NATURAL HONEY

 Have you ever wondered why your honey has become solid? Taste and texture changed since you bought it? 

Or

 you see honey being sold like that and your thinking ‘Ugh! How can they sell bad honey!?’ Don’t worry, the honey hasn’t gone bad. It has simply crystallised. Raw honey eventually crystallises and that’s completely normal 

To not bore you with a long chemistry lesson, we’ll make this short. Honey contains 70% sugars and less than 20% water. This makes honey naturally an unstable super-saturated sugar solution. Which is why, over time, almost all honey will crystallise.

During crystallisation, glucose sugar, which is naturally pure white, separates from water and becomes crystals, while fructose stays liquid. That is why crystallised honey is more grainy and sets a lighter colour than when its runny.

Things that help crystallisation.

-crystallisation happens faster in colder temperature.

-low fructose to glucose ratio honey will crystallise faster than honey with a high fructose to glucose ratio.

-unfiltered raw honey has particles such as wax bits, pollen grains and propolis which act like a trigger for accelerating the growth of glucose crystals.

That wasn’t so bad was it?

 Very few people appreciate crystallised honey. That is why, many honey suppliers have their honey processed. This makes their  honey stay runny for a much long time 

In processed honey:

· The sugar crystals in the honey are dissolved by heating.

· Any particles (such as pollen and bits from the hive) and air bubbles that encourage crystallisation are removed 

by ultrafiltration. 

This process takes away, if not all, most of the important properties of the honey which destroys its quality, purity and benefits.

1. Simply place the jar of honey in a glass bowl.

2. Quarter fill a pan or a pot with boiling water then place the bowl into it. The steam should heat the bowl, which heats the jar without overheating it (you do not want the benefits of the honey to be killed by the heat). 

3. Keep the water boiling by turning up the heat on the stove.

The honey should be runny again in 15 minutes or so (depending on the size).