The beginning of the honey season is considered to be the first months of autumn. Markets are filled with honey of different varieties, are present as classic samples from buckwheat or sunflower, and honey from coriander or chestnut. Honey smell is fascinating and puzzling at the same time, because it is rather difficult to navigate in such diversity. Learn to choose tasty and healthy honey for your health.
How to choose honey
Fresh honey is a homogeneous, thick, transparent mass that solidifies and crystallizes after a while. The rate of sugar is considered to be a period of 2 weeks to 2 months, crystallization occurs because of the high glucose content. Honey, made on the basis of fructose, thickens much more slowly.
The most delicious is considered to be ripe honey. There is an easy way to determine maturity: you need to scoop a little honey and see how it drains. The stream of "young" honey is constantly torn and interrupted, and the flow of mature honey is long and continuous, and a small slide forms on the surface. Unripe honey consists of water more than 20%, if honey is pulled out of the honeycomb before the required time, it will quickly turn sour. Beekeepers, trying to hide the immaturity of the product, heat it to a temperature of 80 degrees to evaporate water, but during the heating, all the beneficial properties of honey are lost. The enzyme of diastase is destroyed when heated, but this component determines the quality of the product. According to GOST, the diastolic number should not be less than 7.
Buying honey on the market, it is impossible to determine its naturalness, but it is necessary to conduct a quality check to determine the best supplier. Take note of one of three ways:
- Evaluate the product visually. Add water to a small amount of honey and leave the solution in a prominent place in a transparent container. After a while, check to see if there is a precipitate or flakes floating on the surface. Both of these signs indicate a poor quality of honey.
- Check with table vinegar. Dilute a little honey in the water and add a couple drops of vinegar. If the water starts to hiss, and the honey itself begins to turn into a crumb, you know, there is a fake in front of you. Iodine check. Dissolve in a glass of 1 spoon of honey and add there 3 drops of iodine. The bluish shade of the solution will indicate that starch has been added to the product in order to increase its density and weight.
When buying honey, pay attention to its taste, appearance and aroma. The quality natural product is homogeneous, has no precipitation, the taste is slightly tart, causing a slight perspiration in the throat, since the composition contains sugar and acids. For fake honey, the taste is not expressed, but one can clearly distinguish the taste of burnt sugar or caramel. If you have to try several varieties of honey, then the aftertaste should be removed by eating a piece of sweet and sour apple or cowberry berries.
Before buying honey, ask the seller about the place and time of collecting honey, extra information will not hurt. Deceivers-sellers often describe those varieties of honey that can not be obtained, for example, dog rose, lemon, or sea-buckthorn honey. The fact is that all the plants mentioned have no nectar. May lime honey should also alert you, since almost all the lime honey beekeepers spend on the feeding of newborns in May bees.
Never buy honey from unfamiliar sellers, the quality of the product can guarantee veterinary and sanitary examination and a document on the analysis of pollen. Carefully study the label of shop honey, in necessarily order there should be information about the manufacturer, plants from which bees collected nectar, year of collection, weight, date of packaging and GOST.
In the first autumn months on the shelves there is honey, which was pumped out only recently, crystals have not yet formed in it. It is easy to determine the quality and such honey: turn the container upside down, in the product mature air bubbles upwards will move lazily.
Buying chestnut and acacia honey varieties, which can not crystallize for a long time, evaluate the appearance of honey already packaged. If the honey overheated, the crystals in it formed longer, so liquid honey in November suggests that it was packaged in a tough technology, and its useful substances have already disappeared.
How to properly store honey
With proper storage, honey retains healing power for quite a long time. Let's talk about the proper storage of honey:
- Keep honey in a clean and dry glass, enamel or ceramic container. Aluminum or zinc packaging will saturate honey with harmful chemical compounds. Do not store honey in a wooden container.
- Keep container with honey in a dry and dark place, its antimicrobial properties are lost in the light. Wet room also harms honey, the product can sour. Try to get rid of honey from the neighborhood with sauerkraut, herring, pickles or other products with a pungent odor, as honey easily absorbs them.
- 5-10 degrees - the optimum temperature for storing honey.
- Thickened honey can be made liquid again with a water bath. Lower the container with honey into the hot water. Remember that you should not heat honey above 37 degrees, so as not to lose its healing power.
Read also: composition and useful properties of honey.