Crystallization of bee honey is a natural phenomenon. Liquid amber dessert changes structure and color over time. A few months after collection, it becomes thick, heterogeneous, loses its transparency and turns white. The beneficial qualities of honey do not suffer from this, but often consumers prefer a liquid product. After all, such a dessert is more convenient to spread on sandwiches, add to drinks, use for baking and home cosmetics. Therefore, many will be interested to know whether it is not candied and why it retains its original appearance.
It is not surprising that honey becomes sugar over time. This is a natural process that speaks of the naturalness of the product. Depending on the consistency that the dessert acquires over time, there are three types of crystallization:
What kind of honey can remain in its original form for a long time? The sugaring ability of natural honey depends on the ratio of its two important components - glucose and fructose. Crystallization of the product occurs precisely due to glucose, therefore, varieties of honey with a predominance of fructose retain their liquid consistency and a pleasant golden hue for much longer.
But often this is not the only reason, there are other reasons why honey is not candied. Let's list the main ones:
Important! To protect yourself from counterfeiting, learn how to identify overheated honey. After heat treatment, it acquires a dark shade and loses the pleasant tart aroma characteristic of an untreated product.
Don't forget that early spring honey is often counterfeited. The fact is that in appearance, the early varieties resemble honey, which bees produce after feeding with sugar. It is much easier to distinguish a natural May product at the beginning of autumn, when it is infused and shrinkage begins.
Whichever type of honey you choose, remember: a natural delicacy cannot always remain liquid. Over time, at least slight signs of crystallization should appear in it. Therefore, pay attention to the bottom of the vessel - this is where the first sediment forms over time.
But what if the honey bought on the market does not crystallize much longer than usual and there are doubts about its naturalness. How to check the quality of the flower dessert in this case? Find a teaspoon of an old, candied product, add some liquid to it and stir until smooth. Then pour this mixture into a bowl of honey and leave it in a cool dry place. If after two weeks the product began to be sugar-coated, then it is natural.
The tendency of honey to be sugared depends on what kind of honey plant prevails in it. Some varieties begin to change consistency within a couple of months after harvest, while others remain liquid even after a year. The following types of honey are candied most slowly:
If you like liquid transparent dessert, try to get one of the listed varieties and store it in optimal conditions. Then you do not have to spend efforts on melting honey, and you will be able to enjoy the healthy unprocessed product for a long time.
This is sugaring. Such a product changes its structure as a result of the formation of crystals.
This is influenced by a number of specific factors. Therefore, it is necessary to know which honey is not candied and how to determine it.
When the bee product changes from liquid to solid. The essence of this process is that sugar crystals begin to form in it. They are significantly heavier than other components of honey.
As a result, sugar crystals sink to the bottom. This leads to the fact that it begins to crystallize from the bottom up.
The rate of setting the product depends on many factors, among them the following can be distinguished:
For most people, when buying honey, the question arises, which honey is not candied and why? As mentioned earlier, the crystallization of honey is directly dependent on its type. In turn, the type of bee product depends on the type of flowers from which the pollen was collected.
Experienced people say that there is no pure honey. He will always have impurities in him. But at the same time, the amount of pollen from one type of flowers will always prevail. This is the determining factor in determining the name of the honey variety, as well as its healing and taste qualities.
It is safe to say that only a natural product is practically not candied. These include the following varieties:
It is not enough to understand which honey does not crystallize and why, it is also necessary to know how to quickly and easily check the quality of the product.
There are several correct ways:
The crystallization process depends on many factors: grade, pumping time, saving conditions, and others. In order to extend the shelf life of a product, you need to know how to test it for naturalness.
What consistency and color should a natural product be, why honey is liquid or too thick, and how to distinguish a real product from a fake? For a beginner, and for people who are not professionally engaged in beekeeping, it is not so easy to understand these issues. In addition, more and more often you can come across fraudsters who instead of this valuable product offer counterfeit products. Let's try to find out what kind of honey is liquid and remains so for a long time. So let's get started.
Natural honey is a product with exceptional taste and nutritional qualities. This is a fairly high-calorie product (about 328 kcal), its composition is close to blood plasma. 200 g of honey is nutritionally equivalent to 480 g of fish oil. Honey improves metabolism, enhances digestion, stimulates appetite, increases hemoglobin. Helps with cardiovascular diseases, as well as liver and stomach. This product contains folic acid, which is beneficial for the growth and development of children. It is even called the elixir of youth. Attention should be paid to the fact that one liter of mature honey should contain 1.4 kilograms.
Buy in total in summer or autumn. It is during this period that the bees-workers begin their work, which will continue until the last fine days. At this time, fresh liquid honey is obtained, so it is collected from the honeycomb. After the time has passed, the moisture evaporates and it begins to thicken.
Let's consider in more detail the quality of a natural product. This will help you not to make the wrong choice.
It is she who is the first sign of a quality product. The mass must be homogeneous, no delamination or precipitation is allowed. The consistency of the product directly depends on the season, air temperature. In the summer, when they start pumping it, honey is liquid, closer to winter the consistency becomes thicker. Usually, with the onset of cold weather, the process begins; it becomes thicker, lighter and more turbid. An exception is acacia honey, which crystallizes much later. Natural honey cannot have a liquid consistency in winter. If honey has a liquid consistency in winter, it means that it was heated on the stove or the bees were fed with sugar.
The next method is used to check only young liquid honey: you need to scoop it up in a jar with a spoon and lift it up, natural honey stretches for a very long time and flows down in a continuous stream. If you put it on a plate, it lays down in a slide, and only then spreads over the surface. You can take a spoonful of nectar and twist it around its axis, a high-quality product will wrap around it, and unripe honey flows down immediately. If you take a little honey and rub it between your fingers, the natural one will immediately be absorbed, and the fake one will turn into a lump.
The taste of real honey is not only sweet, it should also be slightly bitter, cause a slight tickle in the throat and have a tart taste.
Natural honey has a pleasant, unobtrusive scent of flowers. The fake product either has no aroma at all, or it can be harsh, caramelized.
The color of the finished product directly depends on which honey plant the bees collected nectar from. Linden honey is amber, buckwheat honey is brown, and flower honey has a light shade. The white color indicates that the bees were fed sugar.
It is not difficult to make honey liquid; for this you can melt the crystallized product. However, it should be remembered that when heated above 40 ° C, all useful substances disappear from it, which is not so scary. When this product melts, a substance is formed - oxymethylfurfural, which is a real poison. There are three ways to heat honey:
The answer is simple enough - fresh, freshly pumped honey contains about 22 percent water. After a while, the liquid evaporates and the crystallization process begins. The consistency of the product may vary, depending on the variety and storage temperature.
Honey lovers often ask themselves which honey is better and healthier - thick or liquid? The answer is simple: crystallization does not impair the quality of honey in any way. If the mass is homogeneous with sugar crystals, this is considered the norm for such a product. The use of honey depends on which honey plants it is collected from.
Sometimes the acquired honey has a liquid consistency, stratification is observed, the thick fraction settles at the bottom, and the liquid fraction, on the contrary, rises upward, there are no sugar crystals. This means that the purchased product is immature, most likely the temperature regime has been violated, as a result of which the honey has a high humidity. Therefore, honey aging is very important. A poor-quality product may soon foam and ferment.
Among the natural varieties of honey, there are those that are candied later than others. This must be taken into account when buying.
This honey is the earliest, they start pumping it out in the first month of summer. For him, bees collect pollen from the very first honey plants: bird cherry, apple, cherry, lily of the valley. It is considered one of the most valuable varieties of natural honey. This variety contains a lot of fructose. It is known that it is often sold as a fake because it is very similar to the product developed after feeding bees with sugar syrup. It is better to buy this kind of honey in the fall, when it will last well.
White honey variety has a unique aroma and taste. It contains 40% fructose and 35% glucose, as a result of this and due to the moisture that it contains, the product does not crystallize within 1-2 years. Acacia honey is very liquid, once pumped out, and retains this consistency for a long time.
Real chestnut color and very viscous consistency. The crystallization process takes from six months to a year, but even in this form, it has an excellent taste. Crystals of hardened honey are similar to gelatin granules. With prolonged storage, its structure becomes coarser. This variety has the ability to flake off, but this does not mean that it is not real, but is considered its special quality.
This is another white honey, just like acacia honey, it remains in liquid form - from 1.5 to 3 months. Linden honey - viscous consistency. When crystallized, it becomes similar to semolina with lumps.
The variety is dark in color, while it is orange and brown. Contains a huge amount of minerals. Honey has a rather tart taste with bitterness. When eaten, it may have a slight sore throat. It crystallizes very quickly, so it must be stored properly. Recommended to use to boost immunity.
It is necessary to choose the right utensils for storing honey. For this purpose, you can use glass, ceramic, wood, metal containers. In the room intended for storing the product, the temperature can be from +6 to +20 degrees, but at room temperature, the crystallization process will begin much earlier. If the refrigerator has a dry freeze function, honey can be stored in it too. This product has the ability to absorb odors, therefore it is recommended to store it separately. It should not be placed in a bright place, the light will destroy its antimicrobial properties. During storage, liquid honey turns cloudy, darkens, becomes thicker - this is a completely normal stage of its maturation.
Many people who purchase tasty bee products are interested in the question of whether honey should be candied and which honey is not candied. Crystallization is a natural process that changes the structure of the product and its color. After a certain amount of time, the dessert becomes viscous, begins to turn white and loses its original color. Most buyers give their preference to a liquid delicacy, but the question of whether they are doing the right thing, and whether the honey should be candied, still worries everyone.
To answer the question of how and why honey is candied, you need to understand what is included in the product. A few months after collecting the bee product, it can begin to thicken, then turn white, its color becomes lighter, and the consistency is thicker, what does this mean? Such a process may mean that honey is being sugared.
Natural honey contains a large amount of substances such as fructose and glucose. Honey is candied in accordance with the ratio of carbohydrates contained in the product and glucose. If the amount of glucose in the sweetness reaches up to 35%, then honey quickly begins to crystallize. This happens for a simple reason, glucose is converted into sweet crystals that settle to the bottom.
There are varieties of bee products in which fructose predominates. It is thanks to her that honey is not sugar-coated so quickly or should not be sugar-coated at all for a long time (sometimes even more than one year). Fructose helps to envelop the components that make up the delicacy, and this, in turn, prevents the formation of crystals. If the honey is sugared, don't worry.
Candied honey does not lose its useful properties at all and does not mean that the quality of the delicacy is poor. It is equally well taken in food, used as an additive to desserts and drinks. If there is a desire, then you can melt the candied honey, while maintaining all its useful qualities. But the main thing is to do it right, for this you need to remember that you cannot heat the product to more than 50 degrees, so as not to lose its beneficial properties. It is best to melt the sweetness in a water bath.
There are several reasons why honey can become sugar-coated. They are affected by certain factors, these include:
It depends on the variety whether the honey will be candied. For example, such varieties of "gold" as sunflower and buckwheat do not retain their freshness for so long (only about a month). The sugared product does not differ in quality from the liquid consistency. And there are varieties of sweets, such as acacia or May, which retain their liquid consistency for a long time. How long can such honey be stored in a liquid state? Such varieties can remain liquid for more than one year in a row. A non-crystallizing product has a higher demand from buyers.
None of the types of real honey can remain permanently in a liquid state. In any case, the honey should be candied after a year or several years. But if you observe the correct storage of the product, then you can leave it for a long time in a liquid consistency. How to store honey properly and how long will it stay fresh? You need to store the sweetness in a dark and cool place; a basement is good for this, but there should not be excessive moisture there. If you follow the requirements, then a year or two you can feast on a viscous sweetness.
For example, the sweetness of acacia is similar to syrup, so the liquid consistency can delight you for 2-3 years. The linden product may not completely sugar, but only become pasty. The chestnut bee product has a bright and rich color with a brown tint. It is capable of not crystallizing for half a year.
May honey is harvested in late May or early summer. Such a product is able to maintain its liquid consistency for 1-2 years, since it contains a large amount of fructose.
The main thing is to remember that in no case should you add sweetness to hot drinks, since a healthy product will lose its healing properties. Candied honey can be melted before drinking.
There are times when a long period of time passes, and a tasty and sweet product is still not sugared. Why is honey not sugar-coated and how much time is needed for this?
The reasons may be various factors, for example, the water content in the delicacy exceeds the norm. Some beekeepers deliberately dilute the delicacy with syrup in order to lure customers, because such a sweetness cannot crystallize.
Another reason why fresh honey is not sugared is that there is not enough pollen in its composition. The beekeeper is in no way guilty of this, the bees themselves determine the rate for the development of their bee "gold".
Stirring the treat constantly can prolong the period at which the sweetness remains in a liquid state. Storing a sweet product at a low temperature can freeze the sugar process a little, this will not in any way affect its beneficial properties.
Do not forget that there are some varieties that, without adding impurities, can be stored in a liquid state for a long time.
A bee product can be in a liquid state and crystallized, which raises the question, is a sugar-coated product useful or not? Of course, you should not question the benefits of such a delicacy. Indeed, during crystallization, its color changes, a little taste sensations, but the beneficial properties remain unchanged. Most people, when choosing such a delicacy, prefer sweetness in a liquid state, but liquid does not mean healthy.
It is much easier to mix any impurities into a liquid consistency, for example, sugar syrup. Thanks to him, honey is not only diluted, but also does not become sugar-coated for a long time, thereby attracting the attention of buyers. After all, liquid sweetness is much easier to spread on bread, and it is more pleasant to eat it than to chip off a solid product.
When choosing a delicacy, you should pay attention to the candied sweetness, which has a huge amount of useful and nutritious substances. The bee product can be used for medicinal purposes, for example, for angina (it is enough to eat one or two spoons daily on an empty stomach with warm water or milk), with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, with high blood pressure, as well as with bruises, bruises and sores ( you can make various lotions and compresses based on the bee product).
There are several ways that you can quickly and correctly melt a treat so that the product does not lose its useful properties. Among them, the following three methods are noted:
So, most people who purchase this healthy sweetness ask many questions about whether a sugared product is useful, which delicacy is better to choose, which one will be healthier: sugared or having a liquid consistency. Sweetness begins to crystallize as a result of the fact that it contains a large amount of glucose, which prevails over the rest of the components, therefore crystals appear.
In cases where fructose predominates in the product, it may not be sugar-coated for a long period of time, sometimes even several years. The crystallization process can be slightly slowed down or suspended if the sweetness is stored properly under the necessary conditions: in a dark, cool place free of moisture. The benefits of the sugared bee product remain unchanged. During crystallization, the beneficial properties do not leave the delicacy. It is best to purchase sweetness from trusted and reliable beekeepers. A liquid product or a thickened product is everyone's personal choice. The main thing to remember is that if you wish, you can melt the sugared delicacy in a water bath.
Anyone who loves bee products wondered if honey should be sugared. Definitely should, since this is the first sign of its natural composition. When honey is candied, its shelf life is increased. Although there are varieties that even sugaring does not save from souring. Each variety has its own characteristics and can crystallize in different ways. At the same time, the sugared product does not lose its usefulness.
Many people consider the liquid state of a product to be an indicator of freshness, regardless of the season. This opinion is erroneous. For the most part, a non-candied product indicates a counterfeit product. It can also be a sign of deliberate heating in order to improve the external characteristics of the product. Based on the above, it is not difficult for beekeepers to identify falsification in appearance. We will find out further about the reasons why honey is candied, what it means and whether it is right.
Should honey be sugared? All supersaturated substances, including useful sweetness, cannot be in one aggregate form for a long time. Based on the laws of physics, such substances should precipitate. This is followed by the process of restoring the water balance, which leads to the return of the solution to saturated.
Honey candied
In the case of honey products, sugar, as a poorly soluble element, turns out to be superfluous. As a result, white flocculent crystals can be seen. This explains why fresh honey quickly became candied. The time it takes for the product to freeze will depend on the ratio of fructose to glucose in the composition. When the second substance predominates, crystallization is faster. Sugar fructose will not work, and winter will pass with fresh and healthy liquid honey.
High levels of pollen and other solid ingredients are another reason the correct crop crystallizes. The crop, which is cleaned during processing, does not change its aggregate shape for a long time. Also, unripe honey, which is saturated with moisture from the environment, does not thicken. In this case, an increase in water molecules occurs, the product becomes less saturated with sugars and loses its naturalness.
Note! Rubbing a piece of sweetness with your fingers, you can talk about its naturalness. An artificial product will begin to roll into lumps, a natural product - after rubbing, it will simply be absorbed into the skin.
Now, knowing why honey is candied, it is easy to understand whether natural honey should be candied.
Knowing whether natural honey is candied, it should be remembered that this process does not in any way affect the usefulness of the product. The healing properties are also preserved. Although the resulting grain suggests that it is no longer recommended to store such a product for a long time.
It is worth considering! A fresh product contains more nutrients, which means it is healthier. On the contrary, there is less chance of fermentation and spoilage in a product that has crystallized, since in this form the honey is exposed to less pollution and the influence of light and air.
It is imperative to include honey products in the daily diet. Indeed, honey contains 22 of the 24 microelements necessary for the body. It is impossible to determine the quality of honey products, only focusing on crystallization. It should be borne in mind that the process of sugaring can be influenced not only by the type of honey, but also by many external factors. Thinking about whether real honey is candied, you need to understand that this is not the sign that will help to correctly determine the naturalness of the product without additional verification. One way or another, all products lend themselves to gradual crystallization.
Natural honey
The only thing that should be alarming is liquid homogeneous products in late winter and early spring. In such cases, more than one month has passed since the harvest, and it is no longer a season for fresh produce. All this suggests that the honey is additionally warmed up, which means that there are no nutrients there anymore. If the honey is not sugared before winter, then at least it should crystallize slightly, starting from the bottom, as can be seen by examining the bottom of the jar.
Attention should be paid to the fact that with the arrival of autumn there are almost no liquid products left. Most of it at this time either has already become sugar, or begins to crystallize.
Unknowingly, many connoisseurs of products take counterfeit honey for natural, giving the usual price for it. To avoid falsification, you should know how to choose real honey.
You can define natural products by the following criteria:
Honey is a living product that has its own stages of development and life. The sugaring process lasts for 1.5-3 months after harvest. A sugar cap may appear within a month if stored in a cold place. Honey must crystallize, because this is its natural process, which is typical for almost all types of quality products. When stored for a long time, products in combs in apiaries can become sugar-coated. It is this kind of honey that retains its beneficial properties for a long time.
Sugar cap on honey
Already in the fall, most of the sweetness begins to form crystals. First of all, the product becomes cloudy, after which a sugar film appears at the top. Initially, it hardens, then it becomes soft. Outwardly, each variety is different from each other. Some are characterized by an oily structure, others resemble simple sugar crystals. Regardless of the size of the crystals, all natural varieties should harden.
To preserve the liquid for a long period, the sweetness must be bought immediately after collection, keeping it in a warm place at room temperature. Such conditions will help to delay the process a little, but not cancel it. Storing honey at a temperature of 5 to 8 degrees will help to achieve oily fine crystallization.
The honey settling rate depends on the type of flowers from which the pollen is collected. The cultivars that are sugared last are:
Knowing what natural honey is, it is important to understand whether honey collected in the new season should be sugar. Beekeepers think they should. Not taking into account the properties, variety and storage conditions, all types of natural honey products must go through the crystallization process and change their original appearance. This can happen as early as a few weeks after harvest, or within a few months.
Fresh honey
For your information. For a long time, only artificial products can not change their structure.
Often, when buying products in the markets, it happens that fresh honey begins to acquire the consistency of melted granular lard. This is a completely normal natural product that speaks of early ripening of the crop. In addition, such a thickening may be associated with favorable temperature conditions in which the sweet purchase is stored.
Also, fresh produce thickens:
All this speaks only of the naturalness of sweet honey products. If you need to keep the liquid consistency longer, you can do the following: leave honey in a room with zero temperature for 1.5 months. Next, transfer the container to a place where it will be permanently stored at a temperature of no more than 14 degrees.
More than once it was necessary to observe that after mixing the honey, white crystals appear throughout the mass and the vessel. This is explained by the fact that crystallization spreads from the center of formation of crystals, which are, in fact, clots of pollen and other mechanical impurities mixed with glucose. When honey is mixed, the number of such centers increases, and the process is accelerated.
Crystallization of honey
In general, it is easy to explain why honey becomes sugar-free. A favorable condition for crystallization is considered to be a temperature of 15 degrees.
Also, this process is influenced by the following factors:
Summing up, it should be said that crystallization is an irreversible process, indicating the naturalness of beekeeping products without artificial additives. Due to the high glucose content in the composition, one way or another, honey will change its consistency from liquid to solid, forming sugar crystals that will solidify. We must not forget about the factors that can slow down or, conversely, accelerate the formation of crystallization centers.
It should also be said that after sugaring, honey products remain just as tasty and healthy, and the process itself does not in any way affect the healing qualities. The usefulness of such honey is no different from freshly pumped products. However, such a product is not recommended to be stored for a long period, since it is the fresh product that is considered the most useful.