Little school of honey

In the world of honey we are talking about some terms and facts we’d like to explain here.

Honey made from blossoms
is produced from the nectar of blossoms collected by honey bees for nutrition.

Honeydew
is the excretion of various insects which live off the juice of sieve tubes of various plants. To these insects greenflies and scale insects are belonging as well as cicadas and other hemipterans. The honey bees collect the honeydew from these other insects. The honey produced by this method is called wild honey or pine honey.

Single variety honey
Most honey is not single variety but mixed honey. Single variety honey is more seldom and can only be produced in case of nature generously offering a plant which got so many blossoms full of nectar that honey bees only nibble from this single blossom. The exact components of honey are defined through a analysis of the pollen found in the honey.

Liquid honey & cristallised honey
Honey does always crystallise. The speed of crystallisation depends on various factors. First of all the relation between fructose and glucose is important. The higher the percentage of glucose, the quicker honey crystallises. Even more honey does crystallise quicker through lower temperatures. Also production methods as well as storage got an influence. The degree of crystallisation itself is not a sign of quality. But after crystallisation most cheaper honey get heat treated for liquefaction. Unfortunately this does destroy the most healthy components. (Carta Magna honey is never never never heat treated. For making the crystallised honey creamy the honey get gently stirred.) The color of crystallised honey is always lighter than the one of liquid honey.

Honey & healt
Honey is not only delicious but also got a medical value. That value comes out very differently according to the type of honey. Honey is disinfecting and very moisturizing. Honey should never become warmer than 40°C for not endangering the good worth of honey by destroying the enzymes.

Contents of honey
In fact there is something like a purity law for honey. In compliance with the EU honey regulation honey must not contain any residuals of impurities of any kind. There is a zero-tolerance.
The natural main component of honey is sugar. Fructose with 25-45%, glucose with 20-40%, saccharose with less than 5%, maltose with 5-15% and other types of sugar with 1-15%. Beyond that honey contains 15-20% water, even more vitamins, protein, enzymes and minerals, trace elements and some organic acids.

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