Real Honey crystallizes... and That's a good thing!

Real, natural honey never expires.

It simply changes shape. Over time, honey settles, hardens, and becomes hazy. Honey transforms from a slightly transparent golden liquid to an opaque, firmer substance sometimes with sugar like crystals.

The term “raw honey” means it came straight from the hive, gravity fed through a strainer to remove honeycomb, beeswax, and larger particles of natural debris. Raw honey can become cloudy … it is not going bad. It is crystallizing!

Raw honey is NOT FILTERED – filtered honey goes through a process where it is heated then rapidly cooled. This prevents it from crystallizing, but the heat also kills most of the enzymes, vitamins, minerals and amino acids and the filtering removes most of the pollen. 

Why does Honey crystallize?

Honey is primarily two sugars: glucose and fructose.  it is a natural process for some of the sugars in a super-saturated solution to eventually come out of solution. All raw honey will crystallize due to glucose.

Bits of pollen in raw honey cling to the glucose and become sugar like crystals hence encourages crystallization. 

* Low water content in honey helps to keep if from fermenting, but also allows easier crystallization. 

 * Nectar from different flowers varies in its ratio of glucose to fructose and can influence how fast crystallization happens.

 * Our pine honey low in glucose so it takes up to a year for it to start crystallizing but our flower honey can take up to 3 months.

* The temperature at which honey is produced or stored causes it to crystallize faster. As honey cools, it gets more solid, and the crystallization process accelerates. 

How to overcome crystallization?

Use it anyway… it will melt in hot drinks. If you need that flowing golden liquid, place crystallized honey in a warm water bath of about 40°C (100°F) for 15 minutes or more until the crystals dissolve and the honey liquefies.It still has that same amazing taste :)