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 Rata
Honey is produced predominantly
from the Southern Rata on the West coast of New Zealand's South
Island. While there are eight Rata species (Metrosideros sp.)
in New Zealand including some vines as well as trees, Southern
Rata (Metrosideros umbellata) is the main honey
source. The honey is very light in colour (5-25mm pfund
scale) and distinctively flavoured with an almost salty
taste. The pollen is triangular and typical of the Myrtaceae
(Myrtle) family which includes eucalypts, bottle brushes and
leptospermums (manuka).
Southern Rata flowers from early January to March. The lowland
trees start flowering first and the flowering then progresses
up to higher altitudes. In some areas it is possible to see
a distinct band of red cutting around the mountainsides, the
lower trees having finished flowering. The frequency of the
Rata flowering is sporadic, some saying it flowers well every
3 years and
spectacularly every 7 years. This is an approximation only as
it can flower well for 3 years in a row and not at all some
years making the honey supply intermittent. This irregularity
of supply is offset by Rata being one of the finest honeys in
the World, and when a good flowering coincides with with fine,
stable weather, it can produce a prolific crop of high quality.
"Fine weather" however is a commodity that is often
lacking on the South Island's West Coast. The "Coast"
has a very high rainfall with the Otira region averaging
over 300 inches (7.6 metres) of rain per year!
Rata honey is one of our fastest
crystallising honeys with a proportionally high glucose
content. This can present problems to the producers extracting
Rata honey. If they don't get it extracted and processed ready
for sale quickly, it sets hard and stays in the combs! Because
of this feature of Rata honey, it is impossible to present it
as a liquid honey without severe microfiltering and heat treatment.
Rather we utilize this characteristic to create one of our finest
creamed honeys.
Another peculiarity of Rata honey is the almost complete absence
of higher molecular sugars. While the initial number of analyses
showing this information is low, these have shown an almost
total absence of oligosaccharides. This is a feature that could
be used for floral source identification but generally the other
honey types associated with Rata honey are easy to separate.
These are typically Kamahi and Quintinea,
both of which flower earlier than Rata, have normally represented
pollen spectra and are darker in colour.
Rata has also been shown to be low in some natural
 enzymes,
particularly diastase and invertase. This is something that
is not unusual in plants that evolved in parts of the World
that were separated from honey bees.
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