Winnie the Pooh Lied to Me About Honey (Pics Included)

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Cheerilee said:
It's not entirely bullshit, because your beehive starts at around body temperature, and real honey will melt at body temperature, and slowly crystallize at room temperature. The honey you have in those bears will slowly harden and turn white, and you should probably keep it in jars that can be accessed with a spoon, not a squirt bottle (not exactly sure what kind of lids you have).

Real honey can have any number of different colors and textures.

Common store-bought processed honey goes beyond room temperature, they boil it, which breaks it, resulting in honey that looks like fresh honey, but will never crystallize again, and can actually go bad.

From an above-average consumer prospective, golden liquid honey = processed crap, whitish semi-solid honey = the good stuff. It's just that the good stuff can be both.
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This seems to explain it well enough, too: http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/information-about-honey.html

Also, do yourselves a favor and find some raw buckwheat honey. It's some of the best, most flavorful honey I've ever had. As far as supposed medicinal qualities of honey, the darker the better, from my limited reading, and buckwheat honey is nice and dark :-).
 
Cheerilee said:
It's not entirely bullshit, because your beehive starts at around body temperature, and real honey will melt at body temperature, and slowly crystallize at room temperature. The honey you have in those bears will slowly harden and turn white, and you should probably keep it in jars that can be accessed with a spoon, not a squirt bottle (not exactly sure what kind of lids you have).

Real honey can have any number of different colors and textures.

Common store-bought processed honey goes beyond room temperature, they boil it, which breaks it, resulting in honey that looks like fresh honey, but will never crystallize again, and can actually go bad.

From an above-average consumer prospective, golden liquid honey = processed crap, whitish semi-solid honey = the good stuff. It's just that the good stuff can be both.
Click to expand...

The bullshit was in the idea that creamed honey is the real raw stuff, and the clear honey is processed. The clear stuff (not talking about the mass-produced stuff, but proper raw honey that is available at almost every grocery store) is simply pulled from the comb and strained. Creamed honey is not just the honey from the comb, but goes through a blending process and then a cooling process in order to get that consistency.

I use the pour caps because you can always unscrew them and spoon from the top if you want, but sometimes you just want the ease of flipping the cap and pouring a little out. It makes no difference to the honey how you get it out of the container. And, yes, if left, it will form crystals, but I've found that the honey tends to get used up before any real crystallization begins.

Besides, there's something just right about the bear with the yellow cap :)
 
Cheerilee said:
"Real honey" is a golden syrupy liquid at first, but it slowly crystallizes and turns white. You are experiencing honey in it's freshest form. It's whitened and slightly crystallized by the time most consumers get it.
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My only point of contention is that the crystallization process can wildly vary.
Some batches never crystallize (even months/years later in my pantry) and some end up 75% crystallized. My understanding is that it depends on the amount of glucose (see below.)

It doesn't really turn "white" but it does become more opaque and lighter in color.

My experience matches the pictures in AMUSIX's post exactly.


Factors of Crystallization

The amount of glucose in honey determines how likely and how soon it will crystallize, with crystallization happening sooner if the honey contains higher amounts of glucose. The flowers from which bees harvest nectar determine how much glucose will be in the honey. There are also more than 180 other minerals, acids and proteins that can be in honey, and each has some effect on crystallization.

There are some varieties of honey that are resistant to crystallization because they have less than 30 percent glucose. Those include honey made from tupelo blossoms and sage flowers.

Read more : http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5315828_causes-honey-crystalize.html
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NinjaMouse said:
This seems to explain it well enough, too: http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/information-about-honey.html

Also, do yourselves a favor and find some raw buckwheat honey. It's some of the best, most flavorful honey I've ever had. As far as supposed medicinal qualities of honey, the darker the better, from my limited reading, and buckwheat honey is nice and dark :-).
Click to expand...

Color really doesn't affect the medicinal qualities, as it stems purely from what the bees are harvesting. That said, it's possible that some darker-pollened flowers impart certain benefits, resulting in that rule being followed, but that's due to the flower, and not the color...if that makes sense?

Really, the easiest benefit you can get from honey is to ward off seasonal allergies. Just a spoonful of local honey a day helps immensely. Doesn't matter what color, the more local to your area, the better.

Oh, as for flavor, best ones I've had were chestnut honey in Lyon, and, I think, a black mangrove honey in Miami. Oh! and Macadamia Honey in Hawaii...that stuff was amazing!
 
My Dad:

atXTvbJ.jpg


Scrapping the wax layer off...

DXA1QWt.jpg


The extractor (which is spun to get the honey off the combs)

6OYMeI9.jpg
 
AMUSIX said:
Color really doesn't affect the medicinal qualities, as it stems purely from what the bees are harvesting. That said, it's possible that some darker-pollened flowers impart certain benefits, resulting in that rule being followed, but that's due to the flower, and not the color...if that makes sense?

Really, the easiest benefit you can get from honey is to ward off seasonal allergies. Just a spoonful of local honey a day helps immensely. Doesn't matter what color, the more local to your area, the better.

Oh, as for flavor, best ones I've had were chestnut honey in Lyon, and, I think, a black mangrove honey in Miami. Oh! and Macadamia Honey in Hawaii...that stuff was amazing!
Click to expand...

You get a little more than allergy relief, too. A teaspoon of honey will help you achieve a deeper sleep at night, and for the diabetics in the room, honey (as well as pure maple syrup) are safe sweeteners in limited quantities.
 
Aztechnology said:
That's not what real honey looks like... this is what honey looks like when retrieved from the comb without processing.
dsc_0513.jpg


It's more wax than syrup.
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That's not necessarily true. Real honey can be all sorts of colors and even consistency based on what nectar they grab. My last hive was an amber similar to the first picture.
 
jett said:
Do you do anything with the beeswax? I read it's not really meant for eating.
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one of the pleasures of staying in 5 star hotels is this.

107d4f85f16b5937357b77777685333a.jpg


what do you mean it's not meant to be eaten? this stuff is fantastic. honeycomb straight off the scaffold. yum
 
I'm surprised people seem to be so misinformed about honey... Both liquid honey and harder, more compact honey can be raw/all natural. It all depends on what kind of flower the bees gathered nectar from, how the honey is harvested etc. There's a shitton of different kind of honey out there.
 
Jb said:
This looks awesome. Man, having a hive seems like such a great (and rewarding) hobby to have.
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My cousin is living from honey production. He has over 900 hives all together (on two trucks and stationary large hive at "home base"). Plus they opened apartment building for tourists and they can help with work as part of the 'vacation on honey farm'.
 
NinjaMouse said:
You get a little more than allergy relief, too. A teaspoon of honey will help you achieve a deeper sleep at night, and for the diabetics in the room, honey (as well as pure maple syrup) are safe sweeteners in limited quantities.
Click to expand...
Thanks for this. I never knew this about honey. So just a spoonful a day will be beneficial all round?
 
UnluckyKate said:
no, real raw honey looks like this :



It's thicker. I've got a friend who made his own. I don't like industrial honey but his is just beyond amazing. I even get a couple of bee legs or wings sometimes in it but hey, it doesn't spoil the amazing taste
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Hmm... honey, heh?
 
Jb said:
This looks awesome. Man, having a hive seems like such a great (and rewarding) hobby to have.
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Yeah, my Dad picked this up as a hobby when he retired.

The only downside is occasionally getting stung while taking the racks out of the hives (even with the smoker.) Doesn't bother my dad but I don't like it when they buzz angrily around my head.

Also, some of his hives don't make it thru the winter, so that is a bummer.
 
UnluckyKate said:
pictures
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Thank you for this, I don't understand these posts, though the colour and texture of honey will vary depending on what the bees eat and so will depend on the producer, and there are ways of processing honey to get the result in that post.

It's crazy how some companies can prey on consumers that have no idea how honey production works in this manner. Honey isn't the only one to do it.
 
Australian relative tells me Vegemite is the bee's kness.
Orders a jar of Marmite from the UK since it's basically the same thing anyway.
Tastes like Satan's diarrhea.
Total disappointment.
 
Combichristoffersen said:
Australian relative tells me Vegemite is the bee's kness.
Orders a jar of Marmite from the UK since it's basically the same thing anyway.
Tastes like Satan's diarrhea.
Total disappointment.
Click to expand...

Vegemite is NOT the same as Marmite.

Vegemite is the anaemic weaksauce imitator that should be poured down a toilet.

Marmite is the food of Kings.
 
this thread is really making me want to try beekeeping. I've always really wanted to give it a shot but unless I'm mistaken, eventually your hive splits and swarms to form a new hive or something? I don't think the neighbors would appreciate that and I wouldn't know how to handle it :(
 
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