Friday, April 4, 2014

The honey. How to choose and where to buy?


The honey. How to choose and where to buy? To buy in the markets of natural honey in the form in which it was made a bee is not a simple task. For merchant honey is a commodity, like fish and meat, and determinant of commercial success, is the price of the final product, which will be paid by the buyer.


Natural honey, obtained by bees from the pollen of wild plants, when the intervention of a beekeeper in the process is limited to the replacement of full of empty shops and pumping honey, it is very difficult to compete on price setting with surrogate products.




Therefore, the buyer in the market, you probably should not be very upset if he will get blended honey is a mixture of high-quality natural honey with less valuable varieties. It is in the best case. In the worst case, you can become the owner of honey, made by bees rapid method of sugar syrup, carefully provided not entirely honest beekeeper, when bad weather blossom honey plants quenched.





Honey ABC


On the market the buyer offer two types of honey: centrifugal honey is pumped out of cells by using the extractor, and comb honey - honey in the wax combs.





Name


The names of the varieties of honey are often based on:


- the prevailing honey plant: acacia, Linden, buckwheat, etc.


- areas where harvest occurred: forest, steppe, meadow, mountain, etc.


- geography of origin: Bashkir, far Eastern, etc.


time of harvest: may, etc.




Avoid buying low-quality product will allow the knowledge of certain facts that determine the specifics of production, storage and consumption of honey.




First we need to find a starting point. Sipping honey from a reputable supplier, you can get a first impression about how the taste and smell must have a quality product. In the future it will allow you to make the right choice when buying.





Color


The color palette of honey can include all shades from almost white and Sunny yellow to dark brown and Burgundy.




The color depends on the prevailing melliferous plants, and in what condition the product is still liquid, or already crystallized. Crystallization of honey becomes cloudy and his color changed.




Due to the fact that bees can not be forced to take nectar from only one bee plant, to obtain, for example, lime or only buckwheat honey in its pure form is not possible: in the nectar of the prevailing melliferous always get admixture of other honey plants, flowering at the time of harvest. For this reason, honey, proudly bearing the name of buckwheat, each season will have a different hue. In any case, the color of honey does not determine the healing properties of the product and is not a decisive factor when buying.





Aroma


The true aroma of honey is determined as follows: in a glass jar put 30-40 grams of honey, tight-fitting lid and placed for 10 minutes in water heated to 50 degrees Celsius; remove the cover and defines a bouquet of honey.





Taste


The true taste of honey, you can determine when the product is heated to 30-50 degrees Celsius.





Maturity


Mature is Vystaviste honey, which the bees have removed the excess water. Maturity natural nekapasyanago honey can be easily identified by the specific weight of the product. One liter of Mature honey shall weigh not less than 1, 4 kg of a Smaller size will mean that the percentage of moisture in this product exceeds 20%. Immature liquid honey for a very long time is not crystallized, poorly stored, and it can begin the fermentation process. To use this product in food is not.




In turn, ripe crystallized honey can reach the consistency of stone and stored for centuries, as evidenced by finds in the Egyptian pyramids.




Beekeeper determines the ripeness of honey in appearance of under - cells with ripe honey bees seal.





Consistency


Liquid honey is the product remains immediately after the evacuation of the honeycomb and up to the moment of crystallization. Liquid honey has varying degrees of viscosity, which depends on the percentage moisture content and storage temperature.




Crystallized honey is a natural transition honey liquid to solid, which occurs in 3-5 weeks after the evacuation of nectar from the hives. Ripe honey, sealed by the bees in the comb, too, eventually crystallizes, but it may take up to 3-5 months.




During long-term storage of honey goes through three stages: 1) thickens, 2) dim 3), crystallizes in a dense mass.





Where to buy


In large-scale industrial honey is not possible due to the nature of this craft, and so this product gets to the consumer on the table in two ways: 1) from a friend beekeeper; 2) from the seller at the market or store.




Purchase of honey on the market has a number of advantages, for inexperienced beekeeping Everyman when the desire will always be able to find fresh may honey in a liquid state even in February.




In turn, the availability of product from a friend beekeeper is largely dependent on weather conditions - sometimes there are crop failures, and the choice of varieties is limited to growing in a radius of 10 kilometers melliferous flora.





How to buy


No matter where you buy the honey, the buyer is recommended to act one script:


- To use the organs of smell and compare the flavors of different varieties of honey.


- Try honey with a pleasant aroma to the taste, limited to one or two varieties that are not lost sharpness of perception.


- Weigh scales - liter Mature honey should weigh more than 1.4 kg


- Maturity vietcasino liquid honey tested using a knife or similar in the form of Cutlery. If the honey is not charged on the knife, it is a sign of immaturity. Mature fresh honey should drain away from the knife smooth stream, not torn into droplets and forming on the surface of the slide. The last drop of honey is gently lifted back to the knife.


- Crystallized honey - visually check on the homogeneity of the crystals.




What to look out




Immature honey - fruit rush beekeeper. Trying to get and implement the product, beekeepers sometimes pumped from honeycomb honey with high humidity without wax seals. This honey has a very liquid consistency, a long time is not stored, and the storage in a compact temperature sour.




Dead honey. Kill any natural honey, heating it to temperatures above 60 degrees Celsius. Resorted to such actions dishonest merchants for packaging crystallized honey from large containers into smaller ones, and to make the product marketable. The fact that the average citizen is somehow imagine honey pure and clear. Crystallized honey is becoming exactly when subjected to prolonged heating at high temperature. This honey loses all useful properties and their value is on par with caramel and burnt sugar. Liquid and transparent honey is only in the season of harvest.




On the market to determine the "fuming" honey or not, is possible after visiting showcases the seller. If all the honey in jars has a bright amber glow, while its transparency may be the envy of pure diamond, this is the case when the buyer offers heated honey. Shades of honey always has a kind blacklist. In addition, natural honey crystal clear does not happen - it always has pollen grains, particles of wax.




Buying honey in the comb, the customer receives a guarantee that this product did exactly bees. However, high-quality comb honey must have a solid signet (all cells sealed with wax caps entirely).





How to store


Honey has a remarkable ability to absorb odors. If desired, you can receive the product with the taste of smoked sausage, herring, garlic and onions, sauerkraut... Enough to leave nezasorennyh jar of honey next to the food or non-food products that have a persistent odor.




In addition, honey can absorb moisture from the damp air, from which the quality of the product may deteriorate.




Ideally, the honey can be stored for years in a hermetically sealed glass container in a dark place with good ventilation when the air temperature is 5-10 degrees Celsius. Also suitable clay, enamel and wooden containers.






Source:

The cake
















No comments:

Post a Comment