We bottled the last of our honey this past week. This honey was from a hive that was alongside the flower field. It was spectacular, both in colour and taste. Here's a little insight into why not all honey looks or tastes the same.
Why Does Honey Look and Taste Differently?
Nature is Diverse…Pure Raw Honey is nature in a bottle and each jar is as unique as the hive it came from. Honey bees make honey from nectar they collect from flowers. The worker bees work on hundreds of different flowers a day. The taste and colour of the honey is a reflection of the flowers and native plants they forged.
Different Types Of Honey
Monofloral Honey comes from a single flower source. Meaning the bees only foraged the nectar from one particular crop. An example of this is buckwheat honey, or clover honey. As soon as that crop has finished flowering, the honey is harvested. Polyfloral Honey is the honey we produce on our farm and it’s made from the nectar of many different flowers. Blended honey is used primarily in commercial uses and is sold by the barrel. Just as the name implies it is honey from different flower varieties with a difference in colour, taste, or geographic origin are all blended together.
Honey Is Affected By The Weather Too
Weather also affects honey. The thickness of honey can change year to year with the weather. For example, if there’s more rain in the spring and summer, the honey will likely be thinner.
Processing Affects
Another impact to the thickness of honey is the process used to bottle it. Pasteurized honey is heated to super high temperatures and will likely be thinner in your bottle. However, the high heat kills the nutritional benefits that reside in raw honey. Honey is a superfood. To ensure you are getting every bit of goodness from the honey, choose honey that is raw and unfiltered. How do you know your honey is truly natural? Know your beekeeper and if you don’t know your beekeeper, look for raw, unpasteurized on the label. This will ensure you are getting all the nutritional benefits from the honey.
We’re thankful for all the hard work of the bees and we love that each year the honey is a little different depending on the blooms the bees forage here on our farm and what the weather was like.