The honey produced on Crete is of very good quality. It is pure and doesn’t have foreign additives. The bees are fed mainly on thyme and other fine Cretan aromatic herbs and coniferous trees resulting in a honey that has a pleasant and subtle scent, a rich flavor and therapeutic qualities. It is eaten raw and is also used in pastry-making and cooking. If we eat a spoonfu; of honey first thing in the morning and then drink a glass of water it will activate our metabolism and is also beneficial for the stomach and nerves.
Researchers have noted that honey and the art of beekeeping arrived in Greece from ancient Egypt. Honey held an important place in people’s daily life not only as food stuff but also as a therapeutic substance.
In Homer’s Odyssey ‘Melikraton’ is mentioned, a coctail of honey and milk much appreciated as a superior drink. Honey often appears in plays and poems by Hesiod, Pindar, Euripides, Herodotus, Apollodorus and many more, not to mention later works by Byzantine monks.
In ancient daily life honey was used in the form of :
Milomelo, apples preserved in honey, all year round.
Melikrato, honey and milk for children.
Oxymelo, honey with vinegar to treat fever.
Hydromel, a liquer from the alcohol of fermented honey.
Oenomelo, honey with wine. Democritus is said to have lived to a ripe old age because he consumed oenomelo with bread.
Source: Chania guide