Liquid Honey

[rae]

We've been selling last year's honey crop through the local butcher - all good so far, he's taken 60 jars and they seem to be selling nicely.

He's getting several requests for "liquid" honey - people expect it to look like the stuff you get in Tescos. All our honey sets pretty hard. The OSR honey early in the season set like a rock, we creamed it, and it was fine, but still "opaque". The honey from the July/August harvest stayed liquid for about 2 months, then solidified. We've creamed it so that it is "soft set", but again, opaque.

All we do is extract, filter, cream and jar. If we don't cream, it sets like a rock.

What are we missing out here? It tastes good enough!

 

[RoofTops]

It is entirely down to the flowers the bees visit. It is possible on an industrial scale to pressure fine filter honey and pasteurize it to delay setting but this is not feasible for the small scale producer and some honeys will still set quickly.

My early honey has a lot of OSR and sets quickly but the later honey stays liquid for a long time. The later stuff comes from the town around me.

I can only suggest trying to find an out-apiary where the bees can find new forage. Trial and error I am afraid but you could short cut things by talking to local beekeepers who do get honey which stays liquid and see if they will tell you where their bees are based.

 

[Teemore]

Are the requests coming from people who have purchased some of your honey or from people who say they would buy it if only it was liquid?

If its the latter, think about offering a taste test to potential customers - sacrificial pot of honey and a few lolly sticks to dip in.

 

[Rosti]

OSR has a higher glucose to fructose ratio than honey from many other traditional 'main crop' sources, as a result it sets harder and quicker with a potentially granular mouthfeel if not pre-seeded. Couple that with minimal dilution because there is limited competion at that time of the year and you get that characteristic milky yellow / cream product. I make it a marketing POD on the label.

As a mono crop, field beans give a sugar ratio that is much more conducive to 'runny' honey for a longer period and has a deaper more traditional honey colour.

Nature in action!

 

[Chris B]

Gentle heat (40 to 45 degrees) for 24 hours will ensure no crystals remain in your honey, followed by a fine filter. An important factor is to ensure there is nothing in your honey to act as a seed for crystals to grow on. You can even delay rape crystallizing for a few weeks this way, but it should give your summer honey at least 6 months.

You can also reliquify honey in jars by gentle heat. The 2nd time round it won't set as quickly because over time any remaining sucrose gets converted to fructose and glucose. Rape for example is high sucrose compared to other honeys.

 

[Chris Luck]

I just explain that is how untreated honey is and that I won't mess about with mine, that is their guarantee and the reason people buy from me.

Chris

 

[Dishmop]

Tell them that if they but yours and heat it up it should be just like Tesco's stuff only taste better...

 

[rae]

Thanks for the replies. We have the T H O R N E S granulation label on the back of the jar, so it is pretty clear what to do. My marketing angle for solid honey is that it is far better for children than liquid honey...as it actually stays on the toast, rather than dripping all over the floor.

I think the requests are mainly coming from those who see it, and expect honey to be golden, rather than pale white. We have uniformly good feedback on the taste, so we (er, the bees) must be doing something right.

 

[Baggyone]

I'm in a great position as I work in a butchers and can explain the granulation to people. Its always a good opener when someone picks up a jar and I go "straight from your garden to mine." it nearly always produces a sale.

 

[Rosti]

"straight from your garden to mine." it nearly always produces a sale.

Nice !