Without much to distinguish the good honey from bad, how can you tell whether to spend 10$ or 100$?
There has been a long pause in posts since last week, largely due to weddings, Kars’ infamous electricity outages, birthdays, travels, visitors, visa runs, and days stock-full of, well, work. As I catch up with all of the 10 posts that I owe you, here is my challenge for you: what are the most popular myths about honey?
My town, a grizzly Anatolian outpost called Kars, is often labeled as gray, drab, rough-around-the-edges, dark, ominous, and sad. A friend visiting me just a few days ago observed, “Here in Kars, even the beggars don’t try very hard.” While sometimes Kars can feel a little gruffly, there are always windows full of bright gold and sunny yellow honey and cheese to pick up the mood. The optimistic omnipresence of these culinary delights often becomes the focus of any visitor. And as honey is one of the shinning attractions of the town, many conversations are stock-full of honey myths. Below are just a few of the honey myths I have heard as consumers try to choose between the hundreds of honey jars available for sale in Kars.
1. Light/white honey is organic.
2. If the honey has “comb” in it, the honey is pure.
3. If you dip a metal spoon in honey, the metal will ruin the honey’s health properties.
4. Real honey doesn’t crystalize.
5. If you hold a spoon-full of honey high into the air, and the resulting honey drip doesn’t break, it is pure honey.
6. High quality honey should tickle your throat.
7. Honey does not go bad.
8. Babies shouldn’t eat honey because of potential pesticides/medicine in the honey.
9. Some honey can kill you.
11. Honey from pure bee species tastes better than honey produced by mixed species.
11. The quality of honey increases with the diversity of plant species present around the hives, for example, “honey that has only 100 flowers is not as high in quality, or expensive, as honey from 300 flowers.”
Fact or myth; do you know the answers? Do you have more honey myths that you would like solved? Comment below and I will add them to the list. Check back in over the next week to read my next series of posts and learn the answers.
Balyolu: The Honey Road
Cat as a National Geographic Young Explorer
Claire Bangser Makes Things
One Sticky Hive
Eating local honey will “cure” you of local hayfever. Is that true?
It won’t “cure” it, but it will lessen its severity if the honey was produced in the same local that you live in.
1. Light/white honey is organic.
Unless you can guarantee that every square foot of land within 5 miles of a hive follows the rules of organic growing, the honey cannot be termed “organic”.
2. If the honey has “comb” in it, the honey is pure.
You’d have to define “pure honey”. The presence of comb is indicative of nothing; Chinese honey (bees fed with nothing but corn syrup) has comb bits in it. What you will find in all real honey is pollen.
3. If you dip a metal spoon in honey, the metal will ruin the honey’s health properties.
Never heard that one before. Honey runs about pH 4, so it is mildly acidic, but I’ve never heard about modification of the enzymes and pollen content. This is likely not true.
4. Real honey doesn’t crystalize.
Not true. The more moisture in the honey, the less likely it is to crystallize. However, to be called in the U.S., the water content can be no more than 18%.
5. If you hold a spoon-full of honey high into the air, and the resulting honey drip doesn’t break, it is pure honey.
Such a test is not a good indicator of anything.
6. High quality honey should tickle your throat.
Highly subjective and not testable.
7. Honey does not go bad.
Almost true. Well-sealed honey has been known to last decades.
8. Babies shouldn’t eat honey because of potential pesticides/medicine in the honey.
Not true. There is evidence that babies who are fed honey will occasionally get botulism poisoning from it, however.
9. Some honey can kill you.
Never heard of that. However, melaluca honey (from the melaluca flower native to New Zealand), known for its medicinal qualities, may make you wish you’d died after tasting; it has a very strong, unpleasant flavor.
11. Honey from pure bee species tastes better than honey produced by mixed species.
Nonsense. The taste of honey is entirely dependent upon the species of flowers from which the bees gather nectar.
12. The quality of honey increases with the diversity of plant species present around the hives, for example, “honey that has only 100 flowers is not as high in quality, or expensive, as honey from 300 flowers.”
Never heard that one, either, but it doesn’t ring true. (You’d have to define “quality” first.)
Do you know anything about the medicinal qualities of propolis? I’ve heard it referred to as “Russian Penicillin.” I’m more interested in that than honey which ‘speeds me up’ too much.
I know that infants under 12 months should not be given honey (The American Academy of Pediatrics advises against it.) I also know that honey produced from certain flowers can have an hallucinogenic effect. I remember one story where soldiers in an ancient battle were lured into eating this honey and lost the battle (and/or were killed in their drugged state). I also have heard this fun fact: Alexander the Great was embalmed in a coffin filled with honey.