by Phil Mariola
(reprinted with permission from the Summer 1987 AMA Journal)
Most people who aren’t beekeepers or who don’t have a family member who is a beekeeper know surprisingly little about honey. Honey, as defined by the USDA, is “the nectar and sugary exudations of plants, collected, modified and stored in combs by bees.” Honeybees fly to flowers, gather the nectar, add enzymes, deposit it in cells of honeycombs and evaporate the excess moisture by fanning their wings. The bees then build a wax cap for each cell to protect the honey from contamination.
A typical honey in North America contains approximately 38% fructose, 31% glucose,13% sucrose, 7% maltose and 17% water, with very small amounts of acids, proteins and ash. honeybees take floral nectar, which is largely sucrose and invert the sucrose nto fructose and glucose, making honey a quick energy source for humans.
Honey has some interesting physical properties. One of these is hydroscopicity, which means that honey can absorb moisture from the air. Honey containers should be well sealed so that honey won’t absorb moisture and possibly ferment. Honey s likely to ferment when the moisture content is above 18.6%.
Certain geographic regions are better than others for the production of honey due to the availability of nectar sources attractive to bees and favorable weather conditions. In some of the better honey producing regions of North America, beekeepers harvest more than 150 pounds of honey from one colony of honeybees. Since one gallon of honey weighs approximately twelve pounds, you can see that 150 pounds is a lot of honey!
Honey is sold in several different ways. You can buy extracted honey, comb honey, chunk honey or creamed honey. Most honey is sold as extracted (also called liquid) honey. The combs are spun by the beekeeper in a centrifuge (extractor) and the honey is thrown out by centrifugal force. It is then filtered and put into containers for sale. It can be well-processed or relatively unprocessed, depending on the beekeeper.
Some beekeepers process their honey by heating it. Heated honey is much easier to filter and certain methods of heating will help keep the honey from granulating. You may see the words “raw” or “organic” on the honey label. Raw means uncooked. Almost all honey meets this definition, yet some honey is warmed in a hot room while in the comb so that extracting will be easier. Additionally, some beekeepers warm the honey after extracting to more easily filter it. If you insist n completely unheated honey, you would do best to buy from a local beekeeper who can sell you honey right from the extractor. Overheating the honey will indeed change its flavor and color but low heating (either 140-150 degrees F. for 30 minutes or 160-170 degrees E for a short time followed by rapid cooling) is widely practiced with no damage to the honey. A question frequently asked of beekeepers is what produces the different colors of honey. The answer is quite simple: the color of honey is determined by the floral source. Some blossoms such as the clovers, alfalfa, basswood and black locust make a very light honey. Other blossoms such as tulip poplar and buckwheat give a dark thick honey. The darker honeys usually lave a stronger taste than the lighter ones.
Finally, let me urge any consumer of honey to buy from a local beekeeper. Beekeepers are more than happy to discuss beekeeping with you and they can tell you about the honey their bees produce. Buying locally produced honey also allows the consumer to taste specialty honey found in his geographic region. There’s sourwood honey in the hill country of the Southern Alleghenies, tupelo honey in northern Florida, mesquite honey from Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, orange blossom honey from Florida an’ California and sweet clover honey from some of the western Plains states, just to name a few.
Buying locally produced honey also helps beekeepers compete with low priced imported honey which has become a serious problem. Several countries such as Mexico, Argentina and China export much honey every year at low prices. A local beekeeper will often find the grocery stores in his area selling this cheap, imported honey and is unable to sell as inexpensively and still stay in the business of keeping bees.
So, by all means, support your local beekeeper and buy honey produced in your area. You will find some unique, delicious honey waiting there for you.
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When this article was written, Mr. Mariola was the Beekeeping Technician at Ohio Stale University’s Agricultural Technical Institute in Wooster, Ohio where he managed OSU’s 200 bee colonies. He is currently a hobby beekeeper near Wooster.
She is also an experienced marketing coach and consultant who has recently decided to focus her marketing expertise exclusively on the craft beverage market to help meaderies, cideries, breweries and distilleries expand their business and get more customers while doing what they love.
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