Q: What is raw honey?
A: Raw honey is honey that hasn’t been pasteurised, and usually has not been filtered. Pasteurisation and filtration often remove the unique flavors and elements of honey, removing bits of pollen, wax, propolis, and royal jelly. This leads to a uniform product, but also destroys many of the natural flavors and health benefits of honey in its raw state.
Q: The honey I bought has crystallised. Does that mean that you’ve added sugar to it?
A: Nope! Crystallisation is a natural process that can happen to any sugar, usually caused by an impurity that the sugar crystals begin to set around. It’s totally normal, and happens more often in raw honey, as it has more impurities than ultra filtered honey. This granular consistency occurs much more in colder climates, as unpasteurised honey tends to set more quickly in colder temperatures, such as the climates of European countries. Warm air tends to keep honey liquid longer. But here’s a quick tip – if you want to decrystallise your honey, all you have to do is warm it up, stir it, and put it back in your bottle. Depending on the temperature of your environment, it should remain liquid for up to a couple weeks.
Q: Do you add herbs or ingredients to your honey labeled “Rosemary” or “Lavender”? What makes them different?
A: We do not add any kind of herbs or other ingredients to our honeys – these honeys taste different because the bees who created the honey mainly fed only on flowers from those herbs, giving it unique properties that are specific to the herb or flower that the bees fed on. We never supplement our honey with any kind of extra oils or herb additives – that’s against our policy.
Q: What is the best way to store honey?
A: Honey stores best in the dark, as light can damage some of the more volatile compounds present in raw, natural honey. Keep it in a cool, dark place away from direct sunlight, and always make sure to keep the lid on – if you don’t, honey’s natural hygroscopic properties will attract water to it, and it may begin to ferment. You don’t need to refrigerate honey, and properly stored, it has a shelf life of years.
