{"id":72855,"date":"2026-07-30T14:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T06:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=72855"},"modified":"2026-07-30T14:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T06:36:12","slug":"bitter-earthy-herbal-why-wild-chinese-honey-has-chefs-buzzing-with-excitement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=72855","title":{"rendered":"Bitter, earthy, herbal: why wild Chinese honey has chefs buzzing with excitement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Thousands of bees buzz in a frenzy, throwing themselves at a man in a protective suit. Clinging to a rope ladder suspended over a cliff, the harvester struggles to balance with every reach towards the bees\u2019 hive.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Armed with a long-handled knife, he slices away the outer sections rich with ripe honey, leaving the centre and bottom intact so the larvae inside can survive to sustain the colony.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">\u201cBecause the ladder swings so much, cutting the comb and lowering it safely is a gruelling test that can drag on for hours,\u201d says Liu Kai, the founder of Honey On Road, a brand that sources speciality honeys from China\u2019s <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Yunnan province<\/span>.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">He first encountered cliff honey harvesting in a part of Yunnan near the China-Myanmar border in 2018. At the time, even most locals had no idea the perilous tradition existed. It was practised mostly unseen in the mountain forests.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-1vtntpq e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-bjn8wh e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Liu Kai is the founder of Honey On Road, a brand that sources speciality honeys from China\u2019s Yunnan province. Photo: Liu Kai\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/07\/28\/0d86c373-9506-4c90-95f9-c50b6557b4dc_c9120fd1.jpg\" title=\"Liu Kai is the founder of Honey On Road, a brand that sources speciality honeys from China\u2019s Yunnan province. Photo: Liu Kai\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1bj5zno e1gf69pb1\">Liu Kai is the founder of Honey On Road, a brand that sources speciality honeys from China\u2019s Yunnan province. Photo: Liu Kai<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Liu first arrived in Yunnan while working on rural revitalisation projects. His curiosity about cliff honey grew into an obsession, shaped by the province\u2019s geography, biodiversity and generations of knowledge.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">It took him five years and countless expeditions across Yunnan to feel like he was starting to understand Chinese honey. The more he travelled, the less honey resembled the cloying syrup he was used to buying from supermarkets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/food-drink\/article\/3362118\/bitter-earthy-herbal-why-wild-chinese-honey-has-chefs-buzzing-excitement?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thousands of bees buzz in a frenzy, throwing themselves at a man in a protective suit. Clinging to a rope ladder suspended over a cliff,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[23063,26214,9433,107,27424,3709,12230,4406,678],"class_list":["post-72855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-bitter","tag-buzzing","tag-chefs","tag-chinese","tag-earthy","tag-excitement","tag-herbal","tag-honey","tag-wild","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}