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There is such a huge variety of confectionery on the market these days: rich dark chocolates, smooth milky ones, soft and hard sweets, and so on. Bu honeycomb, with its familiar crunch and toffee sweetness, tends to make a place of its own on the crowded confectionery shelf. Not that honeycomb is unusual confectionery by any means – in fact it’s a national favourite. But with its intriguing texture and caramelised overtones, honeycomb stands out amongst the confectionery crowd in brands from the high-street Crunchie to the high-end luxury of Mighty Fine. How Honeycomb is Made Honeycomb, like its closest confectionery relatives, toffee and caramel, is made by cooking sugar. But what makes honeycomb so unique is what happens next. When the cooked sugar reaches a gooey consistency and turns brownish-orange, a rising agent like baking soda is added. The boiling, heated sugar then froths dramatically, adding air to the confectionery. This mixture is then poured out to cool. When the sugar hardens, the air bubbles are locked into the honeycomb, giving it its distinctive airy crunch. It is this network of bubbles and sugar, resembling the complex network of chambers within a beehive, that gives this somewhat visually unusual confectionery its name. It is also the introduction of air which makes the honeycomb lighter than sticky toffee or caramel, and therefore what makes it so deliciously moreish. Just Add Chocolate While honeycomb is delicious on its own, it is the indulgence of adding a chocolate coating which makes it irresistible. The delicate balance of flavours between the intense sweetness of the honeycomb and the rich, subtle sweetness of chocolate creates a truly inspired confectionery. Whether your preference is for the sweet milk chocolate used by the likes of Cadbury Crunchie or for the intense juxtaposition of bitter dark chocolate, like the Peruvian 65% cacao chocolate which thickly coats Mighty Fine products, you have to admit the flavours work divinely together. Confectionery for the Bees The name ‘honeycomb’ might be a misnomer, having actually nothing to do with bees or honey, but that hasn’t stopped the makers of Mighty Fine from doing their bit to give something back to the bees for their inspiration for the name of this unusual confectionery. Part of the sale price of every unit of Might Fine honeycomb is given to the Friends of the Honey Bee Campaign, the Beekeepers Association’s drive to create more bee-friendly environments across the UK. The Association is promoting the planting of pollen-rich plants in spaces around the country to improve the sustainability of bees, a cause which they believe will have a positive effect on wildlife and agriculture. Next time you’re making room amongst your stock of confectioneries for this unique, crispy sweet, you can not only imagine the satisfying crunch and how it’s made, but also think about the bees your next sale might save. Angelina Moufftard works for hf Chocolates, established chocolate suppliers with decades of experience supplying unusual confectionery and high-end chocolates to retailers across the UK. Working with the most dedicated suppliers from France, Spain, Germany, Holland, Belgium, the USA and the UK, hf Chocolates' great tasting and beautifully packaged products add panache to any sweet display.
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