# Buying Honey.



## Odea (19 Feb 2022)

Late in life I have developed a likeness for honey.  Never really liked it before this.  Nothing nicer than a slice of McCambridges brown bread, toasted with honey on it.

The problem is, I am not an expert on honey. I just buy the supermarket stuff. Not sure where it comes from or is it mostly sugar etc.

The plan is to start looking around for a locally produced honey.

I don't really have any farmer's markets close to me here in Dublin.  We do have an Avoca and a Donnybrook Fair where I think I might get a honey from a small producer but I am not even sure if this will be any different from the supermarket honey.

Any thoughts or recommendations?


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## ClubMan (19 Feb 2022)

Odea said:


> Not sure where it comes from or is it mostly sugar etc.


All honey is mostly sugars and your body cannot distinguish one glucose/fructose molecule from another.





						The Chemistry of Honey | Bee Culture
					






					www.beeculture.com
				



Maybe this is of use to you?

[broken link removed]


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## Silversurfer (19 Feb 2022)

Odea said:


> Late in life I have developed a likeness for honey.  Never really liked it before this.  Nothing nicer than a slice of McCambridges brown bread, toasted with honey on it.
> 
> The problem is, I am not an expert on honey. I just buy the supermarket stuff. Not sure where it comes from or is it mostly sugar etc.
> 
> ...


There is a Honey Farm in the Dublin Mountains. The BK has many aparies and you would get a choice of different types of honey. He also has an online shop. Also if you are near Waterford the Amish on the Dunmore Road have honey and great cakes too. Your local BK’s association would have a list of suppliers too. There is a world of difference between  blended multi source honey that is pasteurised and locally sourced honey.


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## Odea (19 Feb 2022)

I had a look at the Dublin Mountains man who produces honey. From looking at his website it is only available online and in lots of 20 jars. For the moment I am just looking to purchase an occasional jar as I go.  Not really online.


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## ClubMan (19 Feb 2022)

Silversurfer said:


> There is a world of difference between  blended multi source honey that is pasteurised and locally sourced honey.


Special glucose and fructose molecules?


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## Thirsty (19 Feb 2022)

ClubMan said:


> Special glucose and fructose molecules?


Rather like the difference in quality of responses to a request for information.

A quality product generally tastes better.


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## Silversurfer (19 Feb 2022)

Odea said:


> I had a look at the Dublin Mountains man who produces honey. From looking at his website it is only available online and in lots of 20 jars. For the moment I am just looking to purchase an occasional jar as I go.  Not really online.


If you send me PM I will send you a jar of honey. I am a BK but only keep a couple of hives and don’t sell it. You can judge yourself the difference


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## Silversurfer (19 Feb 2022)

ClubMan said:


> Special glucose and fructose molecules?


Special sources might be a different way of looking at it. Similar to grass fed beef as opposed to factory farming. Likewise free range eggs and poultry. Organic vegetables. Farmed fish. The list is endless. They are all the same product but sourced very differently.


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## Ceist Beag (19 Feb 2022)

I'm no expert in the area but honey from a honeycomb is infinitely nicer than shop bought honey. Plus it has a delicious crunchiness to it if you like that texture.


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## Brendan Burgess (19 Feb 2022)

Silversurfer said:


> Organic vegetables.



I strongly recommend against anyone trying to eat inorganic vegetables!


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## Pinoy adventure (19 Feb 2022)

There is a honey seller in the Hebert park market most weeks.


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## Leper (19 Feb 2022)

Be very street-wise where you buy your honey. A year or two before Covid while shopping in one of the German supermarkets I came across one of Cork's honey suppliers buying four/five slabs of honey (perhaps even more!). For some strange reason as he left the supermarket he had covered his slabs of honey with brown paper. He bought nothing else.


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## Silversurfer (19 Feb 2022)

Brendan Burgess said:


> I strongly recommend against anyone trying to eat inorganic vegetables!


Inorganic vegetables normally refers to the conventional method of farming where fertilisers are used as opposed to organic where natural fertilisers are used


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## noproblem (19 Feb 2022)

Buy a jar of  Boyne Valley and you won't go wrong. Hopefully someone doesn't come on here saying they love "organic honey", time for all of us to buzz off if that happens


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## lukegriffen (19 Feb 2022)

I think you'll notice the difference in local honey & standard supermarket honey. Don't know where you are, but Lott's in terenure have Wicklow honey at the moment for 10€. If you go to a market you might get it bit cheaper









						Bee aware: do you know what is in that cheap jar of honey?
					

British beekeepers call for stricter labelling on supermarket blends to identify the countries of origin




					www.theguardian.com


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## peemac (19 Feb 2022)

Here's a great book https://www.amazon.co.uk/Honey-Connoisseur-Selecting-Tasting-Varietals/dp/1579129293

I brought Kim Flottum over here when I was selling a brand of beeswax candles he was associated with and in just a couple of days I saw honey in a different light.

There's nothing better than a strong cheddar cheese dipped into a heather honey and accompanied by a nice sauv blanc as an evening snack.

If you are in stillorgan / goatstown area, Robbie's greengrocer in Drumartin stocks Tara Hill honey from Wexford. Probably €10-€12 a jar. But worth every cent.


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## Clamball (19 Feb 2022)

My Dad was a beekeeper.  Often brought him back little pots of honey from my travels.  He loved tasting them but always preferred his own.  I don’t like blended honeys in the supermarket, they are too thin and runny and I think pasteurising it makes it taste burnt.   Mostly honey had the flavour of the flower the bees were harvesting at the time.  Bees only travel 3 miles from the hive so the taste is local.  There can be variations in colour as well.  

Take silver surfer up on his offer, you won’t go wrong.


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## SlugBreath (20 Feb 2022)

Clamball said:


> I think pasteurising it makes it taste burnt.


Why is honey pasteurised?


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## Silversurfer (20 Feb 2022)

SlugBreath said:


> Why is honey pasteurised?


Unpasteurised honey will crystallise. By heating (pasteurising) it will remain runny.


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## jim (20 Feb 2022)

Silversurfer said:


> Unpasteurised honey will crystallise. By heating (pasteurising) it will remain runny.


This doesnt explain specifically why honey is pasteurised.

Honey is solid at room temp. Heating it does liquidise it.

But if its pastuerised i.e heated to a specific temp for a specific duration then why exactly is this done? Surely after it is heated and then cools it returns to its original state.

Pasteurisatiin is done to kill bacteria in dairy produce.

Why is honey pasteurised? Is it to kill bacteria? I dont know. Do you?


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## newirishman (20 Feb 2022)

jim said:


> This doesnt explain specifically why honey is pasteurised.
> 
> Honey is solid at room temp. Heating it does liquidise it.
> 
> ...


2 reasons: kill any residual yeast, which can otherwise survive in honey. Yeast might lead to fermentation. It is not a big risk usually though.
2nd reason (and usually the main one) is that pasteurised honey does stay runny for much longer even at room temp.

There's no downsides as such to the pasteurisation process (ie doesn't impact quality) but of course people might argue that does, as it isn't as natural, or isn't "real" honey anymore.


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## Silversurfer (20 Feb 2022)

jim said:


> This doesnt explain specifically why honey is pasteurised.
> 
> Honey is solid at room temp. Heating it does liquidise it.
> 
> ...


Honey is pasteurised to extend the shelf life of the product. It will not crystallise after being pasteurised. Also runny honey is more popular amongst consumers. It also removes air bubbles and impurities. Raw honey is not pasteurised and will contain pollen. This is usually the reason hay fever suffers will try and source local honey because they believe it helps with their symptoms. Raw honey will crystallise. Honey will never ‘go off’. It also is a very good antiseptic for wounds and would have been used this way on livestock.


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## Clamball (20 Feb 2022)

There is no food safety reason to pasteurise honey, (there is a slight risk to very young infants so honey is not recommended for them).  It is perfectly safe to eat without pastuerisation.

Filtering, heating & pasteurising the honey removes some impurities, makes the honey more liquid so you can easily mix sources of honey, removes air bubbles.  The honey will not easily solidify afterwards because the tiny particles that the crystals form around are gone.   Of course there is nothing wrong with solid honey, some people love it.   So commercial manufacturers prefer to pasteurise honey because they feel they get a more even quality.    

My father always believed that if you turned a pot of honey upside down, the slower the air bubbles moved the better the quality of the honey.  He loved a really thick honey.

And if your honey goes solid you can liquify by placing in a dish of warm water for a few hours.


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## odyssey06 (21 Feb 2022)

Clamball said:


> And if your honey goes solid you can liquify by placing in a dish of warm water for a few hours.


I'm trying that with a jar of honey and no luck! Still solid crystals. Any ideas?


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## Leper (21 Feb 2022)

odyssey06 said:


> I'm trying that with a jar of honey and no luck! Still solid crystals. Any ideas?


Use hotter water.

[You can use boiling water, but place a tablespoon in the jar of honey first to prevent the glass jar shattering]


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## iamaspinner (21 Feb 2022)

How To Decrystallize Honey—And What You Can Do To Avoid Lumps


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## Leo (21 Feb 2022)

Leper said:


> Use hotter water.
> 
> [You can use boiling water, but place a tablespoon in the jar of honey first to prevent the glass jar shattering]


The idea of the spoon in a glass container is to provide a rougher surface for the formation of bubbles in a boiling liquid to prevent overheating of the glass. So in this case, the spoon will need to be in the bowl of water, and not the jar of honey if you're going to boil the water.


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## hazelgreen (21 Feb 2022)

Robbies in Kilmacud had local honey with waxcomb for 14.99 last week.  I am guilty of putting honey into microwave to liquify.  I use it more in cooking that straight on bread and then dont forget 'honey and lemon'  hot drink for sore throat.  Some mothers would swear by a teaspoon dose for their kids health.


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## Clamball (21 Feb 2022)

Leper said:


> Use hotter water.
> 
> [You can use boiling water, but place a tablespoon in the jar of honey first to prevent the glass jar shattering]


My mother would use a medium-low heat, not boiling and pop it on the hob in the morning, it would take a good few hours to melt, but she definitely did not want to rush it.  (I would say around 50~60 C)

My Dad used to collect honey in milk churns that he had added a tap to and he used put the churn in a half barrel of water and light a Primus stove underneath.  It used to take about 12 hours to liquify.


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