Honey - what's the difference?

[mothhawk]

I saw an advert the other day for 'raw' honey. I thought all honey was raw, i.e. straight from the hive without any treatment apart from sieving or filtering out the impurities.

If it isn't, can someone tell me what the difference is, please.

Also, I seem to remember as a child, that 'set' honey was a lot more solid than the set honey you can buy in stores today. Why is that?

[Mrs Dobby]

Hi Mothhawk,

Most of the commercially available honey is blended, the honey from many hives from many areas is mixed together, sometimes by type (ie blossom honey, manuka honey, heather honey, lavender honey, etc), it is usually raw, and usualy hasnt had anything done to it apart from fltering, so advertising it as 'raw' doesnt really mean anything, unless they are saying it hasnt been micro filtered.

Set honey comes in 2 types, what we normally see in the shops as 'set' is actually creamed, its a blend of runny honey with a seed culture of naturally granulated, which is beaten together to cause it to set with very small crystals, which gives you a very smooth set. Naturally granulated honey is also a set honey, its not as light in colour as the creamed version as the crystals are much larger, and it sets a lot harder than creamed honey does.

Most runny honeys will eventually set naturally, the process is called granulation, it doesnt affect the flavour, but does make a coarser texture. Any granulated honey can be turned back into a clear runny state by gently warming it in the oven for a hourt or so, this doesnt affect the flavour but will make it go clear and runny again.

We sell our own honey in all 3 states, clear runny honey, naturally set (granulated) and soft set (creamed), we also extract our individual hives separately, allowing us to bottle it from each individual hive separately, meaning we can trace its origin back and compare the flavours from different hives. Although the hives are all situated within 30' of each other it can be amazing at the difference in taste from one hive to another.

HTH

[chris]

In was just about to post asking this too.. Was going to buy some manuka honey to see what the hype is all about, but at 6 times the price (+carbon print), I decided to try set for a change. It seems to taste sweeter.

Kind of related, is organic honey really any different? Would it be from organially grown flowers?

[Mrs Dobby]

AFAIK organic honey is a label that is applied to any honey thats produced without the use of any chemicals in the hives. There's no way (unless you situated your hives in the center of a 3 mile radius circle of organically grown and certified plants) that you can tell for sure that your bees have only gathered pollen and nectar from only organic crops and flowers. Although we do not personally like to use any chemicals in our gardening or beekeeping, we do treat with oxalic acid once a year (in midwinter) to help control the varroa destructor mite which is a major problem in virtually all bee colonies in the uk atm. Because of this one treatment (done when there is no nectar flow and no pollen available, and also when there is no brood in the hive) we cannot claim our honey as organic.

[mothhawk]

Thanks for the explanation, Mrs Dobby. My favourite honey is clover honey, which only seems to come from Canada or New Zealand. Here in the Midlands, there is so much oil-seed rape grown that the local honey has very little 'flower' flavour. Such a shame, as I like to buy as local as possible.

[northepaul]

Kind of on a similar track...but I saw some 'new' honey at a show recently, - it was completely white. I asked the person on the stall who (although wasnt sure) seemed to think it meant it had just been collected and not had time to mature??

[northepaul]

I guess no one knows then....must be a mystery!!

[Mrs Dobby]

Hi Northepaul, sorry for the delay in reply, the white honey usually means its been soft set, a portion of granulated honey has been added to runny honey, then its been whipped together to produce a very creamy soft set honey, bascally it has smaller crystals than naturally granulated honey and is great for spreading on bread and toast.

HTH

[Mrs Dobby]

Mothhawk, try and seek out your local BBKA beekeepers, they may be able to provide you with specific honey from a certain time period, which means it wont contain rape seed, usually himalayan balsam and later flowering nectar (inc clover) has more taste to it and generally doesnt set or granulate soo quickly.

HTH