蜜
Swarm Classics
Hive inspired recipes
for you
The Sweetest Scoop
for you
Happy birthday.
You've been talking about getting a Ninja クリーミー(ニ) for months. Naturally, the closest thing to a Creami we could actually use here turned out to be another slightly cooked Japanese appliance. So finally, you can make all the high-protein ice cream you want, which is what matters. And without burning your house down.
The honey is really the main present. I hand picked six types, with the journey starting from Britain and ending in Japan. From floral, citrusy and aromatic to dark and malty, landing finally at a special wild honey made by the untameable native Japanese honeybee, the Apis cerana japonica.
Inside this book is a little collection of recipes curated around each honey, so every one gets to be the main event. They're all healthy-ish, which means we can eat loads of ice cream while pretending we're being good.
ビラちゃん
the basics
How your machine works
It works like the Creami. It doesn't churn like a normal ice cream maker. You freeze a tub solid, then shave the frozen block into something creamy in about a minute. That's how you can make that low-fat, high-protein ice cream come out smooth instead of icy.
- Mix your base and blend it smooth
- Rest it in the fridge for 1 to 2 hours to hydrate the base so the flavour comes out better.
- Freeze in the dessert cup, lid on, for a full 24 hours. Flatten the top before it sets.
- Thaw 5 to 10 minutes outside the freezer so it isn't rock hard.
- Spin: press the button and pump the handle up and down a few times.
- Crumbly? Add a splash of milk and spin again. This fixes almost everything.
Three rules that make it work every time:
1. Always include some sugar (the honey does this). With no sugar the block freezes too hard and the machine struggles.
2. Keep it under the MAX line (about 240 ml).
3. For the low-calorie recipes, honey gives the flavour and Lakanto gives the rest of the sweetness with almost no calories. A pinch of xanthan gum keeps it silky.
Eat it straight away for soft-serve texture, or put it back in the freezer for 20–30 min if you want it firmer to scoop.
the fridge
What to keep in
Everything here is easy to get in Japan. The honeys you already have.
- Greek yogurt (Partheno or Oikos). The creamy protein base for most recipes.
- Low-fat milk
- Lakanto (ラカント, by Saraya). The zero-calorie sweetener; allulose works too.
- Xanthan gum. TOMIZ (富澤商店) or Amazon.
- Whey protein
- Unsweetened cocoa, instant coffee, cinnamon, oats, kinako (きな粉)
- Vanilla extract and a yuzu or lemon for the citrus one
- Optional: cottage cheese for extra protein, blended smooth so you can't taste it.
the collection
A closer look
Britain · hedgerow & field
British spring blossomDelicate & floral
Spring flowers from across the British countryside: roadside dandelions, hawthorn frothing in the hedgerows, sycamore, and the sudden yellow of rapeseed fields. It's the gentlest honey in the box, pale and silky and softly floral, tasting of the first warm weeks of the year. Good on more or less everything.
Scotland · glens & moors
Scottish heatherCaramel & smoky
Gathered from the late-summer heather in the sheltered glens and upland moors of the eastern Highlands, where the bees work the purple ling. Heather makes a honey unlike any other: thick and almost jelly-like, deep amber, with a smoky, caramel warmth and a faintly bittersweet edge. A wild, windswept kind of sweetness.
Romania · the Bărăgan steppe
Sunflower (ひまわり)Golden & rich
Pressed on the Bărăgan, the great sun-baked steppe of southern Romania, where whole fields turn to follow the same sun. The honey keeps that brightness: golden, warmly fragrant, with a big, full sweetness. It crystallises quickly into soft, spoonable grains, which is just what sunflower honey does.
Japan · 里山 (satoyama)
そば SobaDark & malty
From the 里山, the old farmed hill-country where Japan's villages give way to the mountains, where buckwheat is sown late and flowers white across the fields in autumn. The strange part: those white blooms give an almost-black honey, thick and mineral, tasting of molasses, malt and dark earth. Iron-rich and completely its own thing. Save it for cocoa and coffee, where it turns bold instead of blunt.
southern Taiwan · dragon-eye orchards
Taiwan Longan (龍眼)Fruity & exotic
From the longan orchards of southern Taiwan, the fruit whose name means "dragon's eye." The bees work its little cream blossoms, and the honey comes out dark amber and heady: fruity and malty, with an aroma like Earl Grey and a finish someone once put next to red wine. The most grown-up honey in the box, and the reason a coffee recipe is waiting for it.
★ Japan · Mt. Tsurugi, Shikoku
剣山 Native-bee honey★ Wild & rare
It's made by the 日本蜜蜂, Japan's native honeybee: a different, wild species from the Western honeybee that makes almost all the world's honey. It's incredibly rare. The bees can't be farmed, so keepers leave empty hives out in the mountains and hope a wild colony decides to move in. It's harvested only once a year, and hardly anyone makes it.
This jar comes from the wildflowers on the slopes of sacred 剣山. Because the bees are wild and forage a hundred different flowers, every batch is different and can't be replicated. This exact honey can never be made again.
Only this last honey is from the native bee. The other five are ordinary honeybees. What makes each of those special is the flower, not the bee.
recipe · british spring blossom
Everyday Vanilla Honey
spring, spun soft
≈165kcal
16 gprotein
~5 gsugar
1 cupserves 1–2
in the cup
- 120 g Greek yogurt
- 90 ml low-fat milk
- 2 tsp British spring honey
- 1 tbsp Lakanto
- ½ tsp vanilla
- pinch xanthan gum
- optional: 2 tbsp plain whey + a splash more milk (pushes protein past 25 g)
method
Blend everything smooth. Rest in the fridge 1–2 hrs. Freeze 24 hrs. Thaw 5–10 min, spin, add a splash of milk and re-spin if crumbly.
Tip
Fold in a few berries or a square of dark chocolate after the first spin.
recipe · scottish heather
Heather, Oat & Cinnamon
a moorland morning
≈185kcal
13 gprotein
~7 gsugar
1 cupserves 1–2
in the cup
- 110 g Greek yogurt
- 90 ml low-fat milk (or oat milk)
- 2 tsp Scottish heather honey
- 1 tbsp oats, soaked 10 min
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp Lakanto
- pinch xanthan gum
method
Blend smooth (the oats too). Rest 1–2 hrs so the oats soften. Freeze 24 hrs. Thaw 5–10 min, spin, splash of milk and re-spin if needed.
Tip
Tastes like a cold oat cookie. Toast the oats first for more of a flapjack flavour.
recipe · sunflower
Sunflower & Kinako
sunlight, gone a bit nutty
≈160kcal
15 gprotein
~7 gsugar
1 cupserves 1–2
in the cup
- 120 g Greek yogurt (a thick, skyr-style one)
- 80 ml low-fat milk
- 2 tsp sunflower honey
- 1 tbsp kinako (きな粉, roasted soybean flour)
- 1 tbsp Lakanto
- pinch xanthan gum
method
Whisk the kinako in first so it doesn't clump, then blend everything smooth. Rest 1–2 hrs. Freeze 24 hrs. Thaw 5–10 min, spin, splash of milk and re-spin if crumbly.
Note
Golden sunflower honey and toasty kinako. Like frozen kinako mochi, without the guilt.
recipe · そば soba
Soba Mocha Protein
so dark it forgets it's healthy
≈185kcal
22 gprotein
~6 gsugar
1 cupserves 1–2
in the cup
- 90 ml low-fat milk
- 100 g Greek yogurt
- 2 tbsp chocolate whey protein
- 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
- 2 tsp soba honey
- 1 tsp instant coffee
- 1 tbsp Lakanto · pinch xanthan
method
Blend smooth. Rest 1–2 hrs. Freeze 24 hrs. Thaw 5–10 min, spin, splash of milk and re-spin if crumbly.
Note
Soba honey is intense on its own, but cocoa and coffee turn it into a dark mocha. Unbelievable, and still healthy.
recipe · taiwan longan
Longan Coffee Cream
espresso, on a Taiwan holiday
≈150kcal
13 gprotein
~6 gsugar
1 cupserves 1–2
in the cup
- 120 g Greek yogurt
- 90 ml low-fat milk
- 2 tsp Taiwan longan honey
- 1 tsp instant coffee in 1 tsp hot water (or 30 ml espresso)
- 1 tbsp Lakanto
- pinch xanthan gum
method
Dissolve the coffee first. Blend everything smooth. Rest 1–2 hrs. Freeze 24 hrs. Thaw 5–10 min, spin, splash of milk and re-spin if needed.
Note
Longan honey already tastes a little of coffee, so the two play together. Barely tastes like a diet.
recipe · ★ 剣山 native-bee
Pure Honey Showcase
for spoons and special occasions
≈195kcal
10 gprotein
~14 gsugar
1 small cup
in the cup
- 100 g Greek yogurt
- 60 ml low-fat milk
- 1½ tbsp 剣山 native-bee honey
- pinch xanthan gum
- no other sweetener: the honey is the flavour
method
Blend gently (don't overheat it). Rest 1–2 hrs. Freeze 24 hrs. Thaw 5–10 min, spin, tiny splash of milk and re-spin if crumbly.
Tip
Eat it soft, straight after spinning; the honey keeps it from ever setting hard.
for two
The honey tasting
Make one plain base, split it between the cups, and stir a different honey into each. Freeze, spin, and line them up. Six honeys, side by side, each tasting of somewhere else entirely.
The neutral base (makes 2–3 cups):
250 g Greek yogurt + 150 ml low-fat milk + a pinch of xanthan. Blend, split between cups. Stir 2 tsp of a different honey into each. Freeze 24 hrs, spin each one, taste in order: British spring → sunflower → longan → heather → soba → 剣山 last.
Light to dark is the nicest way through them, with the wild native-bee honey last of all or on its own.
