FAQ on Honey and Bees
Q. Can you tell the purity of honey from its colour?
A. No. You can’t. The colour of honey ranges from almost watery white to dark, depending on the flower from which the nectar was collected.
Q. Is honey a completely natural food?
A. Yes, it is. Honey contains essential nutrients, including Carbohydrates, minerals, amino, acids proteins and vitamins.
Q. Is honey collected directly from the beehive purer than filtered or processed honey?
A. No. Honey extracted straight from beehives contains impurities like pollen, wax and dust. To make it safe for consumption, it has to be filtered and processed.
Q. Is it bad to have honey in summer?
A. No. In fact, as a rich source of carbohydrates, honey provides energy without building heat. So like glucose, it’s ideal for summer.
Q. Is it true that honey which crystallizes is not pure honey?
A. All honey will at some point turn to sugar crystals. Some other terms for it are sugared, granulation, solidifying and crystallising. This is a natural process. The crystals may be large or small, grainy, sandy type or smooth and creamy type. What makes it crystallise is due to the type of flower the honey bee visited when she gathered the blossom’s nectar. The floral source determines whether the honey will turn into a solid form more quickly or not. Some honey while raw will stay in a liquid form for quite a while. Other honey will turn to a solid form within a few weeks. This is due to how stable the sugar crystal is in the nectar This is not honey turned bad, or anything that is affecting the taste or quality of the honey. You may find you like it in this state!! It spreads on toast or bread without dripping off. It won’t run off the spoon as you take it from the jar to your hot drink. To turn it back to a liquid, pourable state, use gentle warming of the jar in hot (not boiling) water. Honey doesn’t need to be stored in the refrigerator. This speeds up the crystal formation.
Q. Is it true that the thicker the consistency, the better the honey?
A. No. The lower the natural water content, the thicker the honey. Thickness has nothing to do with the quality.