C. Marina Marchese

Honey Sommelier

“Which is to say Marchese’s palate is so finely tuned that she can literally
taste the beekeeper’s fear in a smear of honey.”
~ Jason Wilson, The Washington Post

As the undisputed expert and queen bee of honey, C. Marina Marchese is a beekeeper, author and a member of the Italian National Register of Experts in the Sensory Analysis of Honey, where she received her formal training as a honey sensory expert.

Marina is the author of The Honey Connoisseur: Selecting, Tasting and Pairing Honey with a Guide to More than 30 Varietals (with Kim Flottum), Honey for Dummies (with Howland Blackiston) and her beekeeping memoir Honeybee Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper.

In 2011, Marina establish The American Honey Tasting Society as the leading resource for honey sensory education in the United States. An avid world traveler, Marina has had the unique opportunity to taste hundreds of new and old world honeys maintaining an impressive private library of honey samples.

A passionate and dynamic, sought-after speaker, Marina shares her knowledge in animated and inspiring presentations —leaving audiences with a fascinating view of the importance of honey bees to our food chain and the gastronomic delight of varietal honeys. A graduate of The School of Visual Arts, Marina combines a successful career in honey with her background in arts.

Marina coined the term ‘Honey Sommelier’ in her first book Honeybee Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper published in 2009.