannic. Feta, aged kasar, walnuts and strong coffee all give its slight bitterness something to push against, whereas adding it to an already sweet dessert just muddies things.
If you substitute pine honey into a recipe written for ordinary honey, expect a slightly paler bake and a marginally drier crumb, because honeydew honeys have less of the simple sugars that brown and hold moisture. Do not read the pale colour as underbaked.
As with every honey, do not give it to a child under twelve months old. That is standard food safety advice for all honey, raw or pasteurised, and it applies to pine honey too.

Frequently asked questions

Is pine honey made from pine sap?

No. It is made from honeydew, the sugary liquid that certain scale insects excrete after feeding on pine and fir trees. Bees collect that instead of nectar, which is why the honey is dark, resinous and much less sweet than a flower honey, and why it is classed as a honeydew honey rather than a floral one.

Can I use regular honey instead of pine honey?

In baking and cooking, yes, one for one, and nothing will go wrong. Where it is served as itself, ordinary pale honey is noticeably sweeter and much more floral, so the dish loses the dark, slightly bitter, resinous character that made the recipe ask for pine honey. Stirring in a quarter teaspoon of molasses per tablespoon closes some of that gap.

Why does my pine honey not taste very sweet?

That is what it is supposed to taste like. Honeydew honeys contain less fructose and glucose and more complex sugars than flower honeys, so they read as dark and malty rather than sugary. It is not spoiled or diluted, and the same chemistry is why it stays runny and takes far longer to crystallise than clover honey.

Can I just leave it out?

If it is a drizzle over yogurt or cheese, then leaving it out simply means eating the yogurt plain, and any dark honey or a spoon of date syrup does the job instead. If it is providing sweetness and liquid in a bake, you cannot skip it without a replacement, since removing a wet sweetener changes the batter; swap in an equal volume of another honey or dark syrup.

What is the difference between pine honey and Greek pine honey?

Nothing meaningful. Greek pefko and Turkish cam bali come from the same insect and largely the same pine forests around the Aegean, and both are dark honeydew honeys. Fir honey from central Europe is the same idea from a different conifer, and all three are interchangeable one for one.

Related substitutes

More sweeteners substitutes

Pine Honey substitute

Other pine honey substitutes

2Chestnut Honey

3Forest, Honeydew or Fir Honey

4Mild Honey plus a Little Molasses

5Dark or Robust Maple Syrup

6Date Syrup or Grape Molasses (pekmez)