Yesterday I was in quite a hurry after the Honey Sommelier lesson. Just an hour later I had booked an event of one of the local city beekeepers in Zurich.
There was not much description to it other than honey journey. I took my mum as I thought it could be interesting for her and I also wanted to get the feedback of someone who is not involved in the whole topic.

The event was held in their shop that they had recently refurbished. Nice, natural colours, lots of wood and soft light.

Around 12 people gathered around two tables and listened to the owner giving a basic introduction into beekeeping and honey. For me it was nothing new but it was nice to see the other people’s reactions when they had a lightbulb moment and finally were able to connect the dot between two bits of semi knowledge that they had.

As a next task everyone got to melt some beeswax in a small jar on a Swiss Raclette oven and mix it with natural oils to produce either a lipbalm or a soothing balm against colds.
It was nice to see that also wax was being appreciated as a product, since it it so much effort for the bees to produce it.

Finally, there was a honey tasting part. We were given 4 small glasses each, a tasting wheel and a sheet of paper to note down the impressions. They said it they were local, mono floral honeys. It was super nice for me as I already could identify them just by the look at it without even opening the jars (there is a small variety of floral honeys in Switzerland).

People started getting into it, but having done the process myself in the previous course, I felt it was difficult for the participants to do that on their own without guidance.
I preferred the part where we got to taste more special honeys such as avocado honey from Mexico or buckwheat from Germany.

Overall a very nice experience with little new things for it definitely gave me a better understanding of how people without knowledge in this area approach the topic and what questions come up.