It's true; there is a product called “mad honey.” It's a real honey too, and not something concocted in a lab as the name might suggest. The bees that pollinate rhododendron flowers in the remote mountainside towns of turkey produce this unusual variety. A lot of the honey comes from the Black Sea region during springtime, but it's also found elsewhere. Watch this fascinating video to see how the honey hunters of Nepal go about collecting their own brand of wild honey. Like the one in Turkey, this honey also has natural psychoactive properties.

My Notes:

This mad or magic honey is not as rare as it might sound, at least not in the regions where it comes from. Like most mind altering foods, beverages or substances, mad honey also has its advocates.  In Turkey, it is called deli bal by the locals. Inside the honey resides a powerful ingredient from the rhododendron nectar called grayanotoxin. This is a natural neurotoxin that is responsible for honey intoxication. Even a tiny amount can create a sensation of wooziness and even hallucinations in some cases. For some people, the honey can cause a severe poisonous reaction. It’s rare, but it's possible, so this is not a product to play around with.

Way back in the 1700's, the Black Sea region used to trade their valuable mad honey with Europe. It was sometimes infused with other alcoholic beverages to make them even more potent. What this meant was that drinkers could get higher, quicker, and by drinking less. Like most other toxins, mad honey also has its downsides; a potential to harm those taking it when consumed to excess. Here are some of those:

• Blurred vision
• Fainting
• Irregularities in heartbeat
• Low blood pressure
• Nausea
• Numbness
• Potent hallucinations
• Seizures
• Death (extreme cases)

There has been a scientific study into mad honey intoxication and how best to treat it. You can read an abstract from those findings here:

Mad honey intoxication: A systematic review on the 1199 cases.
Food Chem Toxicol. 2015 Dec;86:282-90. doi: 10.1016/j.fct.2015.10.018. Epub 2015 Nov 10.
Silici S, Atayoglu AT.

The local shopkeepers that sell the honey affectionately call it “Rose of the forest.”

Characteristics of mad honey:

• Taste: varies enormously depending which flowers the bees have visited
• Texture: also varies depending which flowers the bees have visited
• Color: dark reddish but can also vary

Health Benefits of Mad Honey

Despite its mind-altering properties, this is still honey. That means it will share many of the health benefit claims of other honeys. In fact, the variety from Nepal is unmatched in its medicinal value and contains extraordinary health benefits. Mind you, that's only the word of the tribes who gather it, so they probably would say this.

Summary

The most well-known variety of mad honey comes from Turkey's Black sea regions. There are other places in the world where locals gather magic honey, Nepal being one of them. It might sound like a lot of fun, a quick and easy high, but this is not a honey to play around with. It's possible to lose control of your senses at best, of even die at worst.