Honeysuckle

Lonicera japonica · Edible flower

40 pairings

Honeysuckle is the sweetly scented, two-lipped tubular flower of woody vines and shrubs in the genus Lonicera (family Caprifoliaceae). Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) is the species most used in the kitchen — its nectar-rich blossoms, known in Chinese medicine as jin yin hua ("gold-silver flower"), are dried for teas and tisanes, infused into syrups and cooling drinks, and prized for the drop of sweet nectar at the base of each flower.

Picking a good onedrag

Just open, white and nectar-fullBrown and shrivelled, scent gone

Silver and goldThe spray carrying both colours, for tea, syrup and cooling drinks. The flower is the food and its drop of nectar is harmless; the black berries that follow are not food.Everyday best

Where it came fromA vine you know, never sprayed for looks

Colour of the flowersWhite and cream-gold on the same spray

The tube and its nectarTube soft but full, nectar still there to draw

Scent at the spraySweet and clear up close, stronger toward evening

What to look for, from just open, white and nectar-full to brown and shrivelled, scent gone.

Preparing