Well, how not to remember a cup of fragrant herbal tea with healing honey on a winter evening? And what could be tastier than freshly pumped sweet nectar, stretching in bright threads like molten gold? And beekeepers say: if there is a product that can be said to be “worth its weight in gold”, then it is an only flower, honey.
What is Honey?
One bee has to visit about fifteen hundred flowers to collect 70 mg of nectar. This is exactly how much a special honey “bag” inside the insect can accommodate. And by the way, it is not a stomach, as many believe, but a goiter. Then the bees carry the collected nectar to the hives, in which, under the influence of enzymes from the salivary glands, cane sugar turns into grape sugar.
Insects spread the substance in wax combs, after which they begin to intensively flap their wings over them in order to accelerate the evaporation of excess liquid from the fermented nectar. Do this until the honey thickens. After that, the bees release some of their poison into the liquid, which actually prevents the fermentation of honey. And only then do these amazing insects close up the honeycomb. At this stage, we can already talk about the maturity of honey.
Varieties & Types of Honey
A variety of parameters are used to systematize honey.
First of all, all types of a product called honey are divided into 2 groups: natural and artificial (food industry product). Bee honey can be floral and honeydew (from honeydew or honeydew of animal origin). But bees will never produce honeydew honey in the presence of flowers with nectar. One of the richest forms of honey is Manuka honey and has some unique properties.
Natural honey is very diverse. It can vary in color, which depends on the mineral composition, the presence of pollen and phenol. Also, some types of food may be cloudy due to air bubbles, pollen, and other components. The smell is determined by the acids included in the composition. But the taste of honey depends on a variety of conditions, including hives and weather conditions.
In its shape, natural honey is:
- Honeycomb is the so-called raw product, it is considered the purest of all forms, beeswax in its composition is edible;
- Raw – in addition to wax, it may contain pollen and other components;
- Liquid – filtered, often pasteurized (this reduces the likelihood of crystallization);
- Dry – in the form of powder, granules, or flakes, is quite rare, usually contains additives;
- In a piece – as a rule, a liquid product with a piece of honeycomb;
- Crystallized – a thick, sugared substance.