Initially, the name was quite a bit of a put off. Not exactly the name of a honey that I was looking forward to putting in my tea or on my toast.

Star Thistle is often referred to as a weed that's invasive. Once you get past this weedy knowledge you see the attractive beautiful Star Thistle plant. And when you get physically closer you realize there are prickly poky points all over the flower! Not as welcoming as you thought.

Now you are at odds with what you see at a distance, lovely in the knowledge of its aggressiveness, up close, and a personality that clearly can cause pain points. And then you see the honey the bees produce from this flower. Hard, firm, and solid. You are not going to be pouring this out of the jar.

And then you try it.

Easy to poke with a spoon and gentle on the tongue! Dissolves with the heat of your mouth and releases some perfect sweetness.

Just like I want a honey to be.

What a joy! Exactly what I have been looking for from an every day honey. That is, a honey that I can use with everything.

Not too invasive, not too full of a personality, just the right amount of sweetness to make my day better.

If we push aside that putting honey in hot tea potentially ruins all the so called good properties honey can impart on your health, and only look at it from a pure sweet perspective, Star Thistle is perfect.

This honey, like most of our honeys, raw and unfiltered, shares natural enzymes, nutrients, and unique flavor with you.

In the mouth the feel is a firm "bite", filled with the "honey taste" you want, or maybe you expect, and it has this wonderful hint, even a hit of honeycomb waxy taste without the waxy honeycomb chewy part.

It is a complex yet simple tasting honey. The honey lovers who know this honey impart extensive descriptors to it.

The plant Star Thistle is ancient, rooted in Mediterranean mythology, as an accidental immigrant to North America, ecologically controversial and the source of one of the most uniquely flavored honeys you can find. Being an "invasive pest" and "a treasure for bees" is what creates a wonderfully long lasting honey of a personality!

Enjoy this sweet plant, Star Thistle, that produces a beautiful honey while also being a notorious invader.

Whole cramelized onions are used as a garnish for roasted meats or birds, served with sauteed potatoes and a comforting red wine from a sunny place, a Chateauneuf-du-Pape, for example. The key to successfully caramalizing onions is to take your time. The end result, though, is amazing and a wonderful side, especially if you like sweet onions.

All pure, raw honey will crystallize eventually as it's actually a sign of quality and purity. It is worth noting that crystallization alone is not a guarantee of quality because while pure raw honey does crystallize naturally, adulterated honeys with added sugars can also crystallize.

Honey is a supersaturated sugar solution, meaning it contains more dissolved sugars than water can normally hold.

Over time, those sugars naturally want to return to a solid state. The key is the ratio of two main sugars: glucose, which has low water solubility and crystallizes readily, and fructose, which stays liquid and resists crystallization. The higher the glucose-to-fructose ratio, the faster a honey crystallizes.

Some honeys crystallize within days or weeks of leaving the hive.

Star thistle is famously quick to crystallize, which is why it's ideal for creamed honey. Rapeseed honey can solidify so fast it actually sets up inside the comb. Dandelion crystallizes very rapidly into a fine, almost buttery texture, while clover crystallizes relatively quickly into a smooth, spreadable consistency.

Other honeys resist crystallization almost indefinitely due to their very high fructose content. Tupelo, from the American South, is legendary for staying liquid thanks to its exceptionally high fructose ratio.

Acacia, also known as black locust, stays liquid for years and remains almost water-clear. Sage is very slow to crystallize, and sourwood is another Southern honey well known for remaining liquid.

The size of the crystals also varies considerably from honey to honey. Some, like canola, crystallize into a coarse, gritty texture, while others, like clover or star thistle, form very fine, creamy crystals. This is precisely why star thistle is so beloved for making creamed honey (also called whipped or spun honey) where crystallization is deliberately controlled to create a smooth, spreadable product.

Crystallized honey is completely normal and hasn't gone bad, it's simply in its natural solid state. You can always gently warm it to return it to liquid form.

This delicious dessert is one of the most popular on the Yucatecan menu. The Chef equates it to the fruit and cheese course of a French meal; papaya is cooked in a sugar and honey syrup, then served with bits of Edam cheese. While is may sound strange, Edam is the cheese of choice in Yucatan. It's heritage there goes back to the Dutch sailors (and pirates) who scouted the coats of the peninsula for about 200 years during the powerful rule of the Dutch West India Company.

Its multilayered flavor makes it extremely flexible, and is often the primary flavoring in both sweet and savory foods.

To call it an amalgam of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and pepper, begins to describe its nature; it also has hints of burnt citrus peel, chlorophyll and wood.

When dry roasted and ground, it is a good addition to sausages, veal and game. It is very friendly with root starches like parsnips, rutabaga, taro and yams.

Allspice can be peppered conservatively through polenta, couscous and bulgur for an unusual taste. European use of allspice is often in mulled drinks, baked goods, relishes and pickles. Indian and African use of allspice incorporates it into spice mixtures to provide an underlying warmth.

Used whole, Jamaican pimento allspice is a traditional ingredient in pickling spices and broth infusions.

Jean Galton's positively addictive Sugar & Spice Pecans are made with an exotic blend of flavors, including Ceylon Cinnamon.

This crushed black molasses sugar is perhaps the most lovely sugar in the world available today.

This sugar is from the southernmost island in the chain of over 150 islands in Okinawa Prefecture, south of the mainland of Japan. Hateruma Island is, as a crow flies, 2,006 kilometers (1,246 miles) south of Tokyo and 247 kilometers (153 miles) to the east of Taipei.

This small island is just 1,270 hectares (3,138 acres), or 4.9 square miles. In comparison, Orcas Island is 11.69 times larger. The only way to get to the island is via a 60-minute fast boat. If the seas are too rough you can take the cargo ferry, leaving at 9, taking 2.5 hours.

The island is a destination for holiday makers and is known for its relaxing island life.

It is also here that this very special molasses brown sugar is from. Unlike many brown sugars (made with white sugar mixed with molasses), Kokuto (rich black sugar) is made by slowly cooking and reducing the sugarcane juice.

Sugarcane is one of the healthiest foods you can eat. Antioxidant rich, it is a fighter of infections and helps strengthen your immune system. It is rich in calcium, iron, potassium, vitamins B1 & B2 and essential amino acids.

Potassium helps excrete excess sodium and keeps the blood pressure balanced. Calcium is known for preventing high blood pressure, arterial sclerosis, and keeping you calm.

Kokuto molasses brown sugar can help with dehydration, infections, and can even help fight a fever. Keep in mind that processed white sugar cane is not the same and can have the opposite health effects.

Kokuto dates back to the 17th century and now is a protected process by the Okinawa Prefecture Brown Sugar Industry Council ensuring the quality and traditional production methods are used. Just seven of the islands grow sugar cane.

To taste Kokuto is nothing like a spoonful of sugar or a cube of table sugar. To taste Kokuto is like an awakening! It is not sweet like you expect sugar to be. It is almost savory, with hints of molasses, earthy tones, and even a rich subtle touch of tobacco on the top of the edge of the back of the tongue. It is full of complexities with many flavor hits and hints.

It is most often used for savory dishes like noodle soups, stir-fry, hot pots and sushi rice. And of course straight up, like a health pill of sugar.

How great is this? Pop some sugar and get healthy!

What's Happening in the Store

Did you know the store often has more?

Come, taste and check it out! Pick your favorite and meet friends new and old who all love food. We love it when you hang out!

Happy April 2026!
Monday thru Saturday: 10am-5pm
ChefShop Retail Shop, 1425 Elliott Ave West, Seattle

Also better known as Kecap Manis (soy sauce sweet), this Ketjap Medja is imported from Indonesia via Holland (the Dutch occupied Indonesia from 1602 to 1949) and is sweetened with a syrup of palm sugar.

Thick, like dark amber, late harvest grade B or C maple syrup, this is very dark in color.

To the nose, it smells like soy sauce, less bitter, and though you can smell sweet, it doesn't smell sweet. Perhaps it does not smell refreshing or appealing. Quite frankly, it smells nothing like the taste.

To the mouth, you can take a spoonful without the fear of a salty bomb that soy sauce might instill upon you.

It is smoky, sweet, and finishes with this weird salty edge, like a candy of a Chinese preserved plum. And like the smell, the taste is hard to describe.

There is no pucker-producing bite to this quite delicious treat. This is the best secret ingredient when making a marinade for a flank steak. Drizzle it into fresh carrot soup. On its own, it leans sweet, with the salty undertones enhancing the flavor and less adding a pronounced salt.

Pairing it along with soy sauce, fish sauce, and/or sesame oil is my favorite way. A recent use has been to lightly fry tofu in ghee, and then finish with Ketjap Medja, Shoyu, and a touch of Black Garlic Molasses, along with a healthy sprinkle of sesame seeds on top of rice.

This dark sweet soy sauce is one of the few essential pantry items I do not like to be without!

You can use this sauce like an asian BBQ sauce, a marinade, and you can also use it as a sweet condiment for rice and non-grilled meats.

Malloreddus Pasta with Saffron Malloreddus is a small pasta shape from Sardinia, made with water and semolina flour in plain or saffron dough. The name has Latin origins from "malleoulus" meaning small morsel. It is also believed the origins of the name come from the word malloru, meaning bull, and that malloreddus means calves, and the shape is like the calf of a leg.

No matter, this saffron-infused pasta is traditionally handmade in homes by taking small rolled dough in 15 cm pieces and pressing and rolling it against the bottom of a wicker basket. This method gives the exterior ribbed look while being pressed by the thumb and as it is pressed it is rolled into its shape.

This shape is sometimes referred to as "gnocchi" in Italian and "cigiones" in Sassari. There are many robust yet simple dishes you can make with this shape.

Think olive oil, bacon, peas, Parmigiano-Reggiano, fennel, sausage, tomatoes, garlic, basil, saffron, etc. Any of these ingredients can make a wonderful dish!

With a little bounce in the bite, a space to hold flavor and an exterior that grabs the sauce, what more could you want in a pasta shape? And one with a history full of tradition!

This is an adaption of Marcella's "Butter and Parmisan Cheese Sauce" by adding fresh sage. Marcella would make this dish in a well warmed mixing bowl. We suggest making it in a sauce pan.

This exceptional Winter Parmigiano Reggiano is aged over 36 months and comes from a traditional mountain cheese house near a small village in the Apennine Mountains, where the milk comes from 15 local dairies within 30 kilometers. The herd is a mix of Bruna Alpina, Frisona, Vacche Rossa, and Montbeliarde breeds, with cows living an average of 8-10 years—a sign they aren't pushed for maximum production, which reflects positively in the final cheese.

Winter cheese is produced when cows are fed a higher concentration of dry hay, often resulting in a lighter color and creamier feel than Parmigiano-Reggiano created in Spring (graze on mountain flowers) and Summer (graze on grasses) seasons. All the seasons have a different flavor and feel. When Parmigiano-Reggiano is aged over 36 months, it is pretty darn special with additional prominent crunchy tyrosine crystals.

Parmigiano-Reggiano contains roughly 1,200 mg of free glutamate per 100g, making it one of the single highest natural sources of glutamate of any food and far exceeding soy sauce (~800 mg/100g), anchovies, or tomato paste. This is why a small amount of Parmigiano-Reggiano can dramatically intensify the savoriness of an entire dish.

Does Aging Dramatically Increases Glutamate?

The short answer is: more aging = more free glutamate.

Here's why:

During aging, proteolysis occurs as enzymes break down the large casein proteins in the cheese into smaller peptides and then into free amino acids, including glutamate. The longer the cheese ages, the more protein is broken down, and the more free glutamate is released.

What Happens at Each Stage

Fresh / Under 12 months
- Mild, milky, slightly tangy
- Protein breakdown is just beginning
- Paste is still relatively soft and moist
- Lower free glutamate


At 18 Months (Giovane / Young)
- Flavor becomes noticeably more complex and savory
- Texture firms up considerably
- Small white specks (tyrosine crystals) may begin forming
- Umami is present but still relatively mild
- Good for melting and everyday cooking


At 24 Months (Vecchio / Old)
- This is the minimum age for most commercially exported Parmigiano-Reggiano
- Proteolysis is well advanced as free glutamate levels are substantially elevated
- The tyrosine crystals are clearly visible and crunchy which is a sign of deep protein breakdown
- Flavor is rich, nutty, fruity, and deeply savory
- Texture is grainy and crumbly
- The rind becomes very hard


At 36 Months (Stravecchio / Extra vecchio)
- Free glutamate is at its peak—the umami punch is intense
- Tyrosine crystals are abundant and large
- Flavor develops sharper, more complex notes and is sometimes described as caramel, pineapple, or even slight spice
- Texture is very dry, granular, and almost flaky
- Less ideal for melting; best eaten in shards on its own


The Tyrosine Crystals

Those white crunchy bits are often mistaken for bits of salt, but they're actually tyrosine amino acid crystals which are a direct byproduct of the same proteolysis that liberates glutamate. Their presence and size are a reliable visual indicator of how deeply aged and amino-acid-rich the cheese is.

Aging Parmigiano-Reggiano is a slow, controlled process of converting protein into flavor, and glutamate is the primary molecule responsible for that transformation. Umami.

A fabulous recipe from The Seasons of Parmigiano-Reggiano by Nancy Radke. A great way to use some of your winter Parmigiano-Reggiano....

This makes a stunning appetizer or cheese course centerpiece, served alongside crusty bread, crackers, or cured meats—letting the bold, crystalline character of a well-aged Parmigiano-Reggiano truly shine.

If anything can turn straw into gold, it would be Koji. I suspect that those who say Koji is not magic don't believe in magic, even when they see it right before their very eyes. For some things in life, explanations are only there to take the fear away from that which cannot be explained.

Koji was crafted 9,000 years ago, most likely under another name, in an earthen jar in China, and it has been a staple of food alchemy ever since. Just not so much here, at least not until recently.

To many, it is the newest food rage. In fact, it is not a food but a tool that harbors amazing little workers who can transform and change how and what we eat in ways that would never seem possible.

There is a lot of science in Koji. Papers have been written about the subject. Some are "dry," long-winded, and some so crusty they seem fermented themselves.

Koji, a key ingredient in miso, is made by inoculating steamed rice with spores of the mold Aspergillus oryzae, then incubating it for about 45 hours until each kernel is covered in fragrant white mold, before being dried to preserve it. The mold produces enzymes that break down proteins, carbohydrates, and oils into amino acids, sugars, and lipids, making them more digestible or available for further processes like fermenting sugars into alcohol, as in sake.

Firm Granular Rice Koji is never eaten raw, it is always part of a larger process, whether that's being cooked (as when miso is used as an ingredient) or fermented further into sake, rice wine vinegar, or miso. While a common tool in Japanese and high-end restaurants, koji is always a means to an end, not a finished product.

This Deep Dark Dutch-processed dark unsweetened cocoa powder is in a class unto itself. We have removed less fat from our cocoa (22-24% fat content), which results in a more intense and immediate chocolate flavor.

This "service pack" of ChefShop cocoa powder is designed for commercial users like baristas, bakers, and gelato makers. It is sealed in a thick zip-lock style bag for production baking with a Plain Jane label.

Price relative to quantity is also a crucial part of the commercial kitchen — quality and consistency relative to cost. The resealable bag keeps the cocoa powder fresh for a good long time.