Honey is one of the most valuable natural products ever given to mankind by Mother Nature. Our distant ancestors knew about its unique properties. It contains about 190 different chemical compounds. Dark honey is considered especially useful. From which plants of central Russia this product is obtained, you will find out by reading today's article.

What does the shade depend on?

Immediately, we note that the color of this product is largely determined by the collection time. In addition, its hue is influenced by the nectar of the plants from which it is extracted. So, in the spring, a lighter product is obtained. In late summer and early autumn, dark honey is harvested (from which plants this is done, you will find out later). For example, chicory, buckwheat and heather are recognized by their characteristic brown color.

The most important features for which dark honey is valued

From which plants of the middle lane it is collected, it becomes clear from the names themselves. Despite the fact that each variety has its own unique properties, there are several common characteristics that unite them into a single group.

Usually dark brown honey is collected from flowering plants. Its shade is due to the high concentration of iron and trace elements. It is more stringy and thicker than the lighter varieties. Despite the fact that it is much more difficult to fake dark honey, it is recommended to purchase it exclusively from trusted beekeepers. When buying it, you need to pay special attention to the features inherent in the selected product.

List of colors from which brown varieties are obtained

Dark honey is what many people love. From what plants it is harvested, you will find out right now. This list includes heather, chestnut, angelica, eucalyptus, chicory, burdock and buckwheat. Working with these plants, bees extract such a valuable product.

In addition to the above varieties, the so-called honeydew honey also belongs to the dark ones. It is collected not from the flowers themselves, but from the secretions protruding on the leaves of plants. Due to the fact that this product has a strong bitter taste, it is not suitable for human consumption. However, it is ideal for outdoor use.

Benefits of dark varieties

From the foregoing, we can conclude that the properties of the product depend on the plant from which it was obtained. But, despite this, there is something that distinguishes them from light varieties.

Dark honey has a thicker consistency. It is characterized by a high content of iron and some trace elements. Just like the light varieties, it can be used to treat many diseases. With the help of this product, you can heal from almost all ailments, including malignant neoplasms.

Among other things, this product is often used in cosmetology. At home, all kinds of masks are made from it. In industry, it is used to produce factory care products.

How to recognize a fake?

Due to the fact that dark honey (from which flowers it is collected, we have already mentioned above) is less common than light honey, it is sold at a higher price. Therefore, you can often find counterfeit products on sale. To avoid the frustration of buying a counterfeit product, there are several important factors to consider in the selection process.

Of course, it is possible to judge how high-quality dark honey is only after conducting appropriate examinations. Therefore, even specialists who are well versed in various variations of this product will not always be able to determine exactly where the original is, and where is a well-executed fake. In order not to become a victim of unscrupulous manufacturers, we recommend purchasing it exclusively in specialized stores that have certificates for the goods being sold.

Dark honey - from which plants?

Burdock provides a valuable olive-colored product with a pungent spicy scent. Burdock honey is often used as a cleansing and diuretic.

Orange is made from orange or tangerine pollen. This product has a dark brown color and a rich citrus aroma.

Hyssop honey also belongs to the dark varieties. It is collected from the pollen of the medicinal plant of the same name. This product is indicated for diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. In addition, it has an excellent wound healing effect.

This group also includes high-grade meadow and the first is obtained from wildflowers. The shade of this product can vary from light to very dark. The second is made from a mixture of pollen from various melliferous plants growing in forests.

Buckwheat honey

It is considered the healthiest of all dark varieties. Its color can vary from yellow with a pronounced red tint to deep brown. This product has a unique bitter-tart taste and spicy aroma. It contains 40% fructose and 36.5% glucose.

This dark honey is rich in essential amino acids, enzymes, antioxidants, protein and minerals. It is he who is considered one of the best sources of iron. It is recommended to use it for low hemoglobin, scarlet fever, measles, mumps, hepatitis, cholelithiasis and kidney stones. This product helps to renew the blood composition, cleanse blood vessels and enhance tissue regeneration.

Regular use is indicated for pregnant women, as well as for people with problems with the gastrointestinal tract. It saturates the human body with valuable nutrients, so it is advisable to take it in case of flu, colds and vitamin deficiency. Due to its antiseptic, antiviral and antimicrobial properties, this product is useful in the treatment of acne, dermatitis, boils, ulcers and abscesses.

Dandelion variety

You already understood what the properties of this or that dark honey depend on, from which plants (dandelion, buckwheat or chicory) it is obtained. Thus, the product obtained from yellow flowers contains 41.5% fructose and 35.6% glucose.

Dandelion honey can be distinguished from other dark varieties by its pungent odor and strong specific taste. This product is highly regarded for its antiprotozoal and antimicrobial properties. It is indicated for people suffering from constipation, colitis, gastritis, cholecystitis and many other diseases.

Fresh dandelion honey has a thick, rather viscous consistency. The peculiarity of this variety is that if it is not stirred periodically, then it becomes sugar very quickly, turning into a fine-grained mass.

Heather honey

This variety can be easily distinguished from other analogues by its unique rare red hue. It is considered one of the best sources of many minerals and proteins. It is often recommended to be consumed to increase appetite.

Another characteristic feature of heather honey is its high viscosity, the presence of streaks and the ability to quickly thicken. That is why it is so difficult to get it from the honeycomb. During long-term storage, this product turns into a jelly-like mass.

Chicory honey

In taste, smell and external characteristics, it is very similar to meadow varieties. It can only be distinguished by its darker shade. This product is highly regarded for its unique antimicrobial properties. Chicory honey is recommended for people suffering from hypertension, flatulence, colitis, angina pectoris, inflammation of the kidneys and bladder.

In addition, this variety is indicated for migraines, neurasthenia, depression and insomnia. It also has a beneficial effect on the nervous system and helps get rid of bouts of irritability. Experts assure that those who consume one tablespoon of chicory honey three times a day are less likely to catch colds and receive all the vital trace elements and vitamins. It is believed that this product has a beneficial effect on the condition of the brain, blood vessels and heart muscle. Regularly drinking a glass of warm milk at night with a spoonful of chicory honey dissolved in it, you will get better sleep, improve your overall tone and feel a surge of vivacity.

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Honey accumulates the Power of the Earth, the Sun, and man uses it in his life. Beekeeping in Russia began since ancient times. Favorable climatic conditions, rich melliferous vegetation of meadows and forests contributed to abundant honey harvests. Before the rise of sugar production, honey was the only sweet food product, highly valued and was one of the commodities exported to other countries. The rent was paid with honey and wax.

By botanical origin, natural honey can be floral, mixed and honeydew.

1 flower honey obtained by processing plant nectar by bees. It can be monofloral (from one plant) and polyfloral (from several plants).

2 honeydew honey is formed by the processing of honeydew and honeydew by bees, which they collect from the stems and leaves of plants. This is the honey that bees produce in the hot dry summer not from the nectar of flowering plants, but from the sweet secretions of some insects: aphids, leaf beetles, worms (honeydew honey of animal origin) and from honeydew - sugar substances of some plants, such as linden, fir, spruce, oak, willow, maple, apple, hazel, larch, aspen, elm, pine, rose, pear, plum (honeydew honey of vegetable origin). Its color usually ranges from dark (black, tarry) and dark brown (honey from various deciduous trees) to dark green in the cells of the honeycomb. But from conifers, honeydew honey can be light yellow. Honeydew honey has a less pronounced aroma, depending on the source of the honeydew: it may be unpleasant, smell of burnt sugar, or not at all. The consistency is syrupy, viscous, honey does not melt in the mouth for a long time. Honeydew honey, being cheaper, is mainly used in bakery and confectionery production.

3.Mixed honey consists of a natural mixture of flower or honeydew honey. Polyfloral, or mixed (combined), flower honey bees are collected from various plants.

Usually such honey is named after the place of its collection:

• Mountain
• Lugovoi
• Steppe
• Forest

Sometimes such honey is dominated by honey from one or several plants, but more often in certain proportions it contains honey collected by bees from the flowers of many plants. The characteristics of mixed honey are variable. Its color can be from light and light yellow to dark, aroma and taste - from delicate and weak to sharp, crystallization to coarse-grained. Sometimes mixed honey may contain honeydew.

Blended honey obtained by mixing various botanical varieties of honey to align their indicators (color, aroma, taste).

So, when a small amount of dark buckwheat honey is added to light fireweed honey, honey is obtained that has a pleasant taste and color. Blending of honey is carried out only in the conditions of honey packaging enterprises if it is necessary to improve the presentation of the sold honey. The honey is thoroughly mixed by hand or using mechanical stirrers, allowed to settle, after which the foam is removed from the honey surface

Among floral monofloral honeys, the following are most common:

• Acacia honey is produced from white acacia flowers. Very light, transparent, crystallizes slowly. The crystals are fine-grained. Color - from white to golden yellow. It is in particular demand among honey gourmets because of its delicate piquant aroma and very delicate taste. Belongs to one of the best varieties.
• Hawthorn honey - high quality, dark color, bitter in taste, with a specific aroma.
• Heather honey is widespread in the forest regions of the north and northwest of our country. It is characterized by a strong aroma, specific (tart) taste. In liquid form, honey is dark amber, sometimes with a reddish tint. It is pumped out of combs with great difficulty or is not pumped out at all; it is not very suitable for wintering bees.
• Cornflower honey bees collect from a good honey plant - blue and field cornflower. Honey is greenish-yellow in color, has a pleasant aroma with an almond scent and a bitter taste.
• Buckwheat honey has a color palette ranging from dark yellow to dark brown with a reddish tint. Freshly pumped honey is the darkest with a cherry tint. It crystallizes into a homogeneous, most often coarse-grained mass of dark yellow or brown color. It has a peculiar pungent taste and pleasant aroma, which makes it easy to distinguish it from other honeys.
• Mustard honey is white or light yellow in color, quickly crystallizes into a fine-grained mass. It has a delicate aroma and pleasant taste.
• Melilot honey is collected from sweet clover flowers and has a very delicate and pleasant taste and aroma with a hint of vanilla. The honey is very light, watery white. Sometimes (depending on the soil) it has a golden or slightly greenish tint. Rated as one of the best varieties.
• Angelica honey is dark brown or reddish-amber in color. Differs in a specific taste and aroma, reminiscent of the smell of caramel. Very viscous, especially at low temperatures. Crystallizes slowly.
• Bees collect fireweed honey from the pollen and nectar of lilac-red flowers of narrow-leaved fireweed (ivan tea). Honey has a delicate taste and aroma. In the liquid form, it is transparent watery, in the crystallized state it is white. It crystallizes very quickly, often even in combs, the cage is fat-like or fine-grained.
• Clover honey is collected from white and yellow creeping clovers and has a delicate aroma and delicate taste.
• Maple honey has a light color, delicate aroma and excellent taste.
• Chestnut honey tastes bitter, light, sometimes darkish.
• Linden honey. The best sort of honey, has an extremely strong and pleasant aroma of flowering linden, its own specific taste, which is easily recognized even when mixed with other honey. The color of honey is white, sometimes completely transparent, often light amber, less often yellowish or greenish. In liquid form, honey is transparent-watery, the cage is fine-grained or fat-like.
• Sunflower honey in liquid form is bright yellow, golden or light amber, sometimes with a greenish tint. Differs in a delicate tart aftertaste, which decreases somewhat as it crystallizes, and a weak pleasant aroma. Fast crystallization is characteristic. The crystals are large, yellow or light amber in color, resembling ghee. Crystallization takes place even during the wintering of bees.
• Drunk, or poisonous, honey. Formed from nectar that bees collect from azaleas, rhododendrons, and other plants in the Caucasus Mountains. When using this honey, a person experiences signs of intoxication, nausea, dizziness, and fever. With prolonged storage, the toxicity of honey disappears.
• Tobacco honey, like chestnut honey, has a bitter taste and is dark in color. They are mainly consumed in the food industry.
• Cotton honey has a peculiar taste and aroma. Almost colorless in liquid form, and white in crystallized state. It crystallizes very quickly, already in the combs, a coarse-grained cage.

The list goes on ... The great length of our country from North to South and from West to East creates a variety of natural conditions for the growth of melliferous plants. Each region of the country is different in its specificity and determines the corresponding spectrum of honey by botanical origin.

Honey varieties are determined by:

1. on the lands where honey is collected (meadow, steppe, forest, mountain);
2. by color;
3. by the place of origin (for example, Bashkir honey - has a "sharp" taste and a special aroma or Altai honey is a unique honey, it has distinctive healing properties and a unique aroma, ecologically clean: in Altai, pristine nature, clean mountain air, unique and diverse vegetable world);
4. by the method of obtaining (honeycomb and centrifugal - this is when honey is pumped out of the honeycomb at a honey extractor).

By color, honey is divided into the following groups:

• Colorless (transparent, white) - white acacia, raspberry, white clover, white sweet clover.
• Light yellow - lime, red clover, sage, yellow melilot, field.
• Yellow - sunflower, pumpkin, cucumber, alfalfa, meadow, mustard.
• Dark yellow - buckwheat, heather, chestnut, tobacco, forest.
• Dark (with different shades) - cherry, citrus, from deciduous trees, some types of honeydew honey.

According to the technological principle, honey can be:

• Cell . This is honey, which is sold in combs of both store and nesting frames, provided that the bees did not brood in them.
• Sectional . This is honeycomb, enclosed in special sections, the walls of which are usually made of thin plywood or food grade plastic. Usually the section holds 400 - 500 g of honey;
• Pressed . Such honey is obtained only when it is not possible to pump it out at a honey extractor. This is honey collected by bees from heather. When squeezing this honey, the beekeeper is forced to violate the integrity of the rebuilt benign combs;
• Centrifugal. This is honey obtained by pumping out in a honey extractor. The properties of honey, its taste, smell, color do not change. The honey extractor is a part of the beekeeping equipment used to obtain centrifugal honey. The sealed honeycomb is first unsealed with a special beekeeper's knife, then inserted into the honey extractor and rotated. Under the action of centrifugal force, honey flies out of the cells and flows down the walls of the honey extractor into the tank, at the bottom of which there is a hole for draining the resulting honey into containers (milk flasks or other).
• Ghee or bath (honey flowing out of combs under the influence of high temperatures - "kapanets" - in the old days such honey was obtained in Russian baths, hence its name). Highest quality.

The purchase of honey will require special knowledge of how to choose honey, as you can often find a fake, when sugar, starch, flour are mixed into honey, and diluted. Honey should be homogeneous, smoothly flow in the jar from one wall to another. The label must contain the standard, variety, botanical type of honey, time and place of collection, name and address of the supplier.

Honey bactericidal (the ability to stop the growth of pathogenic bacteria) depends on its botanical origin. The maximum bactericidal activity is observed in honeydew spruce, pine and fir honey, as well as flower honey from chestnuts. The minimum is for honey from linden, heather, hogweed, clover.

The maturity of honey on the market is an indicator of its quality. The latter can be determined by wrapping honey on a spoon. Ripe, high-quality honey should not drip off the spoon.

Dip a stick in the honey. Real honey will follow it with a long thread, and when it breaks off, it first forms a turret on the surface of the honey, then slowly disperses. The fake honey will drip down and form a splash.

Distinguish by density:

• very liquid honey - honey from acacia, clover,
• liquid - honey from rapeseed, buckwheat, linden,
• thick - dandelion honey, unique sainfoin honey,
• glutinous - honeydew honey,
• gelatinous - heather honey.

"If you drop iodine on honey and it turns blue, then flour, starch was added to the honey?"

Experts assess this method as incorrect. Moreover, a small amount of starch can be introduced into honey by the bees themselves. But, on the other hand, starch syrup in honey, of course, should not be present. Again, it is better not to diagnose honey yourself, but to demand from the seller a quality certificate issued by the laboratory, which indicates the diastase number (diastase is an enzyme that bees secrete to break down starch). For acacia honey it cannot be less than seven, for spring honey - 13, buckwheat honey has a diastase of about 24-39. One of the most important indicators of the quality of honey is its moisture content. It should not exceed 21%. The moisture index of honey must also be indicated on the quality certificate.

Smell the honey: real honey is fragrant, fragrant, and falsified, as a rule, odorless.

Sour smell and the presence of air bubbles and foam on the surface in honey may indicate fermentation of the product. Fermentation of honey can occur if the product is not stored correctly. It is not advisable to eat such honey.

It is also worth paying attention to the conditions in which honey is stored.

The recommended room temperature for storing honey should not exceed 15 degrees Celsius, and the air humidity should not exceed twenty percent. Higher temperatures can help it ferment. Honey has the ability to very well absorb all the smells around it, so it should be kept in a tightly closed jar or wooden container.

In order to determine if sugar syrup has been added to the honey, simply put some honey on a piece of paper and set it on fire. If honey melts when burning, then you have high-quality honey, if honey is charred, then sugar has been added to it.

There is also "sugar honey" on sale, or artificial honey produced in the food industry. In terms of usefulness and medicinal properties, it practically has nothing in common with natural honey. It also has a weak aroma. Natural honey always has a rich and bright aroma, typical of the honey plant from which it is collected.

It is very similar to natural, but differs in chemical composition and medicinal food qualities. It is produced in two ways - chemical or by feeding bees. Beekeepers get this kind of honey when they feed the bees with sugar syrup. It is left in the hive to feed the bees in winter, but it is often brought in for sale. It is very difficult to distinguish it from natural in appearance (only an examination will show its quality in terms of the ratio of monosaccharides and disachars). The production and sale of artificial honey is allowed under its own name, that is, as a surrogate for natural honey.

Fake honey - is obtained by mixing natural and artificial honey (this is the lesser of ashes), adding sugar, starch, chalk, sugar molasses, juice, flour and other components.

If the seller of honey in the market is given a white label. This testifies to the high quality of his honey. Blue indicates low quality honey or honeydew honey.

May honey. First pitch honey is often called May honey. The name "May honey" is not associated with the characteristics of bee honey and has a purely common name among buyers. The name comes from those ancient times, when the chronology was different in Russia, and May began two weeks later than the current chronology. Then the first honey was pumped out this month. What is usually passed off as fresh May honey is more often than not old honey warmed up to make it transparent. It is highly undesirable to buy such honey, since it accumulates a harmful substance - the carcinogen methylfurfural. It is possible to determine that this is old warmed honey, again, by demanding a quality certificate from the seller and checking the diastase number - it is lower for heated honey.

The best option to avoid substandard or fake products is to buy honey in combs, as wax contains many useful substances.

We used to think that the best honey is the one collected from one plant: linden, buckwheat, etc., but now in the central zone of Russia, and in other regions, it is difficult to get honey from one plant.

For example, real linden honey can be collected only in the Far East, where linden makes up from thirty to fifty percent of the forest and is practically the only honey plant. In the old days, when herbicides were used in the fields to kill weeds, bees had to fly to buckwheat and collect buckwheat honey. Now, chemicals are not particularly used, and weeds, most of them excellent honey plants, grow a lot, as a result of which the bees have a wide choice: cornflowers, rape, sow thistle. That is why nowadays it is more correct to say this: linden honey with herbs, buckwheat honey with herbs, etc. It is interesting that the pronounced taste and smell of buckwheat in honey will appear even when the buckwheat nectar is only ten percent. Experts note that honey collected from other melliferous plants (including those from the same cornflowers or colza) is no worse in quality than the varieties we are used to.

From Russian history

" Once upon a time, Catherine II issued a decree to whip merchants with "thin" honey in November and later. Unfortunately, now this Decree is not being implemented, therefore, before the new year, and even in spring, the shelves in Russian stores are completely filled with transparent unsweetened "honey", i.e. a deliberate falsification. "

The only real guarantee of the quality of purchased honey is a personal acquaintance with the beekeeper, confidence in his decency and the knowledge that his apiary is located in a safe area. Therefore, it is best to buy honey from a familiar beekeeper right at his apiary. And one beekeeper cannot have honey from the North Caucasus and the Far East at the same time.

It is very difficult to find real honey with royal jelly. Royal jelly can be collected from one hive as little as a few grams.

According to the conclusion of the professor of the Agricultural Academy. Timiryazeva Yu.A. Cherevko:

“... all varieties of natural honey improve the functioning of the heart, strengthen the nervous system, blood vessels, increase immunity, stimulate the excretory systems and improve the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, increase potency, etc., that is, have a beneficial effect on our health in general ".

Therefore, there is no honey specially designed for the treatment of any one disease.

Honey color depending on its origin

№	Plant	Honey color
01	Common apricot	brown-yellow
02	Acacia	pale yellow
03	Hawthorn	dark brown
04	Knapweed	meadow brown
05	Veronica	white
06	Common cherry	light brown
07	Mustard white	lemon yellow
08	Common buckwheat	dark brown
09	Pear	light green
10	Melilot yellow	golden yellow
11	Oak	yellow-green
12	Tatar honeysuckle	yellow hot
13	Willow	light yellow
14	Blooming Sally	green
15	Horse chestnut	burgundy
16	Common chestnut	dark red
17	Clover white	brown
18	Clover red	chocolate
19	Maple holly	dark yellow
20	Maple tatar	grayish white
21	Maple-sycamore	greyish yellow
22	Mullein	meadow brown
23	Linden	pale green
24	Sowing alfalfa	dirty gray
25	Raspberries	grayish white
26	Combined fescue	white
27	Dandelion medicinal	orange
28	Walnut	yellow-green
29	Plantain	grayish white
30	Sunflower	golden yellow
31	Rape	lemon yellow
32	Radish	pale yellow
33	Common bruise	dark blue
34	Plum	yellowish brown
35	Phacelia	blue
36	Cherries	yellow-brown
37	Sainfoin	brown
38	Apple tree	dirty yellow

The taste, color, aroma and consistency of honey are one of the main criteria by which the quality of a product can be judged. Typically, when you buy honey, you have the opportunity to examine and taste it. From this article you will learn what the color of honey means, what the aroma, taste and texture of a natural product should be.

Honey color

The most difficult indicator, as there are many types of honey. If monoflera species are pumped out of approximately the same color (sunflower - yellow or light yellow, buckwheat - brown, sainfoin - white), then herb varieties of honey can be absolutely any color: from white and yellow to amber and dark brown. And yet the color of honey can tell you more.

The color of honey should be even, uniform, although if the jar is transparent, you can see small color transitions, hardly noticeable to the eye - after all, this is a natural product.

In crystallized bulk honey of many varieties, a pattern of white honey glucose is well read. When packing, it is removed from the bulk of honey, but it is impossible to remove 100% of glucose, and there is nothing for it. As a rule, only large layers of glucose on the surface are removed, at the same time removing small particles of wax and accidentally caught insects (bees and wasps). So if the honey has thickened and was repackaged without heating, you will surely see small color transitions or blurry white streaks in it.

Often honey is falsified by adding fillers and heating it. The glucose drawing after blending and overheating is not readable.

Scent of honey

Honey should have a pleasant fragrant aroma - each type is unique. When inhaling the aroma, pay attention to the sour smell or fermentation smell - it should not be there. Even if the honey is very beautiful in color, but smells unpleasant, it is spoiled.

Choose honey according to the flavor you like. For thousands of years, people have chosen their food by color and smell, and this is the right approach. Someone like the light fragrant aroma of honey in the first half of summer, someone like the bright and spicy types of the second half - choose the one that you like and eat with pleasure.

A Taste of Honey

Be sure to taste the honey before buying and remember that the period of honey collection affects the brightness of the taste and richness of the bouquet. Spring and the first half of summer are delicate types of honey with mild sweetness. The second half - rich and spicy species, from which even the throat is sore.

From the first article in the series about honey, you should remember that honey is twice as sweet as sugar, while its taste is different from sugar. So how do you understand what kind of honey you have in front of you: flower honey made from nectar, sugar, just a sweet product or last year's overheated honey?

Honey is very sweet, but it has a taste - remember this phrase and appreciate how you felt when you ate some honey. First, you will feel exactly the taste of honey, then a soft sweetness spreads in your mouth, and your throat tingles a little, you feel astringency. If you eat sugar, then you instantly feel a sharp sweetness in your mouth, and only then sourness. So there is a difference in taste between natural flower honey, sugar and other sweet foods.

Fake honey made from sugar syrup will also not give a soft honey sweetness and the characteristic taste of a natural product, but will only give a sugary sweetness. Practice at home: first eat natural honey, and then a little water with sugar - and you will understand what this is about.

Heated honey tastes like burnt sugar (caramel) and loses its soft sweetness and bouquet. It looks like freshly pumped out, but at the same time it remains cloudy and liquid for a long time, and then completely exfoliates.

Honey consistency

The consistency of honey is different. It can be liquid if the honey is recently pumped out or crystallizes slowly (honey from white acacia can remain liquid and even transparent for up to two years). Or from hard to pasty - if crystallization has occurred (“set”). Depending on the size of the crystals, honey is divided into honey of "lard-like crystallization", fine-crystalline and coarse-crystalline honey.

"Fat-like crystallization" - when honey, even after the end of the crystallization process, remains soft, fluid, with hardly distinguishable crystals. Its consistency is reminiscent of butter. This is the most demanded honey. To get one, you need to successfully place apiaries on honey plants. The crystallization process is also influenced by the moisture content of the honey and the temperature.

Fine-crystalline honey can also be soft, it can be packaged well without heating the product, but you will still feel the crystals in such honey.

Honey with large crystals is, for example, pure sunflower, rapeseed, buckwheat. Such honey is also tasty, but less in demand in retail. It is suitable as a raw material for food production, as the crystals will melt in baked goods or dissolve in drinks.

It is good when the apiary is able to collect honey from both sunflower fields and herbs at the same time. Or immediately from buckwheat (gives spice) and sainfoin or phacelia (give sweetness and soft consistency). Then it turns out rich, but soft honey. Beekeepers know which melliferous plants give a large “cage”, and which ones are small, and can partially control the honey harvest and get the honey they need.

The consistency of honey, regardless of the size of the crystals, must be uniform. Sugar syrup honey also crystallizes. Its crystals are of medium size, but very hard (similar to sugar crystals). It has a faint aroma and tastes just sweet, without the characteristic honey bouquet.

Can natural honey flake?

Sometimes it happens: fructose flakes off. This is allowed for buckwheat and occurs with slightly crystallizing varieties of honey (white acacia, thistle). At the same time, natural honey is stratified into only two parts. The exfoliated fructose is more transparent than the color of honey, it forms from above in the form of a film of only a few millimeters. Such honey can be mixed and eaten without fear. It shouldn't have a sour smell.

Layering of honey into three parts is a clear sign of foreign filler. Such honey can have a flocculent sediment, "corals". To understand what product we are talking about, go to a chain store, where you will see amber or black-brown honey with two or three layers with "patterns".

So, what should be the consistency of natural liquid honey (freshly pumped) of the most delicate variety with a high fructose content and moisture less than 20%? It is thick and flows in long threads, folding like a slide. Counterfeit honey can be so liquid that it instantly flows when the can is tilted, and this is a sign of poor quality.

The taste, color, aroma and consistency of natural honey are influenced by nature itself and, of course, the experience and attitude of the beekeeper towards his work. Even the most experienced beekeeper, due to the weather or violation of the technology of honey production, may not work. I hope that the tips that Lyudmila Holtobina shared with us will be useful to you!

It can be interesting to look at familiar things from a different, sometimes bizarre angle. We usually don't think about it, but many everyday products are brands promoted by humanity with valuable properties inherent in each of them. For example, bread is perceived as a kind of noble product, created by hard human labor, which, even in difficult times, can saturate a person, satisfy his hunger. Milk, and always with the characteristic “village”, gives strength and health to our main hope in life - to children who are resting outside the city with their grandparents. And what is honey associated with? Perhaps honey is a healing mysterious formula of fields and its main connoisseurs and keepers - bees.
Unfortunately, in our times, an aura of mystery and secrecy is inherent not only in honey, but also in any product. It is very difficult to guess from what and under what conditions what they sell. There are several relatively simple ways to test honey for some parameters, but not all of them. Only a laboratory can give the most complete assessment. But something can be revealed at home without worrying about purchasing additional chemicals. But first you need to figure out how honey might look like.

Two honey states

The overwhelming majority of honey varieties change their appearance within a few months after harvesting: texture and color. This process is called crystallization (sugaring). Beekeepers use the term shrunken honey. In consistency, honey becomes more like a viscous lard with large or small sugar crystals inside. Crystallization does not affect the beneficial properties of honey: they are completely preserved. Basically, honey is candied 1-2 months after harvest, around October. But there are deviations from this, for example, mustard honey in an open dish thickens in 4-5 days, and honey from a white stock can stand until spring. If honey is hermetically sealed, it stays liquid longer.

Stone honey is a rather rare type of honey that is collected by wild bees that settle in the crevices of rocks and rocks. This honey contains very little moisture and is so strong that it has to be chipped off. Therefore, it is often stored without containers, simply wrapped in something.

Candied honey is more difficult to counterfeit because it is not easy to mimic this condition in appearance. When buying honey in winter, it is better not to take liquid honey - the probability is too great that the honey is fake or that it has been removed from the crystallized state by heating, which has a detrimental effect on the beneficial properties of the product. In summer, honey that has shrunk can be suspected of being last year's or even older.

Learning to distinguish varieties

Sellers often pass off a less popular variety for a more purchased one. Therefore, it would be nice to have an idea of \u200b\u200bhow to distinguish one honey from another. Honey varieties differ depending on the type of plant, the pollen from which predominates in the product. You can distinguish them by color, aroma and taste. This is a very difficult matter. There is no pure honey collected from only one type of plants, because you cannot tell bees to “don't go there, go here” and you cannot force bees to pollinate only one specific field. In addition, the color and even taste of honey depends on the area, the season of nectar collection. Remembering the subtlest shades of taste and distinguishing the predominance of one variety over another is an even more difficult task. Nevertheless, it is possible to describe a very wide range of colors for each variety. MirSovetov will consider only a few varieties that can be found on the shelves.
Acacia... Freshly picked honey is transparent. When sugared, it is white, reminiscent of snow.
Buckwheat... The color of honey made from the nectar of buckwheat flowers turns out to be dark yellow, often a noticeable reddish tint, sometimes dark brown.
Clover... Color from amber light to rich amber.
Forest... The color varies from faint yellow to light brown, reddish.
Lime... The color is most often from white to amber, can be transparent. Yellowish and greenish tints are also acceptable.
Lugovoi... The color of light tones is from yellow to brown.
Crimson... Although the raspberry berries are red, the flowers are white, so the honey is light in color.

Methods for determining unripe honey

The collected honey is sealed by bees in hundreds of squares with wax caps. But they do not do this right away, but allow excess moisture to evaporate, along the way the workers supply honey with special substances that, by killing bacteria and microorganisms, do not allow honey to deteriorate. It turns out that the already collected and almost finished product is brought to the ideal state by the bees. This process is called honey ripening. In a marketplace where everyone wants to reap the benefits faster and more, many unscrupulous beekeepers empty the hives long before the bees think they are ready. This allows them, to the detriment of the quality of the product, to start selling it earlier than others, and the bees, left completely without honey, instinctively begin to harvest it more actively. Why is unripe honey bad? The main thing is that it contains too much moisture. And the point here is not even that you overpay for ordinary water, even worse, that the quality of the product suffers. Such honey is not stored for a long time, it quickly begins to ferment and changes its taste and healing qualities. The main thing that indicates the immaturity of honey is an excess of water in the product. This is MirSovetov and proposes to determine using the methods below.

Good honey can be stored for a very long time if kept in an inert environment that does not interact with the product. It is better not to use an iron container that is not covered with enamel, it reacts with its contents. It is better to use ceramic or wooden utensils instead of plastic for storage. In the old days, beekeepers stored honey in linden wood barrels, properly oiled with wax. In them, honey did not spoil for several hundred years. Honey was revered by the ancient Greeks and Egyptians as the food of the gods. In the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs, pots of honey were found, which has retained its food qualities to this day.

By density and viscosity... Ripe honey is quite thick, flows down very nicely: in whole wide ribbons or elastic threads. To check the density, the following procedure is carried out at a temperature of about 20 degrees. Scoop up honey with a tablespoon, and then begin to rotate it, holding it horizontally. Ripe honey, finding itself, in turn, now on the spoon, then under it, when the spoon is turned upside down, only has time to start stretching, hanging down from it, the viscous ribbon, being at the bottom, winds around the spoon when turning. As a result, the spoon from all sides will be under the layers of honey, will be wrapped by them. If you stop rotating the spoon, the honey will drip lazily from it, without instantly merging with the honey in the jar, it will creep, leaving a slide on the surface. If the honey is immature, then when rotating it will flow down without lingering, it will look more like glue. As a result, the trickles are thin, do not stretch, often break off, perhaps even drip. And the surface of the honey is quickly leveled.
By weight and volume... Honey contains many particles, heavier than water. 1 liter of honey must weigh at least 1.4 kg, in extreme cases, you can risk buying a product weighing at least 1.2 kg. per liter. If the weight is less, then most likely the honey contains too much water, which makes it so light. When weighing in a dish, do not forget that the container itself, especially if it is glass or iron, has a significant weight. Therefore, pre-weigh the empty container, and the resulting weight must be subtracted from the result.
Paper Wet Test... Put some honey on a piece of recycled paper like newspaper. If a drop begins to spread, the paper around it gets wet, then this indicates an excessive content of water in the honey or the honey is unnatural. Real honey will not wet the newspaper, but the drop will be elastic.
By water absorption... If a piece of soft bread is dipped into honey, it will not get wet, it may even become harder, because honey is very hygroscopic and absorbs moisture and odors from the environment well, practically dehydrating everything around. If the bread is wet, the product is spoiled.
"Carbonated" honey... Take a close look at the surface of the honey. If you see a slight movement of bubbles floating up from the inside, foam on the surface, it means that the honey has fermented due to moisture, lack of protective substances due to its immaturity. Fermentation is also indicated by the sour smell and alcoholic taste of honey. Such honey is spoiled and without heat treatment, which will devalue all the useful properties of honey, it is not suitable for food.
Two layers... If you are going to purchase already sugared honey and found that it has evenly stratified into two layers of different density, then you should know that this is most often caused by the immaturity of the honey. If you are not sure about the quality, then it is better not to take such honey.

Methods for determining other additives

To prevent the buyer from noticing obvious signs of a spoiled product, sellers sometimes go to various tricks. They add something to honey that has never been in it. This gives the honey a nice natural look, masking its initially poor condition. You can try to identify some of the tricks of the sellers by the following methods.
Determination of foreign sediment... If you put a tablespoon of honey in a glass of warm water, then it should completely dissolve, sometimes making the water slightly cloudy. To be sure, you can heat the water to 50 degrees to help the honey particles melt and mix in the water. If you find that, after dissolving in water, a precipitate appeared, which fell to the bottom or floated, then this indicates the presence of impurities in the honey.
Determination of chalk additive... The presence of chalk is determined with an acid such as acetic acid. When chalk interacts with acetic acid, a reaction occurs with an intense release of carbon dioxide, you can hear hissing. It looks like a boil in water. For the test, it is better to take vinegar essence, and not acid diluted with water. The reaction may not be noticeable if the chalk is too small or the acid does not get on it. For reliability, it is better to stir a little honey in water, wait until the chalk precipitates, carefully drain the water, leaving the chalk at the bottom, getting a sufficient concentration of chalk for the experiment.
Determination of starch additive... You can reveal the addition of starch if you drop a little iodine into the honey. When iodine interacts with starch, a chemical reaction occurs, and the iodine changes color to blue. The more intense the color, the more starch the product contains. There is no starch in natural honey, and a drop of iodine will remain unchanged. For the reliability of the dough, it is better to dilute a little honey with water in a ratio of 1/2. Bring this solution to a boil and add a little iodine there. If there was flour in the honey instead of starch, then the result will be exactly the same.
Determination of starch syrup... It is detected when it interacts with ammonia. The latter reacts with sulfuric acid, which is used in the molasses production process and remains in very small quantities in this food product. Ammonia is added dropwise to an aqueous 50% solution of honey. If the solution changes color to brown and a precipitate of the same color forms, then the honey has been "flavored" with molasses.

Identifying artificial honey

Organoleptic test... Simply put, you have to taste the honey. Natural honey should taste pleasant, slightly tart; it should completely melt in the mouth, leaving no sediment, solid particles, or strong crystals on the tongue. There can be nothing in natural honey that does not dissolve in the mouth. You can also feel a slight irritation of the mucous membranes of the throat and nose, burning, tingling - this is also a good sign of natural honey. If you feel the taste of caramel, then most likely it is warm honey. Such a product, due to heat treatment, loses all its useful properties. It is heated in order to present the already crystallized honey as just harvested.
By heterogeneity... If you look closely, natural honey will not be very homogeneous: you can distinguish wax and pollen in it in the form of small particles evenly distributed in the thick of honey. Sometimes (with poor filtration of honey) insect wings and other natural material can be found. If there are no particles at all, then the honey is originally unnatural, but made from molasses, vegetable juices and other substitute products. This cocktail is not harmful. But there is nothing from honey at all. Artificial honey does not crystallize during storage.

Soft falsification

Among all natural varieties of honey, honeydew is distinguished due to its slightly different nature. Honey honey is of animal origin (it is collected from the sugary secretions of other insects), as well as vegetable (it is made from the sticky secretions of plants and trees, which often fall to the ground, where bees pick them up). This honey appears in the combs in the event that there is not enough nectar in the departure area or there is none at all. The taste of such honey is bitter, its color is from greenish to dark, sometimes it is brown or even black. It is one of the most viscous varieties of honey, although if it contains a proportion of floral varieties, it may be less dense and lighter in color. The disadvantages of honeydew honey include its weak antibacterial properties and sometimes a bad taste. The origin and short shelf life of this variety also does not make it popular, although it has its own unique set of beneficial trace elements.

Australian scientists in Queensland have revealed the ability to count in bees, but only up to 4. They made their way out of the hive through a dark tunnel, where they placed bright markers that are easily visible to honey plants. One of them was constantly filled with nectar. When the bees got used to it, the treat was removed. However, despite the fact that the scientists changed the shape, the distance between them and the location in the pipe of all markers, bees continued to show an increased interest in the one of them, which previously had nectar. But if the nectar was further than the 4th marker, then the bees do not pay attention to the mark freed from nectar.

Identification of honeydew honey... 96% ethyl alcohol is added to an aqueous 50% solution of honey. It is not recommended to take another concentration of alcohol, otherwise the reaction may not occur. For one part of the honey solution, add 10 parts of alcohol. For the reaction to proceed, the mixture must be shaken several times. If the solution became very cloudy and white turbidity appeared, the flower honey was diluted with paddy. If flakes of sediment have fallen out, then there may be no flower honey at all. In pure flower honeys, the appearance of turbidity is possible, but it will be weakly expressed. Thus, it is impossible to test varieties of honey containing, like honeydew, a large amount of nitrogenous substances. These include buckwheat and heather honey.
Another "sort" of honey, which, in contrast to honeydew, unnatural, also try not to buy - is sugar honey. Such honey appears in the combs if the beekeeper feeds his honey plants with sugar syrup. This makes it possible to quickly fill the hives with a low-quality product, which is much closer in its performance to regular sugar than to honey, and is sold at the price of the latter. At first glance, this honey can be classified as natural, but experts clearly classify it as counterfeit products.
Revealing sugar honey... It can be distinguished without further experimentation. Sugar honey is suspiciously white. If you try it, then it looks more like sweetened water, the taste is relatively bland and empty, it lacks the astringency characteristic of this product. The aroma is also weakened. Fresh honey is watery, and lying honey has a gelatinous consistency, weakly crystallizes. At home, you can test sugar honey with milk. If you add a little sugar honey to hot cow's milk, it curdles.

Of course, the considered methods do not allow revealing all falsifications. After all, there is also the threat of honey infection with bee diseases and poisoning with "drunken" honey, for which nectar is collected from trees poisonous to humans. Identification of these threats is possible only in laboratory conditions. But MirSovetov hopes that this article helped to define at least some benchmark for high-quality honey.

According to experts, the use of honey in the amount of 2-3 teaspoons per day normalizes metabolism and improves immunity. In addition, this sweet treat prevents the development of inflammatory processes and neutralizes infections.

There are a lot of varieties of honey and each of them has its own unique properties, which largely depend on the place of collection of the product. But all varieties have common features: any natural honey has antimicrobial, antibacterial and antioxidant effects. Honey collected in the meadows of Altai is very valuable. Excellent melliferous herbs grow here. By the way, before people learned how to make sugar, honey replaced it and for a long time remained the only sweet product.

The scope of honey application is wide enough. It is used not only as a food product, but is also a constituent component of many medicines, and is also actively used in the cosmetic industry. It is used in the production of shampoos, balms, creams. In folk medicine, honey is famous as an excellent wound healing agent. It is believed that its application to open wounds accelerates regenerative processes.

Now, in spring, everyone who breeds bees is busy organizing and equipping apiaries so that the bees can work fruitfully and rest comfortably throughout the warm period. And with the arrival of autumn, numerous honey fairs will begin, and all buyers will have the same question: what kind of honey to choose? It is rather difficult to single out the most useful among the many varieties. Our top five looks like this, and you yourself decide which healthy delicacy you prefer.

1. Buckwheat honey

This dark honey is considered to be one of the best varieties. Buckwheat honey is easy to recognize by its pronounced taste and characteristic aroma. This honey comes in a variety of colors, usually ranging from brownish green, sometimes with a red tint, to dark brown. Bees produce it from buckwheat flowers. Buckwheat honey is very rich in amino acids and trace elements. It has general tonic properties, has a beneficial effect on the heart, relieves pain symptoms in gallstone disease, is indicated for anemia, colds, hypertension, gastritis, liver diseases, skin diseases and kidney failure.

2. Linden honey

Linden honey has a magical smell and delicious delicate taste. It is usually white, light amber, or greenish yellow. Linden honey tastes differently depending on where it was harvested. The Far Eastern product has the most delicate taste and light aroma of linden flowers, and collected in the European part of Russia it is characterized by a sharp bouquet and rich taste.

This honey is indispensable when it comes to treating bronchitis, tonsillitis, flu, laryngitis, rhinitis, bronchial asthma, as well as kidney and gastrointestinal tract diseases. It perfectly heals burns and purulent wounds. Its secret is in high bactericidal properties, which make it a good helper in the fight against inflammatory processes.

3. Melilot honey

Melilot honey is a real storehouse of vitamins and other substances useful for the human body. Its color can range from amber to nearly white with a greenish tint. It has a delicious taste: sweet with a pungent bitterness. Melilot honey often has a light hint of vanilla.

Due to its unusual taste and useful properties, this type of honey is very popular among connoisseurs. Melilot honey saves from insomnia, has a strong sedative effect. It helps with bowel diseases, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic problems. Compresses with propolis are good for pain relief from abrasions, cuts, bruises and sprains.

4. Acacia honey

We will not be mistaken if we call acacia honey one of the most famous. A bee can collect about 1.5 thousand kilograms of honey from one hectare of flowering acacia trees. And one tree allows the bee family to produce 8 kilograms of sweet treats.

Immediately after pumping, acacia honey is transparent; it gradually acquires its traditional whitish color during crystallization. The main feature of this product is the almost identical content of fructose and glucose. Acacia honey is an excellent general tonic, useful for gastrointestinal diseases, kidney disease and nervous disorders. It has a sedative effect, relieves insomnia.

5. Esparcet honey

Moderately sweet and pleasantly scented sainfoin honey is initially transparent, but sometimes has a light amber hue, and after crystallization becomes white.

This honey is especially valuable because of its fullness with vitamins, minerals and biologically active substances. It is rich in carotene, contains many valuable enzymes and ascorbic acid. Esparcet honey helps to strengthen the immune system, therefore it is recommended for people who are often sick. It has a tonic effect and has a beneficial effect on the nervous system.