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Bore Honey | Local Honey From Guji, Ethiopia | TasteAtlas

Bore honey

The district of Bore is located in the Ethiopian Guji highlands, home to the eponymous indigenous community. Apart from honey, which is used as a food, a medicine, and an ingredient used to prepare beverages such as mead (locally known as boka), the indigenous people also farm cattle and grow grains and legumes.


The honey is produced by bees during the rainy season which lasts around 7 months each year, resulting in lots of flowers. The bees make two types of honey in their traditional hives called gagura – white honey and dark, amber-colored honey.


Gagura hives are long cylinders hanging from tree branches, made with a combination of straw, bamboo, banana leaves, and vines. The honey is collected only once a year, in the middle of the night between April and May. People climb the trees and smoke out the hives, then collect both types of honey with sticks.  Read more

The white honey comes from gatame (Schefflera abyssinica) flowers, and most of it is sold locally in Bore. It has a buttery, creamy, and melting texture, while the flavor is sweet and vegetal with a spicy finish. The dark honey, on the other hand, is sometimes crystallized and comes from several different flowers such as African Prune, Vernonia amydalina, and Hagenia abyssinica.


In the region, bore honey is traditionally offered to guests and friends at festive events, and it is often served with traditional foods such as toasted barley grains, curdled milk with barley flour, and barley flour with butter. In recent years, the number of honey producers has fallen, and around 50 beekeepers are no longer active.


There is also the problem of habitat loss and deforestation which negatively affects the production area.