Crystalized honey facts vs fiction....

No, there is absolutely nothing wrong with your honey, in fact you should probably give yourself a pat on the back because you've got the real deal!

A few misconceptions we've heard over the years;

> crystallization happens because the honey is of a low quality (not true).

> that the beekeeper 'did something to it' (not true).

> that it's fake foreign honey and/or that it has corn/sugar syrup added (not true).

> the honey is old and has been sitting around (sort of true)

Honey is a natural product and when honey is left in its natural state crystallization is likely to occur. As the honey sits the glucose molecules found naturally in nectar will separate and form crystals as a way of stabilizing itself. Honey is made up of natural sugars (fructose and glucose), water, enzymes, pollen, vitamins and minerals and all of these things are found in different qualities and quantities in each different tree and their flowers. Just as a tomato is different to a carrot, each tree is different to the other, this is why we get a variety of flavours, colours, tastes and rates of crystallization in natural honey.

While we could say that natural honey with an older harvest date will more likely granulate than a freshly harvested batch, this is not the golden rule as there are some flower nectars that crystalize almost immediately upon extraction such as alfalfa and sunflower, once again this is due to their organic chemical make up eg. ratios of glucose, fructose and water and nothing to do with something un-natural happening to the honey.

Some processes such as pasteurization (heat treating) and filtering at a very low micron size can prevent crystallization as it removes all the crystals and other particles that may be present and cause crystallization, however they can also remove some of the beneficial properties that honey is renown for.

So now that we know the crystalized honey is good, what do we do with crystalized honey? If you're cooking or baking with crystalized honey you can just use it in it's granulated form, the crystals will melt with a little heat. If you'd like to return the honey to it's liquid state the trick is to melt all the crystals until there is none left, crystals left will restart they crystallization process. You can do this by placing the whole jar in warm bowl of water until all the crystals dissolve or another method is a slow cooker set on very low used as a water bath.