Name: Pitcairn Island Pure Honey
You can buy it here: On the Internet.
Country: Pitcairn Island. You can learn more about the island here. But here are a few interesting facts. Only 48 people live on the atoll, making it the least populated country in the world, even though it’s not really a country. It’s still a British protectorate.
Purchased: December, 2007
Color: Sauterne. The color of a rich, white desert wine.
Flavor: Tropical fruit salad with distinctive hints of mango, banana, apple, watermelon, and grape. It’s very light and refreshing.
Consistency: Syrup-like. Quite thin as honey goes.
Fragrance: Nothing distinctive.
Notes: Everybody knows the story of The Mutiny on the Bounty. English sailors, led by Fletcher Christian, rebeled against their brutal captain, William Bligh, in the South Pacific. Bligh was so determined to bring bread fruit plants back to England, that he was willing to sacrifice almost anything including his men to do so. Finally, his crew couldn’t take it anymore and mutinied.
The mutineers set Bligh adrift, destroyed their ship, the Bounty, and settled on Pitcairn Island. Bligh, in one of the great feats of naval history, survived, while most of the mutineers, including Christian, died on the island. I have simplified the story greatly. It’s much more complex and fascinating than this brief description. Even now there is much controversy about what really happened on the ship and island afterwards.
Hollywood has spun the story into a movie three times, 1935 with Clark Gable , 1962 with Marlon Brando , and 1984 with Mel Gibson. The first one, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture and had a big influence on me as a young boy, is the best, but other two also have merit. Brando was so taken with the South Pacific that he married the Tahitian actress who played his love interest in the film and bought a 12 island atoll which he held onto until his death. Numerous books have been written about the Bounty saga. The latest one, The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty has been highly praised.
Susie and I went to the South Pacific three years ago on a Prager cruise. We didn’t make it to Pitcairn Island (no cruise ships do that I know of), but the stops we made in Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa and Tahiti fulfilled a life-long ambition. The South Pacific has always been my personal definition of exotic and romantic. The moist breezes, the gorgeous sea foam green water, the bright tropical vegetation, and the baby powder beaches are, indeed, glories to behold. I could live there quite happily. Hey, with an high speed internet connection, we could do the show as well from Bora Bora as from Los Angeles. Unfortunately, Susie would go nuts. So, would Dennis.
One final note: it took a long time to get this honey. I ordered it in December and it arrived in April. I had almost forgotten about it when finally showed up on my door step. When it did, however, it provoked all kinds of memories and thoughts – memories about our South Pacific trip, thoughts about the Bounty, about Brando, even about the Clark Gable “Mutiny on the Bounty, one of my earliest film memories – exactly the reason I ordered it in the first place. I don’t know what kind of associations it will bring to your mind, but the honey itself, with its tropical fruit highlights, is its own reward. And, the 48 people who live on island could probably use the business.