What makes a honey fig a honey fig? Are they called honey figs because of pulp color, their flavor, or because they produce drops of honey in the fig's eye?

What are the flavor profiles seen in honey figs and what are some examples of these profiles? Are honey figs always considered to be just sugary sweet (not complex or figgy)?

Also, if you could only grow three honey figs based on taste...which ones would you choose? I'm hoping to choose my first honey type fig this year and have been strongly considering Smith, St. Anthony, and LSU Hollier. I won't lie, I'm not even certain if all three of these varieties are actually considered honey figs.

Will grow in a pot, zone 6B, Northwest AR (any advice or recommendations would be very much appreciated by this newbie!).

Honey figs sounded good to me also.  I'm just a bit South of you, down around Fort Smith. 

Honey figs are super sweet figs that usually have melon-like or some other lighter fruit tones.

They are contrasted to sugar figs, in that sugar figs have a stronger fruit or molasses note than honey.

And contrasted to berry figs, where these are with berry like notes, and doesn't tend to be especially sweet.

I would also suggest the LSU Gold, drips "honey" from the eye.  Hollier, one of the best figs when allowed to fully ripen.

I would not call Smith a honey fig, although it does drip honey from the eye. It is an Adriatic fig I think.

I got one "honey" type fig tree to bear fruit this season ( a Dominico's White Italian) -- It tasted, well, like Tupelo honey... wrote a little story about it. The flavor floored me -- It was better than i dared to even hope. Now, take this as a grain of salt as before this year my fig experience was limited to Brown Turkey (pretty good), Green Ischia (danged good) , and Celeste (danged good as well).

My experience with my first "honey fig" is documented in the link below:

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/an-apology-of-sorts-7027667?pid=1283877525#post1283877525

I have 2 Italian Honeys one of my favorites they bear fruit throughout the whole season definitely worth having one in your collection 

   

Hi Jenny and welcome to the forum!

To me, honey figs are those that taste like honey.  Here are some amazing tasting honey figs that I grow in NC.

Peter's Honey   -- one of my best tasting honey figs---very rich
LaGoccia d'Oro  --  strong honey flavored fig
Votata  --  flat out crazy good super sweet
Excel  -- another rich honey flavored sweet fig
Italian Honey, aka Latturula  -- has a soft sweet delicate honey flavor
Toni's Brown Italian  -- brown fig with a mild sweet honey flavor
Kadota  --  another super sweet honey fig

there are a couple more that I'm missing but I have to run and meet the wife for lunch!


again, welcome to the forum!

Is Alma considered a honey fig?

This is good info.  I have been looking for one last type of fig to add to my collection - a good honey fig.  But being in Florida, it needs to stand up to the rain and humidity.  I have heard about otherwise good tasting honey figs being washed out by the rain in Florida.

While talking to Joe Morle a few months ago, I told him that I was interested in figs with Honey Flavor and asked him to recommend me some fig varieties that he's growing and selling and this is what he recommended:

Italian Honey Fig
Black Triana
La Goccia D'Oro (Drop Of gold)
Votata Fig (AKA Golden Honey Fig)

Thanks everyone for the great responses!
Charlie - I heard on the radio that they are planting a fig orchard at Fort Chaffee to test which varieties do best in our state. You might be close enough to benefit from/check that out if you're interested!

shah8 - This is the first I've heard of sugar figs or molasses flavors in some figs. Do you grow any sugar fig varieties?

Good thread

Is a "Dwarf Honey Fig" just another name for a regular Honey Fig? The leaves have long skinny Fingers, no fruit yet, still young.  I don't remember where I got i?

New to fig4fun forum, wealth of information posted here. For the past three years I been doing well with a container grown brown turkey fig. Retired now and taking fig growing more seriously. I recently picked up an Italian Honey and like Dave live in Ct. zone 6b. Impressive pictures,Dave, of your Italian Honey. Are the in ground or in a container?

To me a honey type will literally have the flavor of a spoonful of honey when allowed to get fully ripe. From my humble experience they have tended to have amber to light colored flesh and lighter colored skins although this may not always be the case.

Honey dripping from the eye of a fig can occur under the right conditions and ripeness regardless of flavor. Some varieties do seem more prone to this trait than others in my yard.

Varieties that have exhibited a honey flavor for me include
Lemon
Troiano Calabrese
Italian honey

Are any of the LSU figs considered honey figs? If so, how do they compare in terms of flavor with your other honey fig varieties? Thanks so much!