My observation of the state of honey in Singapore:

Here in Singapore (where I live, a small, modern and prosperous island-city-state in Southeast Asia, located at the tip of the Malaysian Peninsula), most people know very little about honey and its benefits. Honey is primarily used to marinate grilled meats and mixed with water to make an ice cold honey drink that soothes the throat or quenches thirst, a popular drink in our hot climate that is supposed to reduce “heat in the body” . It is also occasionally eaten as a sauce for breakfast pancakes and added as a sweetener to herbal teas and fruit juices. Not many know much about the goodness of honey in Singapore, its relevance to the health of women, the elderly and children, or how it can be used in your diet or cooking. The average household knows that honey costs much more than table sugar, but has no idea how much additional value they could gain if they and their families ate honey instead of table sugar. Applying honey on toast or bread like Westerners do is a strange and strange thing for most of the locals. And how foreigners pour honey straight from the jar and sprinkle it on fruits, pancakes and waffles, how they use honey as a natural sweetener instead of sugar in hot drinks and desserts like puddings are not common knowledge or practice here.

The general interest and level of awareness of honey in Singapore is low. I think a lot of people here don’t know how honey is actually produced. Yes, from honey bees, but that’s all they know, nothing more. Many have no idea about the different floral varieties of honey and have no idea how they can be used in ingenious and creative ways in the kitchen. People’s impression of honey in Singapore is pretty standard, basically sweet and nothing more. I can understand why. Most people here are only familiar with the mass-produced honey on supermarket shelves, a homogeneous mixture that makes every jar look the same and taste the same bland, unexciting conventional taste. Many don’t know that there is so much more to honey, that the honey from each bee colony is really a snapshot of that landscape, the flowers and crops that flourish there, and that period of time. They don’t know how much they are missing when it comes to honey and its different flavors, profiles and facades. Attitudes towards light and dark honey are probably like decades ago, where people viewed all wine as basically red or white.

Also, it seems to me that people here don’t really know what honey to look for, what brand, and what is considered good quality honey. Some of the youngsters may consider and take and enjoy a stick of honey from the store, but they don’t know anything about its nutritional value. There is not a single honey bee farm or beekeeping activity in Singapore, and it goes without saying that there are no local beekeeping associations where beekeepers share information with the public. I am not aware of any efforts to recruit honey manufacturers to promote and talk about the health benefits and taste of honey in Singapore. And I have never seen a cooking demonstration in a store using honey nor do I know of any honey tasting events. The teachers in the schools here also do not make any attempt to educate and explain to your children in detail how honey is produced. Children grow up innocently thinking that honey simply comes from jars or bottles in supermarkets or grocery stores.

However, we see a stronger trend with natural foods and remedies and a revisiting of ancient times when honey was used as a folk remedy for ailments such as cuts and scrapes, laxative, and balm for coughs and sore throats, among others. stuff. , and most recently on the Hibernation Diet, I hope that the general public here in the coming years will show more curiosity and interest in honey.