Before honey arrives on your kitchen table, it has been part of a remarkable process and quite a journey. In order to produce one jar of honey, bees travel a distance roughly of 500,000 miles. That’s the equivalent of a round-trip to the moon! But it’s all just another day’s work for the diligent honey bee, nature’s powerhouse insect.
Honey is mostly made up of fructose, glucose, and water. It also contains a variety of other sugars, and trace amounts of enzymes, minerals vitamins and amino acids.
What is honey? Honey is actually flower nectar that has been consumed, regurgitated, and rehydrated by bees until it reaches the perfect consistency. Beeswax, which is used to build the beehive, is also the product of nectar. A honeybee has to log a lot of miles, traveling from flower to flower, to accumulate enough nectar to create honey. Once a honeybee gathers nectar, it returns to the beehive and begins to process what will become honey. In the hive, honey is stored in six-sided hexagonal chambers. The honeycomb structure of the hive is also ideal for use as “rooms” for the queen bee to lay her eggs.
In order for honey to be gathered for human consumption, the honey-covered walls of the hive are removed and placed in a spinner. Rotating rapidly, the spinner separates the liquid from the comb.
Besides being honey-producers, honeybees help put fresh fruits and vegetables on your table, and ensure that our fields and woods are lush and healthy. How? When they gather nectar from flowers, honeybees perform pollination. Pollination is the process where, through the transfer of pollen from one plant to another.
Honey bees pollinate 80% of the fresh fruits and vegetables we eat.
Although most of us may only be familiar with one type of honey, liquid honey, there are actually many different forms of honey available for human consumption. In addition to being offered as a golden liquid, honey can also be found in the following forms:
Comb honey is attached to the comb from the hive. The comb can be eaten along with the honey.
Cut comb is liquid honey that contains chunks of the honey comb. This is also known as liquid-cut comb combination.
Liquid honey is the most popular and widely known type of honey. This is honey is clear and pure and doesn’t contain any visible crystals. Liquid honey is the most convenient type of honey for use in baking.
Naturally crystallized honey is liquid honey that has crystallized because the glucose (sugar) content of the honey has separated from the liquid. This is a natural process.
Whipped or creamed honey has been intentionally crystallized during manufacture and carefully blended so that the resulting honey is thick yet spreadable, much like butter. In many countries around the world, whipped honey is the honey of choice.
It takes nectar from about 2 million flowers to create 1 pound of honey.
In her lifetime, the average honeybee will make produce only one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.
A queen bee can lay up to 3,000 eggs in one day—that’s 175-200,000 per year.
Communication is key for honeybees, who must be able to tell each other the location of flowers, their invaluable source of nectar. Honeybees communicate using a series of movements similar to dancing, called the “waggle dance.”
In addition to the different types of honey to choose from, there are also a variety of honey colors and flavors available. Honey color ranges from a very pale yellow that is nearly colorless, to dark brown. As for flavor, the taste of honey can be mild or intense; some types of honey even taste like the flower they came from, such as orange blossom honey. The color and flavor of honey varies widely depending on the source of the nectar—that is, depending on what flower the honey visited to gather the nectar and make the honey.
In the United States alone there are over 300 kinds of honey.
There are several types of honey available all over the world. The most common types of honey, and the flowers that produce the nectar for the honey, include:
Alfalfa is a legume with blue flowers found most commonly in Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon and a majority of the western states. Alfalfa honey is pale amber and has a delicate flavor, making it the perfect accompaniment for a variety of foods.
Avocado honey is gathered from the avocado blossom. Avocado honey most often comes from California. Dark in color, avocado honey tastes rich and has a thick, buttery consistency.
Basswood is a tree with cream-colored blooms. This honey is found in areas from Southern Canada, to Alabama and down to Texas appears white.
The blueberry bush produces tiny white flowers whose nectar helps the bees produce a full-flavored honey that is light amber in color. This honey is commonly produced in New England and Michigan.
Buckwheat plants bloom early in the season in climates that are cool and moist. These plants produce honey that is dark in color and has a distinctive flavor.
Clover plants are the most popular honey plants in the U.S. Types of clover used to produce clover honey include white clover, alsike clover, and white and yellow sweet clover. Clover honey has a mild and delicate flavor and can appear white or extra light amber, depending on its source.
The Eucalyptus plant has over 500 species and many hybrids. Generally, eucalyptus honey has a bold taste that some describe as being slightly medicinal.
Fireweed is a herb that grows in the open woods and is most commonly found in the Northern and Pacific States as well as Canada. Fireweed is easy to spot—it grows from 3 to 5 feet tall and has lovely pink flowers. Fireweed honey is light in color.
The orange tree produces white blossoms and is a common source of honey in Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California. Orange blossom honey comes from a variety of citrus sources, and is extra light amber in color. It has a distinctive taste with a hint of orange flavor.
Sage shrubs can be found along with California coast and in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Sage honey has a mild taste and appears white.
Sourwood trees are found in the Appalachian mountains. Sourwood honey has a pleasant sweet flavor that is also spicy and similar to anise (which has a flavor similar to licorice).
The tulip polar is a tree with large greenish-yellow flowers. Tulip poplar honey is produced from southern New England to southern Michigan and south to the Gulf states east of the Mississippi. The honey is dark amber in color, yet its flavor is more delicate that most dark honeys.
Tupelo trees have clusters of flowers which later develop into soft fruit. Tupelo honey is the leading type of honey is southern Georgia and northwestern Florida. Tupelo honey is white or extra light amber in color and has a subtle, pleasant flavor. Tupelo honey will not granulate.
For more details on these and more floral sources, and to locate specific varieties of honey, visit www.honeylocator.com.
Sidr honey, which is harvested only twice a year from bees that feed exclusively on the pollen of the Sidr tree in the Hadramaut Mountains of Eastern Yemen, is said to be the most expensive honey in the world. It is priced at $200 per kilogram! Sidr honey is prized by many for its medicinal benefits as well as its rich, remarkable taste.
With such a wide variety of delicious honeys to choose from, you may want to have many flavors in your home to try in tea, on toast, or just by the spoonful. When using honey for baking and cooking, however, it is generally advisable to choose a honey with a mild flavor, so it does not overpower your dish. Keep in mind, though, that as you continue to experiment with honey in your dishes, you can feel free to try different honey flavors.
Honey Storage Tips
Here are some tips for honey storage.
Honey should be stored at room temperature. The kitchen counter or a pantry shelf are perfectly suitable.
If you refrigerate honey, you’ll notice that it will crystallize and separate rather quickly. This is a natural process and it does not mean the honey is ruined. In fact, it is easy to get honey back to its smooth, liquid state. If your honey crystallizes, heat water until warm in a pot large enough for your honey jar. Then, place the honey in its glass jar, in the water and stir the honey until the crystals dissolve. Or, you can place the honey, with the lid off, in a microwave-safe container for 30 seconds. Stir after 30 seconds and if there are still crystals present, microwave for another 30 seconds and stir. Continue this process until the crystals dissolve. Take care not to boil or scorch the honey.
Remarkably enough, honey stored in a sealed container is edible even after several years. However, honey will lose its flavor and delicate aroma over time, so it is generally recommended that honey be discarded after two years in order to ensure best taste.