Have you ever reached out for your bottle of liquid honey, only to find it turned into a crystal-like structure? It sure has happened to many of us.
Don’t worry. Your honey hasn’t gone bad.
The crystal-like structure you see in your honey jar is a natural process. This is more commonly referred to as ‘crystallization of honey.’ Over a period of time, honey tends to crystallize due to the presence of natural sugars in it.
Why Does Honey Crystallize
The crystal-like structure we see in our honey is often because of the undissolved glucose present in honey. Out of the two natural sugars, fructose tends to dissolve easily whereas glucose doesn’t. When this glucose separates from water present in honey, crystals start forming at the surface which results in the crystallization of honey.
Apart from the glucose content, substances like pollen, beeswax and other essential nutrients (usually found in raw, pure honey) also contribute to the crystallization process. Because of these nutrients, natural and raw honey crystallizes quickly over pasteurised or fully-processed honey.
Crystallized honey is safe to eat and a lot of people prefer it this way. But if you belong to the majority of the population who prefers liquid, melted honey, here’s what you can do.
How To Decrystallize Honey The Right Way
While you will come across many suggestions that ask you to heat or microwave honey, it is advisable to not place honey anywhere near temperatures that exceed 110º F. Honey becomes hard when heated and might lose some of its essential nutrients too.
You can Decrystallize honey in 3 simple steps :
Step 1
Place your jar of honey with its lid off into a pan or any wide open container. Pour some warm water (temperature should not exceed 110º F) into the pan or the wide container. Make sure you don’t pour water into the honey jar.
Step 2
Take out your honey jar after 5-7 minutes and stir the honey until you notice some change in its texture. Then place the honey jar again in the pan and repeat step 1 & step 2 until your honey returns to its natural texture.
Step 3
After you are satisfied with the honey’s consistency, take it out of the pan and allow the honey to cool off. Once it has cooled off, tightly seal the honey jar and store it at room temperature.
Crystallization is a natural process and it does not mean your honey has gone bad. In fact, it is a testament to the purity of your honey. Fully processed or pasteurized honey does not crystallize easily. This is because such fully-processed honey usually extracts some nutrients (that have the potential to keep your honey healthy) to prolong crystallization and make it visually appealing.
This is why we at Honey All Day do not use the commercial heat-processing technique. We resort to cold processing that does not harm the composition of honey. This technique keeps all its nutrients intact, only filtering out the unwanted bee wings, beeswax etc.
Honey is a rich source of antioxidants. It also has antibacterial and antiviral properties that help suppress the risk of many chronic diseases like heart and kidney problems. Our cold processing technique allows our honey to retain all its nutrients so that you can enjoy the benefits of honey and remain healthy and fit.
