Kashmiri Acacia Honey Raw kikar (acacia) honey from our forests at Wastarwan and Ramban

Kikar is what Kashmir calls Robinia pseudoacacia (false acacia, black locust): the white-flowered tree that lines the valley’s roads and hillsides, its most abundant deciduous tree, flowering in April–May. It is the same tree behind Europe’s acacia honey, and Kashmir’s own acacia honey has been measured at 54–60% kikar pollen. In the plains the same word, and babool, name a different, yellow-flowered thorn tree (Vachellia nilotica (babool)) that does not grow at the valley’s altitude, which is why kikar honey, babool honey and acacia honey get used for each other on labels. On our jar it means one thing: honey from the kikar bloom of our own forests. “White honey” is a description of its pale colour, not a grade.

Wastarwan (also spelt Wasturwan and Wasterwan) is the forested range between Pampore, Tral and Awantipora in Pulwama district, in the Kashmir valley: kikar on its lower slopes, kail pine, ash, maple and birch above, and rolling meadows on top where Gujjar and Bakerwal families graze their herds in summer. The old hunting ground of Shikargah sits at its foot on the Tral side, 2,130 m up. Our hives stand in its kikar in April and May; our saffron fields are on the Pampore karewas below it, so the honey and the saffron come from the same corner of the valley.

Ramban is a district of Jammu and Kashmir in the Chenab valley, on the Jammu–Srinagar national highway roughly midway between the two cities, about 150 km from each. It is lower and warmer than the Kashmir valley, nearly three-fifths forest, and a honey district in its own right: the second-largest producer in Jammu and Kashmir in 2023–24, with a GI tag on its white sulai honey. The kikar on its slopes gives our second forest. The Ramban frames are handled exactly like the Wastarwan ones: uncapped, spun, coarse-sieved and settled, never heated, and the honey goes into the same 500 g jar. Ours is kikar honey, not the GI-tagged sulai.

Jammu and Kashmir produced 17,701 quintals of honey in 2023–24; Anantnag led with 4,029, Ramban was second with 3,655, and Pulwama, our valley district, third with 1,431. The union territory counted about 2.27 lakh bee colonies and 4,819 active beekeepers in 2024–25, and it now sits among India’s top ten honey producers. In the valley nearly every beekeeper works the spring kikar flow, and most of Kashmir’s honey comes from it; an unseasonal April rain can take most of a year’s crop. Our two forests sit in the second and third of those districts.

Raw means unpasteurised. The capped frames are uncapped with a knife, spun in a hand-cranked extractor, passed through a coarse sieve that takes out flecks of wax and leaves the pollen and aroma, settled for a few days so the foam rises, and bottled from the tap. Nothing is heated above the temperature of the hive, nothing is fine-filtered, and nothing is added: no sugar, no syrup, no colour, no flavouring and no saffron. Commercial honey is warmed so it stays liquid and pours fast on a filling line; that heat takes the aroma and the enzymes with it, which is the difference you taste.

Pale gold, almost clear in the jar; mild, clean and floral, with none of the caramel weight of darker honeys. Honey is mostly fructose and glucose, and it sets when the glucose crystallises; acacia-type honeys carry more fructose than glucose, so they stay liquid for months where a mustard honey sets in weeks. If a jar does set, stand it sealed in warm water for fifteen to twenty minutes. Never microwave it. Setting is normal; it is not spoiling and not a sign of syrup.

A teaspoon in warm — not boiling — milk, tea, kahwa or water with lemon; over curd with walnuts; on warm bread or toast; in place of sugar wherever the honey should be tasted. Keep it away from boiling heat. Store the jar sealed at room temperature, out of sunlight, with a dry spoon every time, and not in the fridge, which speeds setting. Honey keeps for a very long time; use it within the best-before date on the jar. A 500 g jar is about 70 teaspoons.

One size: a 500 g jar at ₹450, which is a ₹900 a kilo rate; two jars make a kilo. Blended table honey sells for roughly ₹300–500 a kilo; raw single-bloom honey costs more because it comes from one bloom in one season and is not pooled or standardised. Free delivery on orders of ₹3,000 and above; below that, prepaid delivery is a flat fee and cash on delivery carries its own. Pair it with our saffron honey or our walnut kernels; larger quantities by bulk enquiry.

USDA FoodData Central 169640 — honey: typical values for honey, not a laboratory test of our batch. A level teaspoon is about 7 g and USDA’s tablespoon is 21 g.

The spoon-by-spoon table, honey against sugar, and the plain facts on honey and weight are in our honey calories guide.