Why Yemeni Sidr is not the same as other Sidr honey

Sidr honey is sold from Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and increasingly from anywhere with a Ziziphus tree and an export licence. The label is the same. The honey is not.

The trees are genuinely different plants

Sidr is a heterozygous outbreeder. In plain terms: it reproduces by seed, and every tree grown from seed is genetically distinct from its parents and from its neighbours. There is no standardised Sidr variety in the way there are standardised apple varieties.

That is not a marketing line — it comes out of the botanical literature on propagating the species, which had to develop laboratory cloning precisely because seed-grown trees vary so much.

Wild trees and irrigated trees are not the same

The biggest practical difference is water. In much of the region Sidr is cultivated with irrigation. In the Hadramout valleys it mostly is not — the trees grow on dry slopes and take what rain arrives.

A tree under water stress produces less nectar, and that nectar is more concentrated. Less honey, denser honey. It is the same principle wine growers describe when they talk about stressing a vine.

The beekeeping is nomadic

Because the trees are wild and scattered, hives have to be moved to wherever the bloom is that year, sometimes hundreds of kilometres. That is difficult, expensive work, and it is a large part of why Yemeni Sidr costs what it does.

How they differ in the jar

• —Yemeni Sidr is typically denser, with lower moisture and a longer finish.
• —Irrigated Sidr from other regions tends to be lighter, sweeter and thinner.
• —Yemeni Sidr carries more caramel and malt; the difference is noticeable side by side.

None of this makes Sidr honey from elsewhere bad. It makes it a different product sold under the same name, usually at a lower price, which is entirely fair as long as everyone is clear which one they are buying.