Homemade Honey Sticks
I’ve always been fascinated by honey sticks. I only ever see them when I go apple picking, or pumpkin picking, on the counter next to some country store’s register. Arranged like a colorful bouquet in a pencil cup, sealed tubes of honey dyed fall sweater yarn hues. Purple grape. Blue blueberry. Pink strawberry. Like psychedelic spiked honey. I don’t want to think what would have happened to Winnie the Pooh if he’d got his hands on some honey sticks.
But I love them, and I couldn’t do a month of honey without trying my own version. I love these for a fun party that includes kids—something fun and different for them. I buy organic honey, so it’s ostensibly healthier than some sugary snack. I fill drinking straws with honey and work in drops of excellent flavored extracts, letting the color of the straw tell the story of the flavor within. Blue for vanilla. Orange for orange. Pink for strawberry. Green for almond. Put them in a cherished yogurt pot, and let the sticky fun begin.
Excerpted from my weekly column The Secret Ingredient on Serious Eats.
INGREDIENTS
- Acacia honey
- Excellent quality different-flavored extracts, such as orange, lemon, almond, vanilla, peppermint, and strawberry
PROCEDURE
This is less of a recipe than a method. Press the bottom of the drinking straw so that two opposite sides of the straw meet. Tape to secure. Trip off the bendy top of the straw. Using honey in a squeezable plastic bottle makes this infinitely less difficult. Stick the open end of the straw inside the honey bottle, turn the bottle upside down, and gently fill the straw about 4/5 of the way up with honey. Use the pipette (or a steady hand) to add 4 or 5 drops of extract into the straw, and massage it a bit into the honey. Use different colored straws for different flavors, and make as many or as few as you want. One word of caution: don't make these too far in advance. One night out on the counter and the honey will seep through the tape on the bottom of the straws.
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If you pinch the end of the straw with plyers and use a lighter to melt the end, instead of taping it, they wouldn’t bleed through the tape and would last longer. You can even do the same at the other end after you fill the straw to make it portable!
That is genius. Thank you!
I LOVE honey straws too and plan on making some. Thanks for the recipe. But was wondering why not mix the extract in the honey before filling the straw?
Only because it was too hard to get the honey in afterwards!