Country

Portugal

Portugal may have one of Europe's strongest protected-honey maps. The country's official traditional-products database contains a remarkable series of PDO honeys—from the dark heather honey of Serra da Lousã and the Barroso highlands to Montesinho, Alentejo, Ribatejo and the Azores. The differences aren't cosmetic. Serra da Lousã honey comes largely from heather with chestnut contribution and can be extremely dark. Barroso honey is also driven by heather, while the Azores can produce a completely different honey from Pittosporum undulatum, locally called incense. The Azores' multifloral version can include everything from chestnut and rosemary to banana, passionfruit, pineapple, avocado and guava. The bee tying much of mainland Portugal together is the Iberian honeybee, Apis mellifera iberiensis. Portugal therefore offers Atlas an extraordinary north-to-islands transect: mountain heath → Mediterranean vegetation → subtropical volcanic islands.