Kinds Of Honey

Honeybees collect nectar, a sweet liquid secreted by plant that attracts the birds and insects that help in the process of pollination (fertilization of plant). Honey is made when the nectar and sweet deposits from plants and trees are collected, modified and stored in the honeycomb by honeybees.

Honey is used as food to provide the energy for bees' flight muscles and for heating the hive during the winter period. Honey is about 80% sugar (glucose, fructose and sucrose). The rest is water that contains trace minerals. In a beehive there is usually a single colony of thousands of bees. A colony of 50,000 bees will usually produce 40 to 50lbs (18 to 23 kg.) of honey during the summer. Raw honey is a honey taken right from the hive, extracted and put into bottle. It is not heated to pasteurize, and in about 2 months it will turn cloudy. The change in appearance will not harm its flavor.

Kinds of Honey: flavor and color of honey depend on the flowers visited by the bees.

• Clover and alfalfa yield a mild, light-colored honey - the most popular kind.
• Buckwheat and wild flower honeys are darker and have stronger taste. Hives may be selectively placed in orange groves or apple orchards, or in fields of buckwheat or sage.

Honey is sold in 3 forms:

• Comb Honey - is sold just as it is taken from the hive and includes the wax. Bulk comb honey, or chunk honey, consists of pieces of comb honey with strained honey poured over them and packed in containers.

• Extracted Honey or Liquid Honey - is a honey separated from the comb by centrifugal force in a machine called a honey extractor. To remove any further impurities, the honey is separated from the wax of the comb, it is then strained, filtered or subjected to a settling operation.

• Creamed Honey or Whipped Honey - is a spreadable honey, it is obtained by seeding liquid honey with honey crystals. About 5lbs of crystallized honey or granulated honey (honey in which some of the glucose content has spontaneously crystallized from solution) is stirred into about 60lbs of liquid honey and the resulting honey is poured into bottles. It is then stored in a cool 55° for about 2 weeks to enhance crystallization process. Creamed honey does not need to be refrigerated after opening, it can be left in room temperature.