Can you tell if honey is high-quality based on how it looks in a jar? When you see crystallized honey, you might think that something is wrong. Smooth, transparent amber honey may come across as better quality – even though it’s usually highly processed and pasteurized, which removes all the beneficial components of honey. As you’ll soon learn, truly raw honey naturally crystallizes, and it's one of the ultimate signs of high-quality honey.
Honey is a solution of sugar (glucose and fructose) and water, and contains naturally-occurring vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and enzymes. When honey has a correct proportion of sugar to water, the sugars naturally separate from the water and form crystals. Depending on the variety of your honey, the speed of crystallization can vary. Honeys with a higher ratio of fructose to glucose will crystallize faster than other varieties.
Generic honey products found in the store are more concerned with aesthetics than quality, which leads to ultrafiltered, processed honey that doesn’t crystallize quickly but also lacks many of the benefits that raw honey possesses. Pasteurization, or heating honey to a high temperature, may smooth out the texture of honey, but it also destroys vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and other helpful properties. Ultimately, these highly processed products are no more than honey-flavored sugar water.
At Heavenly Organics, we’re committed to producing 100% raw, 100% USDA Organic honey. To keep our products raw, our honey is never heated past 104° Fahrenheit, which is also the average temperature of a beehive. Our raw products contain all of the wholesome ingredients that nature intended. In addition, our raw honey is untouched by pesticides, antibiotics, genetically modified crops, and pollutants.
With that said, you’ll find crystallization in our products. And we’re proud of it – crystallization is a sign of truly raw, perfectly pure honey.
Perfecting Your Honey’s Consistency
To re-liquify crystallized honey, gently heat it in a double-boiler on the stove. Make sure not to heat past 110° Fahrenheit in order to preserve its natural benefits.
If time is of the essence, it’s perfectly fine to use crystallized honey as is. Crystallized honey is spreadable and uniquely textured, and you can use it to top your toast, swirl into your tea, or to add wherever else you’d like a little extra sweetness. To get 100% raw, 100% USDA Organic honey, shop here.
