Hot honey. It is, they say, the hottest thing since, well, the last hot thing. Korean Gochujang? Or was it fermented hot sauce?
Anyway, it seems that this chilli-infused nectar is oozing its way into the nation’s shopping trolleys, piquing palates with its not-exactly-original combination of the sweet and spicy.
There have been nearly a million views of TikTok videos with the #hothoney hashtag, while Hilltop Honey has seen sales rocket by an eyewatering 1,049 per cent (compared with the same period last year) since its version hit the shelves in Tesco. It seems the whole country is going monster-mad for this, um, ‘swicy’ sensation.
As you might expect, the supermarkets (never exactly shy when it comes to rinsing a quick buck from any new food trend) have slathered the stuff over their forthcoming – and reliably underwhelming – Christmas ‘novelty’ ranges.
Asda promises a ‘pigs in blanket wreath with camembert and hot honey drizzle’, while Tesco wants to deck the tills with ‘nduja and pork wellington’ with, yup, you’ve guessed it, a ‘hot honey drizzle’.
Food critic Tom Parker Bowles trying JD’s Extra Hot Honey with as he shares his opinions on the spicy nectar
The Hot Honey phenomenon has taken over TikTok with the hashtag being used numerous times and Hilltop Honey sales rocketing by an eyewatering 1,049 per cent
Marks & Spencer has ‘hot honey pigs in blankets’ crisps. Of course, it does.
So is this just another half-baked social media-fuelled craze, destined to disappear into the back of the kitchen cupboard, sticky and unloved. Or might hot honey stick around for good.
Mixing the spicy and sweet is hardly a new idea. The Aztecs combined crushed cocoa nibs with cornmeal and chilli powder to create a brew called xocolatl, or ‘bitter water’.
It wouldn’t be too much of a push, though, to imagine this concoction being sweetened with honey.
The Mexicans also have endless mole sauces, some combining the rich, raisiny notes of dried ancho or mulato chillies with chocolate, as well as dried fruits, herbs and lard. The sugar in the chocolate soothes and softens the heat of the chilli.
One of my favourite snacks from Mexico, available on every street corner in the country, is fruit – mango or orange say – liberally sprinkled with a mix of chilli and salt.
Again, that salt-spice-sweet combination makes the taste buds punch the air in heady delight. The chilli and salt magnify the sweetness of the fruit. Just as the salt in salted caramel both tempers and flatters.
You’ll also find that chilli and fruit combination all over South-East Asia, too, while Thai food, in particular, uses sugar to tame the chilli’s primal roar.
‘I think people love the hot-sweet combination of flavours,’ says food writer and chef Ching-He Huang. ‘It’s very Chinese, and hot honey is easy to incorporate into dressings for dishes like Liang mian (or Taiwanese cold noodle salad), giving it gloss and body.’
Tom Parker Bowles holding JDs Original Hot Honey and Hot Honey Korean Style as he weighs up his favourite flavour
The food expert takes a big gulp of milk to counteract the heat of the Wilderbee Hot Honey Scotch Bonnet
As to the origins of hot honey, some say it was born in the south of Italy, where honey was infused with the region’s small, dried hot peppers. Sounds plausible enough, but its recent ascent to the culinary A-list has been traced back to Mike Kurtz.
He was studying in Brazil and visited a local pizzeria that had chilli-infused honey on the table. One taste and he was hooked. He returned home to the U.S., and started experimenting with various combinations.
In 2010, when working at Paulie Gee’s pizzeria in Brooklyn, New York, he brought in a few pots. The punters loved the stuff, and a capsaicin-laced phenomenon was born.
Unlike the spiraliser, say, producing its sullen courgette ‘spaghetti’, or those ever-ridiculous rainbow-unicorn cakes, hot honey is rather good. As ever, the end result relies on the quality of both honey and chilli. Use mass-produced rubbish and you’ll end up with a mediocre product.
But Wilderbee Scotch Bonnet Infused Hot Honey has a delicate, floral sweetness (the company uses good English honey in its recipe), with a fruity, quietly ferocious chilli heat. It works well on fried chicken, burnished sausages and makes a good dressing and marinade ingredient. As well as a fine hot toddy.
But a little goes a long way. Treat it like honey, rather than chilli sauce. J.D.’s Jalapeno Infused Hot Honey is respectable, although the quality of the honey is a step down from Wilderbee.
Pizza, though, is a whole different matter. Yes, I know, in all the best pizza places across the land, it’s used like sticky holy water. You’ll find it at Pizza Pilgrims, and Hammersmith’s legendary Crisp Pizza, as well as Margate’s excellent Palm’s. And Pizza Express. Obviously.
The Wilderbee collection includes a wide range of flavours including Xtra Hot Honey infused with Habanero and Sochujano Hot Honey Korean Style
But I’m a pizza purist. While chilli oil is essential, I draw the line at chilli honey. As Jason Atherton, one of the country’s finest chefs, and the man behind Mary’s and Sael restaurants in London, points out: ‘There’s definitely a place for hot honey, but on pizza? No chance. But hey, we have lived for decades with ham and pineapple . . .’
He has a point. But what do I know? Each to their own and all that. It sure beats sweetcorn.
As to the future?
‘In my opinion, hot honey will become more premium,’ says Simon Carlo, the brilliant Brummie food blogger and a judge at the highly respected Great Taste Awards. ‘We had three brands that won two stars, and three that got one star. The honey movement is huge, and it plays a big part in that trend.’
While the current blaze will soon die down, it looks like hot honey will sweetly smoulder on.
