Marketing the Honey Crop 
323 
making up a blend, it is furthermore not desirable to use 
all water-white honeys, for at some time the supply of such 
honeys may be limited, and the consumer will not under¬ 
stand why honey of a certain brand has suddenly become 
darker. It must be remembered that the average consumer 
is ignorant of the facts that honey varies and that honeys 
from different sources are unlike in color and flavor and 
it is useless for one bottler to attempt to educate the entire 
community on these points in which the consumers have 
no interest. If he sells pure honey that has a good flavor 
and if he can duplicate it when desired no further informa¬ 
tion is asked by the average consumer. In making a blend 
it is a good plan to include some sage or tupelo honey as 
these granulate slowly and granulation injures the salability 
of bottled honey. An important consideration is the choice 
of honeys which can be obtained in quantity year after 
year. To bottle honey for the better markets, it is, there¬ 
fore, usually necessary to buy some from various sources 
and the beekeeper who retails honey on a considerable scale 
should not depend solely on his own apiaries to supply him. 
In fact, even an extensive series of out-apiaries will not 
go far toward supplying an energetic salesman. 
Argument for blending. 
In the preparation of this chapter the author consulted a 
beekeeper of experience and the preceding paragraph was 
criticized on the ground that the blending of honeys hides 
the characteristic flavor of honey from each source and, 
therefore, the flavor of a blend is usually inferior to that 
of some of the honeys that go to make it. To a connoisseur 
this is true, but a comparison with another commodity may 
serve to show that to the average palate this is not the case. 
The average purchaser of tea buys a certain brand of pack¬ 
age tea because he knows it is dependable and uniform. He 
does not know nor does he care what teas are mixed in this 
blend, but he may know enough about tea to know that an 
individual kind of tea varies and he does not like the varia- 
