Why buckwheat honey? Well, in my exploration of sotolon, I found that this compound is present in buckwheat honey.* I've never had buckwheat honey, but I have heard that it has a malty aroma, which I love, in addition to the maple syrup aroma, all adding up to a molasses-like flavor, which I also love, so I was eager to try it.
Why black teas? A major aroma component of buckwheat honey (along with sotolon) is beta-damascenone, which is characteristic of black teas. So I thought I would try the different teas I have to find out which one, if any, went best with buckwheat honey. The likelihood that I would find a delicious pairing was increased by the fact that other compounds in buckwheat honey, while not the same as those in black teas, activate the warm/hot receptors as do compounds in black tea.
After I scoured all the gourmet shops here in my hometown (granted there aren't more than a couple), no luck: buckwheat honey was nowhere to be found.
So I thought I would look into buckwheat and its honey to find out why. Discovered that the acreage devoted to growing buckwheat in the US has been dwindling steadily through the past century to the present, and with this decrease in production of buckwheat comes a decrease in the production of buckwheat honey.
Bee at a buckwheat flower.
Buckwheat (not a wheat at all, btw) is curious in that it likes to grow in places with very short and cool summers. In fact in some places it has been planted late in summer in order to shorten the effective growing season. It is also happiest with poor soil, without fertilizer.
At least two factors have, I believe, decreased the acreage planted in buckwheat here in the US. One is the development of artificial fertilizers, so land that was once only good for buckwheat can now be used for more fertilizer-needy crops such as true wheat, which is ultimately more desired by consumers and therefore more profitable. New York state, where I live, used to be a major producer of buckwheat, but no longer. The other factor is (and this is a guess of mine) the increase of overall global temperature—a plant that is finicky about short cool moist growing seasons isn't going to thrive at our latitudes as well as it did in the past.**
One other unfortunate phenomenon: buckwheat requires bees for pollination...and bees are struggling to survive, too. Species of bees other than honey bees seem to be able to carry out the pollination, but they don't make the honey...
So no buckwheat = no buckwheat honey. At least none that is easily available here in upstate New York.
Will have to keep looking.
* Qiaoxuan Zhou
** For a good article about buckwheat, see: https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/buckwheat.html
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