Is fresh honey thick? Is liquid honey better than thick honey? Why honey remains liquid and does not thicken

Crystallization of honey (popularly “candied”) is a natural process in which the product changes its consistency from liquid to thicker. The rate of this transformation depends on several factors: variety composition, storage conditions, maturity, etc.

Why does honey crystallize (candied)? This happens due to the property of glucose to form crystals: settling, they make the product more solid. Some varieties have a fine-grained consistency - the crystals are smaller in size, and the consistency comes out more viscous. Such honey can be stirred with a spoon. Other varieties are characterized by a coarse-grained structure - they harden much more strongly, they can even be cut into pieces with a knife.

How does crystallization affect taste and properties? As a result of a natural process, the chemical composition of candied honey does not change in any way. Accordingly, its useful properties remain the same. As for the taste, it can acquire additional sweetness - but only because the crystals have become larger and better felt on the tongue.

Natural, without additives, it is necessarily sugared, the only difference is when. But there are well-known exceptions, for example, acacia. Pure acacia may not thicken for years, of course, with proper storage. So say beekeepers with experience. Liquid honey, if natural, will stay that way for at least a month or two, and then may begin to thicken.

It is known that the density of a substance is determined by the glucose in its composition. In fact, the more glucose, the higher the chances of an early crystallization. If the substance is the record holder for the presence of fructose, and not glucose, it will take a long time to thicken. "Fructose" champions among honey varieties - acacia, fireweed.

What are the reasons for this process?

Why is honey liquid like water? What is the reason for this? First of all, the option of falsification cannot be discarded. It's a shame, but a fact - some unscrupulous sellers deliberately dilute honey or heat candied honey so that it becomes liquid again. Moreover, such heating certainly does not benefit the product. How to distinguish liquid real honey from falsified or diluted?

A high-quality mass should smell, not of flowers, but of honey, wax, honeycombs. If you have been to the apiary at least once in your life, you will not confuse this smell with anything. And here there are exceptions - honey from Ivan-tea.

However, it is quite rare to find it in its pure form in the markets, and this aroma is not familiar to everyone. If the liquid pours from the spoon like water, splashes, and the trickle breaks too quickly, look for another seller.

Such a product is diluted with syrup, and besides, it is immature.

By purchasing an unripe variety, you run the risk of becoming the owner of a fermented product that will either acquire a sour taste or foam. But sinning on all liquid types of honey is also not worth it.

A rarefied state for the time being is the norm for the results of bee labor. Perhaps the point is also how the mass is stored at home.

Even temperature, without cold drops, allows honey to maintain its normal state.

Is it possible to influence the crystallization of honey?

If you really want to keep the liquid state longer, the jars can be placed at a uniform temperature. In no case should you put them in the cold or on the balcony in winter, then you won’t have to ask “why honey doesn’t thicken”. Crystallization can be both slowed down and accelerated.

Let's say you like to eat a candied product, but your purchase is like water in its state. It is necessary to try to thicken the substance. This can be done using several methods:

• clean in the cold for a long time (a couple of months);
• change the temperature regime of storage for a short time (for two weeks);
• expose to light (it is not recommended to experiment, ultraviolet nullifies all qualities);
• mix in a jar and leave (fast cage guaranteed).

If crystallization has not yet occurred, there are few options: either storage is so comfortable that the product will not harden very soon without stirring, or you have a fake. Only natural mass with a high glucose content, stored at room temperature without stirring, may not thicken for a long time.

Informative video about the right choice of a quality product - how to choose and what to look for.

The healing properties of candied honey are in no way inferior to liquid honey. Moreover, if you have purchased honey, and after a while it does not become candied, this is a confirmation that you have bought low-quality products.

As for the taste, I can say that I like liquid honey more. But candied honey is sweeter, so it is convenient to mix with other products and take.

Honey is a rather unique product, it is taken not only inside, but also outside. Its benefits for humans are known even to small children, to whom mothers add honey to tea. If our favorite delicacy is of high quality, then its use will bring a lot of self-interest to your body. And its sugariness will not be a problem. To prove this to you, I want to draw your attention to the composition of honey.

Composition of candied honey

There are 3 main types of sugar in honey:

1. fructose;
2. glucose;
3. sucrose.

Fructose gives this bee product its sweetness. Most often it happens that honey contains a large amount of glucose. That's when it turns out that the honey begins to sugar. But all the useful substances remain in honey, it just goes into a different consistency. And its properties remain the same.

But there is one big but: at high temperatures, the lion's share of healing properties is lost. That is why it is better to drink honey with tea (or other liquid) than to dissolve it in hot water.

If you suddenly want to melt honey, then there are a lot of ways to do it. You can read the article - how to make sugared honey liquid.

Candied honey - benefits for the skin

With the help of candied honey, you can make excellent masks and scrubs at home. It is this consistency that is considered the best for cosmetic purposes. After such scrubs, your skin will become softer and smoother.

Here is one of the most popular face scrub recipes:

Recipe: Take 2 small strawberries, 3 tsp. oatmeal and 2 tsp. honey. Berries need to be washed and crushed to a state of gruel. Grind the oatmeal with a coffee grinder and add honey to it. After all the ingredients, mix and scrub with honey at home is ready.

Application: Wash your face thoroughly and apply the resulting mixture in circular motions on it. Massage like this for 3 minutes. Let the scrub stay on your face for about 15-20 minutes and you can wash your face with warm water. And then you can smear with your favorite cream to fix the effect.

Why honey is not candied for a year. Why does honey take a long time to crystallize?

​Why doesn't honey candy during storage? There are several reasons why honey may not be candied (crystallized). This effect may not bode well and simply indicate the origin of honey. However, sometimes honey that has not been candied turns out to be of poor quality, which indicates the negligence of the beekeeper. Good honey, but it is not candied. The essence of the honey crystallization process is stored in its composition. More precisely, in the two main components of its elements: glucose and fructose. Glucose crystallizes easily and has a sweet taste. Fructose does not crystallize and is 2 times sweeter than glucose. In high-fructose honey, fructose coats the crystals of glucose, sucrose and other well-crystallized sugars, thereby preventing the honey from sugaring. If honey contains less than 30% glucose, then such honey will not crystallize at all. There are varieties of honey with a low glucose content, such honey is more liquid (at normal humidity) and crystallizes very slowly. If your average room temperature is above +23 C, then such honey can stand in the room for a year in a liquid state. Properly stored, such honey will not deteriorate and will also retain all its qualities and usefulness. The most favorable temperature for crystallization is +10 - +15 C. At higher and lower temperatures, the crystallization of honey slows down. , acacia, chestnut, fireweed honey (not all, depending on the place of growth of fireweed), etc. Bad honey is not candied. mature honey. Often, novice beekeepers, without waiting for the honey to ripen in the framework, pump it out in order to make a profit as soon as possible, or simply do not know when the honey is ripe. the bees have evaporated all excess moisture. When the honey is ripe, the bees close the frames with honeycombs with wax caps. When the frame is completely sealed, the honey is ready to be pumped out. Immature honey has a high moisture content, and this partially prevents crystallization. Such honey can exfoliate and ferment after a couple of months. Fermented honey has a sharp and sour smell. 2) Incorrect storage. Honey is very hygroscopic (capable of absorbing moisture). In a warm, humid environment, honey absorbs moisture, which in the first case prevents crystallization and can also lead to fermentation. 3) Not natural honey or diluted. Often in our consumer life we ​​buy products of poor quality. There are many fakes and honey on the market, someone dilutes honey with sugar syrup, someone adds starch or flour so that the fake is thick and viscous, like honey. Overheated honey4) Overheated honey. When heated, honey becomes liquid. But here you can heat it up to +40 C, no more. At higher temperatures, vitamins and all useful properties are lost. Some sellers, in order to give a marketable appearance to honey, heat and overheat it. Honey becomes liquid and loses its crystallization properties. Such honey will not crystallize at all. The smell practically disappears. The color of overheated honey can be described as dark brown amber. Depending on the degree of overheating, honey is either lighter or darker, but a brown tint is always present in this case. Recently, we encountered a new kind of fake. The Chinese bring a certain powder in briquettes, diluted either with water or with some kind of reagent, and honey is obtained in color and smell indistinguishable from natural. Most importantly, as in the chem. laboratories, with a superficial analysis, the results indicate the naturalness of honey. Tip: How to “make” honey crystallize? If you doubt the quality of the honey you bought because it remains liquid for a long time. Find some candied honey (a teaspoon is enough), mix it in some container with a tablespoon of liquid honey, so that you get a homogeneous mass and pour this mixture into a jar of liquid honey. Place the jar in a dry, cool place (+10 - +15 C). After a couple of weeks, if the honey is natural, it will definitely crystallize. People often ask: “why honey is not candied during storage?”. In this article, I tried to give basic answers to the question asked. And do not be upset if your honey remains liquid for a long time, try following the advice given in this article, and you will determine the quality of your honey jar.

How to test honey Honey Evaluation Criteria

Of course, it is best to determine the quality of the product before buying it, then you can avoid disappointment and money wasted. But if it so happened that honey has already been bought, then you can verify its usefulness by evaluating several key criteria:

• Color. First of all, the shade of honey should match the variety and cast a little gold. For example, floral will be light and sunny, linden gives off amber, buckwheat has a rich brown color. The product must be free of turbidity, sediment or suspicious inclusions. The presence of pieces of honeycombs, bees or other bee products is considered normal.
• Aroma. Having opened a jar of honey, you definitely need to smell it, since the aroma of a real product is difficult to confuse with something. It has a light but very rich scent. Diluted honey smells almost nothing or gives off only light notes.
• Viscosity. If honey is easily taken out of the jar with a spoon and a thin thread does not stretch behind it, then this is a fake. Another characteristic feature of a natural product is a strong viscosity, when you have to make a lot of effort to scoop it up and separate it from the main mass.
• Consistency. Natural honey can even be rubbed into the skin, it is so delicate in texture. If you take a small amount and rub it, then not a single lump should form in the process, otherwise the jar is fake.
• Taste. Sweetish and slightly tart taste cannot be confused with anything. Real honey is rich in shades.

May, chestnut, Greek, clover, acacia varieties retain their original consistency for a longer time and remain liquid, while heather dandelion, sunflower, rapeseed and sweet clover are subject to faster crystallization.

To understand that the process of sediment formation is normal and natural, it is necessary to identify the reasons for its appearance:

• The main reason why nectar will be sugared is its chemical composition, namely the three main elements - fructose, glucose and sucrose. It is glucose that tends to crystallize and sugar the product. The more glucose is contained, the faster the density of the product will increase. And vice versa - if the glucose content is low and fructose mainly predominates, honey will retain a liquid consistency for a longer time;

candied honey

• getting a large amount of pollen into the container when collecting nectar will also speed up the process of sugaring. The fact is that in addition to the glucose crystals themselves, pollen is also enveloped by other small particles that fell on it during collection - all this settles to the bottom. The precipitate in this case will have a granular structure;
• temperature regime. It has been proven that at a storage temperature of 15 ° C, honey candied slowly. Therefore, if you put it in the refrigerator, the obvious result will be that after a short time it will turn into a solid whitish substance, resembling pork fat in its consistency. If you do not want the delicacy to thicken quickly, it is not recommended to store it in the refrigerator.
• the process of sediment formation is also affected by the weather in which honey was collected. If it was collected in hot summer weather, the product will thicken faster, and if the weather was cold and rainy, then vice versa.

Collection of honey

In addition to natural natural causes, due to which honey crystallizes, there are also unnatural ones. So, unscrupulous beekeepers can add water to the nectar, various artificial additives in order to increase the amount of the product. Such a product will remain liquid for a long time, but will lose its useful qualities. In addition, rolling out unripe honey is also practiced to speed up sales. It also adversely affects the composition of the product and its shelf life. Such honey begins to thicken from below, while its top remains liquid. The answer to the question of how real honey is candied - from below or from above - is unequivocal: evenly.

Honey grains. Why does honey sit?

Honey is an amazing, mysterious substance created by nature. It has been used by man for more than one millennium, but not all of its secrets have been revealed to this day.

There are many more interesting and useful things you can learn about this sweet.

Today I want to talk about the crystallization of honey, or, as they say, sugaring, and I will answer the question: why does honey settle?

Often customers come to us and want to buy it liquid in winter, many people love it in this form and many people think that the right honey is only liquid. If it is thick and grains are felt, then it is considered that sugar has been added, that such a product is bad, of inadequate quality. I can tell about such a case. A woman bought honey from us and, opening a jar, was surprised that it was thick with grains. She was sure that it was all sugar in it and that real honey can only be liquid. I had to explain that the honey sat down and this is its normal state. Let's clear up this misconception.

Honey is alive and after pumping out of the frames, certain processes operate in it. Within a few months, chemical reactions take place in this amazing product, it matures. For example, a fresh bee product contains a small amount of sucrose, about 5%. In the process of maturation, it decomposes into simple sugars. If we make an analysis after pumping out, we will see a small% of sucrose, repeating the analysis after a while, we will not find sucrose. If the bees were fed sugar, then the sucrose content will be high, so this is one of the indicators of naturalness. This living nectar contains enzymes, they are involved in transformations. One interesting fact. We have Ayurvedic customers. They acquire this sweetness only after a year of storage, considering it more beneficial to health.

The main factors affecting the crystallization of honey:

1)% ratio of fructose and glucose

2)its humidity

3) honey plants from which bees collected nectar

4)Storage temperature

There are many more sugars in this bee product, more than 20, and not three, as was recently thought. But the main ones are glucose and fructose. It depends on their ratio how quickly honey can be sugared. If the percentage of fructose is large, then it does not sit down for a long time, if there is more glucose, then it sits down quickly. Fructose is always liquid, and even in dried honey it is distributed between glucose, so it is plastic, almost never solid. Different varieties have different amounts of glucose and fructose. It depends on the area, the breed of bees, even weather conditions, and of course on honey plants. That is why one honey sat down faster, and the other is in a liquid state for a long time. The more fruit sugar, the longer the honey will set. For example, a pure acacia bee product crystallizes within a year, it contains a large amount of fructose. Honeydew may not be candied at all. This happens due to the substance melicitose. It does not allow glucose to crystallize.

At first, he's a little cloudy. In a natural product, pollen grains are always present, they serve as centers for the formation of crystals that fall or “settle” to the bottom, so candied starts from the bottom. If the bee product is filtered, then the amount of pollen grains will decrease, and it will not be sugared longer. There are filters abroad that generally remove pollen; according to our guests, such a dish cannot be called honey at all.

The ambient temperature also affects the sugaring of honey. In the cold it happens faster. If the sweetness is kept in a warm room after pumping, then it will remain liquid longer.

One more moment. The higher the humidity of the amber sweetness, the longer the liquid state will remain. According to GOST, the water content is allowed up to 21%. During storage, moisture evaporates, sugars become more concentrated.

Honey sits in small or large grains. It depends on the size of the formed crystals, small or large. Not everyone likes a large grain, it is much more pleasant to put it in your mouth and dissolve the delicate texture. To achieve this, a special technique is used: “fermentation”. They take already shrunken last year's bee product. Grind to break large crystals. The smaller the grains in the “seed”, the softer the consistency of the final product. The sourdough is first mixed with a small amount of liquid bee products, then added to the container with the rest of the honey, mixed well and placed in a cool room. Sourdough crystals are the centers for the formation of new clots in the fresh sweetness, and at a lower temperature, crystallization takes place very quickly, within 1-2 days, giving a buttery consistency.

Once again, I would like to warn buyers, be wary of liquid honey out of season, you can run into a fake: an artificial product never shrinks, liquid honey can be warmed up, which is also not very good. Buy the right dried honey.

Being in the market near the counters selling bee products, you can often become an unwitting witness to the dialogue between the buyer and the seller. Its essence usually boils down to discussing the state of the honey being sold. Why is this one liquid and that one candied? Is it melted or last year's honey? And candied honey, is it real, or artificial from sugar? To be savvy in the issues mentioned, we will discuss such a delicate topic and clarify the true state of affairs on the issue of the naturalness of bee honey.

Only the properties of the naturally produced product will be considered, excluding all variations of commercially produced substitutes that use artificial stabilizers and compounds.

On sale in the market and in stores, you can often see bee honey in a liquid state on the shelves. There is an erroneous opinion that only real honey is not sugared. But this conviction is the lot of people who are not burdened with knowledge about beekeeping. Quicker liquid state first of all, it should alert and awaken doubts about its authenticity. Should honey be candied?

Causes and mechanisms of crystallization

First, let's figure out what honey is from the point of view of science. For pundits versed in matters of physics and chemistry, its substance in its original state belongs to the category supersaturated solutions. Such solutions usually have the following characteristic feature: they have no stability and they constantly strive to precipitate those elements with which they have been supersaturated. At this point, the transformation process stops, the structure of the solution normalizes, and it becomes saturated.

For the average consumer, this is the answer to the question of whether honey should be candied. Undoubtedly, any nectar product, regardless of when and from what it is collected, should crystallize. When this happens is only a matter of time, depending on many factors.

Factors affecting the rate of crystallization

Indispensable components of any of the honeys are glucose and fructose. Their percentage depends on the specific honey plant where the bees successfully worked: either in the forest, or on predominantly meadow plants. This indicator is individual for different natural areas and significantly depends on the composition of growing plants. Fructose and glucose have such a physical property as solubility in aqueous solutions. If the first has a high level, then the second is extremely insoluble.

It is this characteristic that affects the process of sugaring. In a container with honey, you can observe drop-down yellow-white flakes glucose, which are the centers of subsequent crystallization and the answer to the question why honey is quickly candied. The rate of sugaring of the natural product depends on the percentage composition of these two components in the content. The more glucose, the more active the process. More fructose may keep it from thickening even for a year and will explain which honey does not crystallize.

But there are other factors that affect the speed of this action:

• degree of maturity;
• storage humidity;
• technological process of preparation for storage;
• storage conditions.

Beekeepers can pump out the finished product when it is in two phases:

1. The cells are not sealed.
2. Honey in its mature state is sealed in honeycombs.

In the first case, when pumping out of the honey extractor, the contents with an increased amount of moisture are taken, since only after reaching its condition, the bee closes the honeycombs with lids.

Therefore, beekeepers are forced to leave containers with the product open for some time, covering them with gauze for moisture removal natural way. But its presence will still be different than in sealed combs, which the bees dry out by forcibly blowing air from their wings. And the speed of crystallization will also be different.

The higher the humidity in the storage room, the longer the storage liquid state. Dishonest manufacturers can use this by tritely diluting the sweet product with water, but this drastically reduces its shelf life and leads to rapid deterioration.

During the technological preparation of honey for storage, produced on an industrial scale, it is passed through special filters. They allow you to increase the duration of stay in the liquid fraction up to a year, but at the same time they make changes to the composition of honey, resulting in a product devoid of inherent healing properties. After filtering it no solid particles in the form of bee bread and pollen, and with a decrease in the tendency to sugaring, it becomes worse in terms of quality than natural.

As for storage conditions, at temperatures below 4 or above 27 degrees thickening processes are inhibited, leaving the structure and composition of the result of bee labor unchanged.

Crystallization and quality

If we assert that the ability of honey to be candied affects its healing properties, in comparison with fresh honey, it means to reveal one's ignorance or narrow-mindedness in this problem. Because the content of all trace elements and their structure as a result of this does not change.

If honey is natural, it means that it can crystallize. It happens that after a purchase, quickly, after 2-3 days, the contents in the jar thicken. This should not be scared. For example, a product harvested from sunflowers and not pumped out of the hives in a timely manner, candied quickly, right in the combs, creating pumping problems.

The only thing to pay attention to thickening process. It should go simultaneously throughout the entire volume of the container, and not in separate foci. If there is a layering of fractions, liquid and thick, then this is an undoubted sign of falsification.

Candied honey is stored very well and terms unlimited. And if its state is extremely hard, like a stone structure, then more than one year can be saved.

What kind of honey is not candied

As already mentioned, varieties that contain more fructose are not candied. These include:

Or rather, these varieties are candied, but very slowly. For at least a year they will be in a fluid state, except fake, which will thicken in three months.

The most persistent of these - May. Two years of fluidity is not the limit for him. All thanks to the significant content of fructose -35% - and water.

Chestnut thickens in a year and a half, and its structure turns out to be jelly-like with interspersed small crystals.

The properties of a natural product obtained by bees as a result of exhausting work remain unchanged, regardless of its presence in the liquid or thick fraction. If you need to buy a genuine product, then this must be done autumn or winter when the crystallization processes begin and it will be clear that it is natural. One of the indirect methods of checking for naturalness can be the following. When rubbing honey between the fingertips, no lumps or lumps should be felt. Evenly absorbed into the skin, it leaves only the impression of light stickiness.

Attention, only TODAY!

For hundreds of years, honey has been one of the most valuable gifts that nature gives to man. Such a product is valued not only for its taste, it is also used in cosmetology and traditional medicine. And many people want to know more about the properties of this healthy and tasty product, in particular, such a property of honey as sugaring raises questions. Let's talk more about this phenomenon and about honey in general.

Peculiarities

Honey is often used as an adjunct to cold and flu medications. It contributes to a rapid increase in the body's resistance, adds energy. Also, this product is widely used as a component for nourishing face and hair masks. It is used for massage and many other procedures. A drink made from milk and honey helps to get rid of a sore throat, has a calming effect on the body, and helps to fall asleep faster. But all the beneficial qualities of honey appear only if you have purchased a quality product and stored it correctly.

Kinds

There are a huge number of varieties of honey. It differs in the type of plant from whose pollen bees produce it. And also by consistency (liquid, in honeycombs, bee bread). We list the most common types of honey.

Lugovoi

It is also called flower. The main distinguishing feature of such a product is a rich and very pleasant aroma. The color of meadow honey is light, golden, and the taste is amazing. In addition, this product is incredibly beneficial for human health. It can be used as an effective prophylactic in winter, during colds.

Meadow honey also helps to strengthen the immune system, get rid of thyroid diseases, restores the functioning of the nervous system and quickly copes with insomnia. It is added to the menu even for small children to protect them from infectious diseases, unless, of course, allergic reactions occur.

Donnikovy

Natural sweet clover honey has a delicate taste and aroma of vanilla. To make this honey, bees collect nectar from a well-known medicinal plant - yellow and white sweet clover. Therefore, the product itself acquires healing properties. In particular, such a product helps to deal with abnormalities in the work of the respiratory tract, with coughs and bronchitis. Also, the product is used as a component of the complex treatment of atherosclerosis, hypertension, arthritis, migraine, constipation, etc.

Lime

This is another popular type of delicious, fragrant and healthy honey. Bees collect nectar for it from linden flowers. It contains a large number of miraculous components, thanks to which honey becomes a real healing product. The use of linden honey improves the skin, and thus the appearance of a person, rejuvenates the body as a whole.

Linden honey should be included in your diet for those people who suffer from excessive nervous tension, problems with the heart and blood vessels, asthma, tonsillitis, bronchitis.

in honeycombs

Such honey is considered even more useful than liquid honey, since all valuable nutrients remain in it. The honeycomb contains not only honey, but also beeswax, oils, pollen and propolis. Therefore, honey in combs is highly recommended for people who suffer from diseases of the teeth and gums. Also, such a product helps to remove harmful substances from the internal organs, to improve the functioning of digestion.

Why does it crystallize?

If you have ever had to store honey for a long time, then you have probably noticed that liquid honey can become sugary. This is a natural property of any real natural honey. The only difference is that each species takes a different time to thicken. For example, the sweetness of acacia can crystallize only within a year or even two. While sunflower, buckwheat, dandelion and mustard honey hardens faster than others.

The process of crystallization is due to the fact that over time, glucose and sucrose, which are contained in honey, settle. Thus, the rate of crystallization is determined by the amount of glucose: the less it is, the longer the product remains liquid.

If you prefer liquid honey, and last year's stocks have already solidified, then you can easily melt the product. However, it should be understood that in this case the quality of honey will become worse, and some useful trace elements will disappear. But if you just want to enjoy the taste of this product, and not its healing qualities, then this moment should not bother you.

When is it liquid?

Whatever unscrupulous sellers say, you need to know that only honey that is not natural does not thicken. The only exceptions are honeycombs, since they themselves are a solid natural repository for healing sweetness.

We list a few specific reasons why the product is not candied.

1. Contains sugar syrup. Quite often, unscrupulous sellers dilute natural nectar with cheap syrup. This significantly reduces the cost of the product, but also significantly reduces its useful properties. It is almost impossible to determine “by eye” the presence of sugar syrup in the composition; it is really possible to establish this only after a special analysis of the product in the laboratory.
2. The honey was harvested ahead of schedule. If the beekeeper hurried and prepared the product before it was fully ripe, the honey is obtained with a high level of moisture. Therefore, natural sucrose may not settle. Moreover, sometimes honey simply deteriorates during long-term storage.
3. The product was remelted. Sometimes sellers re-melt thickened honey after a long period of storage in order to pass it off as fresh. After that, the product not only stops thickening, but also loses most of its useful properties.

Storage rules

Consider the main criteria that a place to store healthy sweets should meet.

• Lack of light. To keep the product as long as possible, it is strictly not recommended to store it under the influence of sunlight. Otherwise, he will simply lose all his healing characteristics. Even if you put honey in the sun for only a couple of days, it will turn into an ordinary high-calorie sweet.
• Dryness. If the room where the product is located is too humid, then it will simply deteriorate, become excessively liquid and sour. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that the humidity in the room does not exceed 80 percent.
• Cold. High temperature adversely affects the properties of healing sweetness and significantly reduces its shelf life.
• Purity. Naturally, food products should only be stored in clean rooms. Also, extraneous pungent odors should not be present there, since honey will immediately absorb them.

If you live in a private house, then there is simply no better place to store healing sweets than a basement or pantry. However, there are also better options for apartment dwellers. You can put the jars in a cabinet on the balcony or in a nightstand in the kitchen. Just make sure that it is located away from the stove and heating appliances.

Also, the refrigerator is just an ideal place to store the product. He definitely is in any apartment without exception. In addition, inside the refrigerator is a constant temperature and humidity. Therefore, if you still have doubts about whether honey can be stored in the refrigerator, the answer is definitely yes.

The optimal temperature for storing sweets is considered to be from +5 to +20 degrees C. It is permissible to store the product in warmer places, but the thermometer should not fall below +5 degrees C.

What should be the dishes?

In order for honey to be stored longer, it is important to pay attention to the choice of the material of the dishes in which it will be stored.

• Clay. This material prevents the penetration of sunlight into the container, which means it is great for storing honey. However, pottery is not often found in modern stores.
• Glass. This container is the most common. Glass does not emit harmful substances, is not toxic. However, transparent walls let light through, and this will adversely affect the quality of honey. The way out of this situation is quite simple - buy dark glassware and put the jars in a room where sunlight does not penetrate.
• Plastic. It is a cheap, lightweight and affordable material that is great for short-term food storage. It is best not to leave honey in plastic containers for long periods, as the material can release toxic substances over time.
• Wooden. Linden, birch and beech containers are great for storing sweets. If you want to purchase containers from other tree species, then be sure that the material will not emit essential oils, which will then be mixed with honey.
• Metal. One of the natural properties of metal is oxidation. Therefore, for food storage, you should choose stainless containers that do not contain copper, zinc and lead impurities.

Each material has certain advantages and disadvantages. However, according to most reviews of beekeepers and honey lovers, it is best to store sweetness in dark glass jars.

1. Remember that high-quality honey can only be bought in season. In summer, almost all types of this product are sold. And during the winter and off-season, it is better to buy only chestnut and acacia honey.
2. Pay attention to the texture of the product. If the product is too liquid, flows off the spoon in an uneven and interrupted stream, then it is better to refuse to buy it. Most likely, it was diluted with water to increase volume. This product will spoil quickly.
3. Pay attention to the region of production of the product.
4. If possible, try to always buy healing sweets only from a trusted seller.

If you are lovers of tea with honey, then remember that if you add the product to boiling water, it will completely lose all its healing characteristics. And you will get a sweet, tasty, but more high-calorie drink. Therefore, it is better to eat the product separately, rather than stir it in tea.

Now you know almost everything about the reasons for candied honey, as well as how to properly store such a product.

How to choose and store honey, see the following video.

It is difficult to say unequivocally whether honey should be liquid or thick. It all depends on what variety is in front of your eyes. For a fraudster who seeks to deceive you, there is nothing easier than mixing in chalk, starch, or heating up your product in order to make it fluid.

If you are a non-professional beekeeper, then it will be very difficult for you to determine which product is of high quality, as well as which one to choose: liquid or thick honey. But do not despair, there is a way out even from the darkest tunnel: you need to buy the honey that has already been candied. And already thick - melt in a water bath (or take it with you to a regular sauna). Although they say that this is not very useful (melt).

You can do it differently: buy acacia bee nectar, which will solve all problems, because it slowly crystallizes. So you definitely won't go wrong. Experts advise to be more careful with a liquid product. Why? You are not the only one who could have guessed to take advantage of going to the sauna, oh, that is, the water bath.

How to become not a victim, but a happy buyer?

Timeliness

If you buy honey on time, then you won’t have to invent anything, since the fresh collection is a priori liquid. First of all, it should be taken into account that linden and buckwheat are pollinated earlier, and therefore, the bee product turns out just like that, well, it is sold earlier. But don't forget about deadlines. And this is the beginning of summer.

Liquid honey can only be found in the summer months, because this is the peak of the honey collection, which means that the resulting product has not yet had time to be candied.

Wrong bees and wrong nectar

You can cheat a gullible buyer in many ways, for example, you may not be completely fake, but just some kind of wrong honey obtained from the wrong bees, as the great Winnie the Pooh said. That is, these insects were fed with sugar syrup, and they obviously received an overdose more than once.

It’s one thing when the weather is bad outside and the bees don’t have enough pollen because of this: so you have to feed them out of hopelessness. Feeding them sugar every day is very, very bad. The beekeeper should think about it, remember about his conscience.

natural properties

Acacia can be the longest in a liquid state. Other varieties turn into a thick mass much faster, literally in a matter of months.

If you purchased liquid sunflower honey sometime in October, it means that the owner has successfully worked on it, and not at all in a good sense of the word, and you have become a victim of a brazen scammer!

Liquid product - right?

It should probably be said that liquid honey is the most useful, because it means that it is fresh (or a warmed fake)! As soon as the product was pumped out and brought from the apiary for sale, natural bee sweetness appeared in front of you in its best form.

Why is it considered that the bee delicacy should be sparse?

• Firstly, liquid means natural, especially if it was bought in the first days of summer.
• Secondly, if the beekeeper's product turned out to be very thick, then this may be a sign that the bees are sick, and you are risking your health by trying it.

In order not to fall for the bait of deceivers, who only want to cash in on your naivety, buy bee sweets at specialized fairs and exhibitions. There they will tell you what is what, because different varieties differ little in color. It must be of good quality.

Kinds

• rapeseed;
• buckwheat;
• lime.

These are varieties that do not crystallize the longest and retain an attractive appearance.

rapeseed

Prepared from a rare plant that is used in agriculture. Rapeseed honey has a sharp aroma because it contains a high percentage of volatile compounds in essential oils. Its taste is sweet and cloying. The color scheme is light with some presence of a yellowish tint. The only negative is that it must be stored at a very low temperature.

But, despite this, the plant was made a regular component of traditional medicine.

Buckwheat

It is dark, rich and, of course, healing. It is collected from a single buckwheat plant. Most often, the flowering period occurs in July. This variety is called the elixir of youth. It should always contain a component of glucose and levulose. Therefore, it is difficult to make a fake of this variety. This bee elixir is used to restore joints and muscles, as well as sprains and injuries.

Lime

Pollen is collected from a linden tree, but you will rarely encounter such honey in its pure form, since bees cannot collect pollen from a single tree, they fly around other flowers and plants. Therefore, it cannot be attributed to monofloral.

This variety is useful for colds, flu and weak lungs. In this form, there are many chemical compounds such as lipase, catalase, vitamins E, K and others. It is famous for its bactericidal properties.

It remains to be recalled that only acacia honey remains in liquid form for a long period of time.

Can it be made liquid?

Nowadays, making thick liquid honey is not problematic. Can you guess the simplest solution?

Surely! You need to heat the crystallized honey! It is worth remembering that at a temperature of 40 degrees, your nectar will lose almost all of its useful properties. But that's half the trouble! When it melts, a substance such as hydroxymethylfurfural is produced, which in simple terms is poison.

Melting methods

So, what can be done to get liquid honey from a thick bee product:

1. Leave it in a hot room (did you think we were joking about the sauna?)
2. Warm up on an open fire (do not forget about the poison and the loss of nutrients, so it's better not to risk it)
3. Make a water bath. Everything is as easy as shelling pears, you need to heat the water to 40 degrees, and then hold a jar of contents in it and you will get liquid honey.

Comparison with candied

Why is it considered that the most useful honey is liquid? This is far from true. The crystallized product should have the same properties and useful elements. There are varieties that are subject to rapid crystallization, while others are stored in a liquid state for a long time.

If candied honey has large crystals and there are no peelings on the surface, we can assume that the product has passed the quality test!

As far as we remember, melted liquid honey loses all its beneficial properties, so the next time you drink tea with it, eat it rather than dissolve it instead of sugar.

But quite often, liquid honey is obtained precisely from candied honey, which has been subjected to heat treatment.

Benefit

Well, of course it's useful! Everything depends just the same not on whether the honey is liquid in front of you, whether it is thick, but only on the plant from which the nectar was collected. For example, rapeseed, linden and buckwheat species are collected from medicinal plants, respectively, and the final product retains all their beneficial properties. Even in medicine, they have found their place!

Almost all honey, just pumped out of honeycombs, is liquid. What can we say, if all this was done during the honey plant period. Only after a while it crystallizes, but does not lose its magical healing qualities.

How to choose?

When choosing honey, be guided only by your taste preferences. Someone likes liquid: you can spread it evenly on bread, pour it over cakes, as a decoration, it’s nice to drink with tea, the viscosity is mesmerizing. Others like thick - savor each crystal, add it to tea and make sandwiches that should not spread and smear. To each his own! How to be? Follow your heart!

The myth of honey (video)

Crystallization and thickening (video)

Why is honey liquid or too thick, what color and consistency should the product be, how to distinguish a fake? High-quality and natural bee sweetness is not so easy to identify at first sight. This can only be done by a professional beekeeper with many years of experience. Cunning scammers have long learned to fake honey and pass off ordinary sugar syrups with dyes and flavors as a valuable product of bee production. In order not to fall for the trick, you need to know what natural honey looks like.

Honey should be bought in spring or summer. This is due to the fact that hardworking bees start work from the beginning of spring and continue it until the last warm days. During this period, "sweet amber" is necessarily liquid: this is how it is extracted from bee honeycombs. Over time, excess moisture evaporates, the liquid thickens. If you want to sell a liquid product in late winter, you should be on your guard. It's most likely a fake.

How to spot a fake

A natural product is certainly candied. This is a natural process. Most varieties are in a "viscous" state for up to 2 months. Record holders are honey from acacia and sunflower. The first is considered the most persistent, it is in a liquid state for up to 3-4 months. The second, on the contrary, turns into a thick mass after 3 weeks after collection.

“Chemical” all scammers in different ways. Someone produces a product with a unique composition with a honey smell and an amber-golden hue from ordinary water and sugar, and someone sells a natural, but low-quality honey substitute. The hero of the cartoon “Winnie the Pooh” apparently mentioned him: “These are the wrong bees! …they must be making the wrong honey!” This is a product produced by bees that are regularly fed with sugar syrup.

All beekeepers sometimes resort to feeding insects with sugar. On “non-flying” days, when there are showers or strong winds, a sharp cold snap or abnormal heat, the bees do not have enough nectar and pollen. The lack of the main source of nutrition must be filled with sugar. However, many "unfortunate beekeepers" feed insects with artificial sweetness every day. This is bad for the health of insects, but leads to a significant increase in the amount of product. This, by no means, does not mean that its quality will remain the same. The floral aroma disappears, over time, such honey exfoliates and folds.

Thick or liquid

The answer to the question why honey is liquid is very simple. The fresh, just pumped out product has a high water content (up to 22%). After a while, the liquid evaporates, the process of crystallization of glucose (saccharification) occurs. This does not affect the quality in any way and does not reduce its nutritional value. The consistency may be less thick or thicker. It depends on the:

• varieties (acacia honey is considered the most watery);
• temperature outdoors or indoors.

It is better to buy the sweetness of bee production not from dealers, but from the manufacturer. In large cities, specialized fairs or exhibitions are often held, where beekeepers from all over the area come together. They will help you make the right choice, give you the necessary advice on the application and storage rules of the purchased variety. The most popular are buckwheat, linden and flower honey (forbs).

Buckwheat

It is better to buy this variety at the end of July, as buckwheat blooms in the beginning or middle of the month. It has a dark amber hue and an original smell. People call it the "elixir of youth". It is considered the most useful due to the high content of amino acids; useful for skin diseases, stomatitis, gastritis, hypertension, improves immunity.

Lime

Linden blooms in late June - early July. Fresh linden honey can be bought in mid-July. It is distinguished by a bright fragrant aroma, thick texture and a light yellow tint. Linden honey in eastern countries has a delicate taste, while the product produced in European countries has a sharper, “ticklish” aroma and increased sweetness. Used to treat tonsillitis, diseases of the upper respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract.

forbs

Fresh flower honey can be bought from early summer to early autumn. It has a general strengthening effect on the body, increases the protective function. Color and consistency depend on the region in which the apiary is located. The product may be slightly hazy, beige. It is used to prevent the occurrence of viral diseases.

How to melt honey

To return a pleasant liquid consistency, the product can be heated. The temperature during heating should not exceed 40 degrees. Otherwise, useful elements stop their action. During the melting process, a substance dangerous to the human body called hydroxymethyl furfural is produced.

There are three ways to melt honey:

1. Put it next to the stove or fireplace.
2. Heat up on gas (do not forget, the product will lose its beneficial properties and turn into poison).
3. Warm up in a water bath. In this case, the water must be heated to a temperature of 38-39 degrees. Put a jar of thickened honey in warm water. After a while, it will again become transparent and fluid.

What is more useful

What kind of "correct" honey should be - liquid or thick? Someone claims that the product is useful only in a liquid state, while someone is convinced of the opposite. In fact, the quality after crystallization does not decrease. An exception is a violation of storage rules (honey can exfoliate or ferment). A homogeneous mass with large sugar crystals is the norm for a thickened product.

In a liquid state, sweetness is useful only if it has not been heated to a temperature of 40 degrees and above.

Fans of replacing sugar with honey can be given one piece of advice: it is better to eat honey as a bite, and do not stir in boiling water.

It does not matter in what form the honey is - thick or liquid. How useful it is depends on the flowers from which the nectar was brought. It is also important that all the necessary rules are observed during its collection and storage. Buy the product only from trusted manufacturers and be healthy.