Giant Eagle U.S. Grade A Clover Honey Review

[Emmy] purchased a 40-ounce bottle of  Giant Eagle U.S. Grade A Clover Honey  for her buckwheat pancakes, teas, and cereal, to see how its unique honey flavor tasted. We tried it in our Arrowhead Mills pancakes yesterday.

Giant Eagle grade A honey, is sold at Giant Eagle grocery stores, and has 60 calories per tablespoon, as do most honeys.   It tastes just as sweet as agave nectar and maple syrup.

However, I’d suggest that you not use any honey including this one, in place of these sweeteners, as its flavor interacts differently with the foods. Thus, the resulting flavors may not be what you intended.

This Giant Eagle product is a pleasing substitute for sugar and corn syrup-based syrup products, as it provides the unique natural honey flavor that makes real honey  very much worth the little extra expense over the man-made varieties artificially-flavored corn syrups.

 

Features, Benefits, Pros, and Advantages

  • This Giant Eagle honey dissolves thoroughly, though not so quickly as I would expect in hot drinks. It demands more effort to dissolve than agave nectar or maple syrup; especially in cold drinks.  You ust stir it a lot.  However, I can reduce this effort by heating the honey in the microwave for ten to twenty seconds, which softens it sufficiently to make dissolving it in beverages easier.
  • This version of grade A honey requires just one stirring, as once dissolved, it remains suspended in liquids and batters.
  • It strikes my palate as a moderate-strength honey flavor, and has a strong and easily identified honey aroma.
  • Giant Eagle clover honey is clear and medium amber in color; a smidge lighter than pure maple syrup, and darker than the light varieties of agave nectar. So it can darken the shades of drinks, ice creams, and other foods to which you add it.  Thus, be careful of how much you put in if food appearance concerns you.
  • A honey lover since I initially learned of this bee-produced product over three decades ago, I’m thrilled that products from Giant Eagle like this all-natural honey have entered widespread distribution here in North America.
  • I’ve never experienced any indigestion or other stomach problems from this great-tasting honey.
  • The 40-ounce bottle has a squeeze-out spout dispenser that further eases application to foods and drinks.
  • This hone indeed has a very thick texture in the mouth.  When it’s cooler, you can almost chew it!
  • To my sense of taste, this honey is of no less quality than name brands such as Sue Bee, BeeMaid, et al.
  • This grade A honey is still just as sweet as most other honeys.
  • When people discuss the classic taste of honey waffles and in teas, they could rightly be speaking of Giant Eagle clover honey indeed.

 

Disadvantages, Cons, Problems, and Concerns

  • Once upon a time can find Giant Eagle brand products exclusively at Giant Eagle grocery stores.  However, the appear to no longer be selling this store brand product.  Cannot find it on their web site currently.
  • They package this honey product in a flexible plastic bottle; no doubt to allow squeezing of the bottle to force out the thick honey contents.  Plus, plastic packaging weighs significantly less than glass, and so, reduces the overall cost of the product. However, I nonetheless prefer glass bottles for all honey and syrup products, to minimize leeching of the plastic compounds into the contents, thereby altering the flavor of the food.  This leeching can increase when you heat the honey in the microwave oven.  So I’ll take glass, and not mind paying more for it, and incurring the inconvenience of having to use my microwave oven to thin the honey in order to easily remove it from the flask.
  • To sweeten my tea enough, I require three or four tablespoons of most any honey product including this one.  This differs from the liquid stevia products I also use, that sweeten well with far less than one tablespoon. This can fatten the cost of honey as a tea sweetener and add lots of calories as well. However, this is true of all honey products I’ve tried; not just this one.
  • If spilled, any honey can lure in bugs, just as spilled sugar or syrup might. Like you would with sugar, take care during clean-up that you leave no sticky honey behind. Honey is simple to clean and water-soluble. So a wet dish cloth or paper towel effectively removes spills. The darkness of this honey makes it easy to see if spilled on counters and tables.  Fortunately though, since this honey is so thick compared to agave nectar and maple syrups, one usually has much time to pick up a tipped-over bottle before the contents spill out.

 

Product Rating

I’d recommend Giant Eagle U.S. Grade A Clover Honey.  Though honey is a refined carb, albeit refined by bees rather than man, it’s still highly concentrated nonetheless and affects the body in many ways that are quite like white sugar. So though it also includes some vitamins and minerals, I’d rate this product at just 80 out of 100.

 

Where To Buy Giant Eagle Clover Honey

Look for the clear plastic bottle with the blue label that is capped with a yellow lid at your favorite Giant Eagle food market.  No other stores carry this brand however than this regional grocery store.

But go easy on consuming this and any honey, because though honey may be healthier than sugar, it nonetheless still contains about as much sugar as agave nectar and maple syrup. Enjoying this product in moderation therefore, is likely the healthiest way to pleasure yourself with it. Still though, if you must consume calories to experience great honey flavor, then this pure honey is among the healthiest, most nutritious sources of sweetness per calorie available.

 

References

 

Revision History

  • 2015-01-28: Moved this post to the    Tom’s Diet Quest   blog, tweaked the content, and rearranged category and tag assignments.
  • 2014-12-01: Added whitespace, adjusted ad locations, and revised content.
  • 2012-04-16: Originally published.