Honey: composition, properties, types

Bees produce honey from nectar or honeydew. At the same time, complex transformations take place in the body of the bee. Honey almost entirely consists of plant nectar, only some components enter the honey from the body of the bee. The composition of honey includes about 300 different substances, it is based on simple sugars - fructose and glucose.

Honey has a complex chemical composition. It contains about 20% water and 80% dry matter, of which grape sugar makes up 35% and fruit sugar 40%. In addition, honey contains sucrose (1.3-5%), maltose (5-10%), dextrins (3-4%). The amount of proteins in flower honey is 0.04-0.29%, and in honeydew - 0.08-0.17%. Honey contains up to 20 amino acids.

The darkening of honey when heated is explained by the fact that amino compounds react with monosaccharides and dark-colored compounds (melokondins) are formed.

Honey contains malic, lactic, tartaric, oxalic, citric, succinic and other acids. The acidity of flower honeys (pH) is 3.78, honeydew - 4.57. Flower honeys have significantly less (up to 0.14%) mineral substances (ash content) than honeydew (1.6%). Honey contains enzymes such as invertase, diastase, catalase, lipase, etc. Of the vitamins in honey, B1, B2, B3, pantothenic, nicotinic (PP), ascorbic acid (C) and others predominate.

Unnatural honey is sugar honey processed by bees, as well as honey from sweet juices of fruits, vegetables and artificial honey.

The name of honey depends on the type of plants from which the nectar is collected, for example, buckwheat, sunflower, sainfoin, sweet clover, linden, white acacia, heather, etc. Such honey is called monofloral.

But honey may contain impurities of a different origin. For example, sunflower honey sometimes contains impurities of alfalfa. Impurities in small quantities do not affect the quality of honey. Honey produced by bees from the nectar of various plants is called polyfloral. Sometimes the name of honey is associated with the area or land where bees collect nectar (for example, Carpathian, Far Eastern, Bashkir, meadow, forest).

The color of honey comes in all shades, from light yellow to brown and brown, depending on the type of plant from which the bees collected nectar. Three groups of honey varieties are distinguished by color: light, moderately colored and dark. Dark honey is healthier than light honey. It contains more minerals and other substances.

The transformation of nectar into honey begins in the body of bees. A solution of carbohydrates, mineral salts, aromatic substances with water and other substances is transferred from plants to wax cells of honeycombs. Many bees work not only on the collection and transfer of nectar, but also on its processing in the hive.

When producing honey from nectar, bees evaporate water, mix it in honeycombs and process it with enzymes. As a result, the chemical composition of the product changes. Most of the water evaporates from the nectar on the first day.

Ripe honey bees seal in the cells with wax caps. On this basis, its maturity and pumping time are determined. Unsealed honey has high water content and contains a lot of unsplit sucrose, which worsens its quality. Unripe honey cannot be stored for a long time.

There is no garden without an apiary, and no fruit without bees.

4/5 of the total mass of honey are natural sugars glucose and fructose, ash elements, enzymes, organic acids, nitrogenous compounds, vitamins, aromatic, biologically active and other substances. The amount of water in most varieties of mature honey is about 18% (depending on the area, it can vary from 15 to 21%). Unripe honey contains over 22% water.

Sugar is the main constituent of honey. High-quality varieties of honey contain about 75% simple sugars (glucose, as a rule, about 35%, fructose - 40%). Their ratio determines the physical qualities of honey: with an increase in glucose content, its ability to crystallize increases, and with an increase in fructose content, it becomes sweeter in taste and more hygroscopic.

Aromatic substances of various plants enter the hive with nectar and give a peculiar taste to mature honey. Most of them are in mature honey. If the honey is pumped out and stored without a tight seal, the aromatic substances are lost and its smell becomes weaker.

A certain taste of honey is given by organic acids. Among them, the most common are lemon, malic, gluconic and milk.

There are few vitamins in honey, but when mixed with other components, they are very beneficial for the body.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, honey with bread was a daily traditional and very healthy Russian food.
Then the endless wars of the first half of the 20th century undermined the production of honey in Russia.
In the middle of the 20th century, honey was practically ousted from the tables of Russians by the mass industrial production of sugar (sucrose) established by that time in the USSR. And honey in Russia has turned from a necessary daily product into a rare delicacy for pampering.
Now Russia in terms of honey production catastrophically lags behind the countries of Europe and the USA, but it is sharply ahead of these countries at a many times higher price of honey sold. See below the article "HONEY SITUATION AT THE STATE LEVEL".

The pumped out honey crystallizes after a while (sugar turns into crystals). The property of honey to crystallize and the rate of crystallization is primarily affected by the ratio of glucose and fructose. The more glucose in honey, the faster crystallization begins and occurs.

The crystallization of honey can be accelerated or slowed down by means of temperature. It occurs most rapidly at a temperature of 13-14°C. With its decrease, the formation of crystals is weakened, since the viscosity of honey increases. At temperatures above 14°C, the ability to form crystals decreases, and at 40°C they dissolve (but honey loses its healing properties).

Crystallization (candied) does not impair the quality of honey, crystals only give it a certain look and appeal.

The stability of honey against heating is low. The nutritional and medicinal properties of heated products are reduced. At 40°C and above, honey loses its special beneficial properties and turns into a simple sweet substance (practically into ordinary glucose-fructose syrup). Honey at the same time loses bactericidal properties and aroma. Heat also changes the color of honey - it becomes darker, sometimes brown. The more intense and longer the effect of heat, the more the quality of honey deteriorates. Therefore, it is desirable to store it in its usual state, without heating unnecessarily.

The aroma of honey is characteristic of this variety and is due to the content of various substances brought with nectar (120 names). The ratio of aromatic substances in the nectar of various honey plants is different. Honey produced by bees from sugar syrup without nectar impurities has no smell.

The viscosity of honey depends on temperature. Cooling from +30 to +20°С increases the viscosity of honey by 4 times.

Honey has a bactericidal effect, enhances metabolism, accelerates tissue regeneration, has anti-inflammatory, absorbable and tonic effects. Honey normalizes the activity of the gastrointestinal tract, stimulates the function of internal organs, prevents sclerosis, normalizes sleep, stimulates the body's defenses, etc. It was found that bees, when making honey from nectar, add a substance to it - inhibin, produced by them, as a result, honey becomes a completely sterile product. Artificial honey derived from sugar does not have the medicinal properties of natural honey.

When used externally, honey disinfects, kills all microbes, staphylococci, etc. During the first and second world wars, doctors used honey to apply bandages. Such a bandage will never dry out, the wound is quickly covered with new epithelium (overgrown). Comb honey can be used to treat eye cataracts, as honey increases blood circulation at the site of application, which leads to tissue cleansing.

When used internally, honey is a powerful energy boost, as it is absorbed by the human body by 100%. There are recommendations for athletes to eat 200 g of honey some time before the competition.

Honey neutralizes alcohols. Honey can cure alcoholism by giving a tablespoon of honey every half an hour to a drunk person, no matter what state he is in. At the same time, an aversion to alcohol is developed, a person stops drinking.

It is very useful for the teeth and the entire oral cavity to chew honey in combs carefully and for a long time until the honey taste completely disappears. Then take and thoroughly chew a new portion of honeycomb. This is an excellent prevention of caries, stomatitis and gingivitis.

Types of honey

Monofloral honey. Honey is never collected by bees from only one type of honey plant. Therefore, honey is called monofloral (buckwheat, linden, etc.) if 40% or more of nectar is collected from this honey plant. These percentages can reach a maximum of 60, because it is impossible to make a bee fly to only one type of honey plant, and in the surrounding nature there is never only one type of plant.
In addition, to obtain monofloral honey, the period of its collection should coincide with the flowering period, mainly, of only one plant.

Polyfloral honey- prefabricated honey produced by bees from nectar collected from plants of several species. The name of polyfloral honey is associated with the type of honey lands. For example: forest, mountain, steppe, meadow, etc.

May honey. The honey of the first pitch is often called May honey.
The name "May honey" is not associated with the characteristics of bee honey and is a purely philistine name among buyers.
The name comes from those ancient times when the chronology in Russia was different, and May began two weeks later than the current chronology. Then the first honey was pumped out this month.

honeydew honey- this is honey that bees produce in a hot dry summer not from the nectar of flower plants, but from the sweet secretions of some insects: aphids, psyllids, mealybugs (honeydew honey of animal origin) and from honeydew - sugary substances of some plants, such as linden, fir , spruce, oak, willow, maple, apple tree, hazel, larch, aspen, elm, pine, rose, pear, plum (honeydew honey of plant origin).
Its color usually ranges from dark (black, tarry) and dark brown (honey from various deciduous trees) to dark green in honeycomb cells. But honeydew honey from coniferous trees can also be light yellow.
Honeydew honey has a less pronounced aroma, depending on the source of the honeydew: it can be unpleasant, have a burnt sugar smell, or have none. The consistency is syrupy, viscous, honey does not melt in the mouth for a long time. Honeydew honey, being cheaper, is mainly used in baking and confectionery production.

Some varieties of honey

clover honey- colorless and almost transparent, has a slightly pronounced aroma of clover flowers, after crystallization it takes the form of a white fat-like mass, has good taste. Predominant in colonies of gray mountain Caucasian bees.

Raspberry honey- light golden color with exceptionally pleasant aroma and taste; is in great demand as a remedy. Collected in many apiaries.

Buckwheat honey- has a bright light brown color with a slightly reddish tint, has a strong pleasant aroma and good taste. Buckwheat honey contains up to 0.3% protein and much more iron than light honey.

heather honey- reddish-brown in color, has a strong specific aroma and a slightly tart taste, remains brown after crystallization. Heather honey is the richest in terms of protein (1.86%) and mineral salts. In terms of taste, it is classified as honey of the lowest grade.

field honey- has many shades, from light amber to light brown. This honey is of high quality, with a strong aroma and good taste data, and therefore is in great demand.

forest honey- also has many shades, from light yellow to dark brown. It is always darker than meadow and field honey. In terms of taste, honey collected from summer herbs is not inferior to meadow and field honey, but if it contains a large percentage of honeydew or buckthorn and heather, it loses its taste.

meadow honey- from light yellow to light brown in color, has a very fragrant bouquet (especially from Rosaceae) and a pleasant taste and therefore is not inferior to other honeys.

All types of benign honey are very useful, and useful, almost equally.
Candied honey is just as healthy as fresh honey.
Full sugaring of good mature honey occurs 3-4 weeks after honey collection.
Taking into account that the last honey bribes are taken in September, by October 20 all benign honey should be only candied (with the exception of two rare varieties - acacia and heather).

The color of honey depending on its origin

The plant is the color of honey
Common apricot - brown-yellow
Acacia - pale yellow
Hawthorn - dark brown
meadow cornflower - brown
Veronica - white
Common cherry - light brown
White mustard - lemon yellow
Common buckwheat - dark brown
Pear - light green
Sweet clover yellow - golden yellow
Oak - yellow-green
Honeysuckle Tatar - yellow-hot
Willow - light yellow
Ivan tea - green
Horse chestnut - burgundy
Common chestnut - dark red
Clover white - brown
Clover red - chocolate
Norway maple - dark yellow
Tatar maple - grayish white
Sycamore maple - grayish yellow
Mullein - light yellow
Linden - pale green
Alfalfa - dirty gray
Raspberry - grayish white
Fescue team - white
Dandelion officinalis - orange
Walnut - yellow-green
Plantain - grayish white
Sunflower - golden yellow
Rapeseed - lemon yellow
Radish - pale yellow
Common bruise - dark blue
Plum - yellowish brown
Phacelia - blue
Cherry - yellow-brown
Sainfoin - brown
Apple tree - dirty yellow

Methods for determining the quality of honey

1. In order to determine the maturity of liquid (candied, fresh) honey, a spoon is lowered into it and they begin to rotate it. Unripe honey flows off the spoon, and mature honey is wound, lying on the spoon in folds, like a ribbon.

2. Take liquid (non-candied) honey for a sample by lowering a thin stick into a container. If it is real honey, then it follows the stick with a long continuous thread, and when this thread is interrupted, it will completely descend, forming a turret, a pagoda on the surface of the honey, which will then slowly disperse.
Fake honey, on the other hand, will behave like glue: it will flow abundantly and drip down from the stick, forming splashes.

Fresh ripe honey flows from the spoon in thick continuous ribbons.

Normal density of mature fresh honey when dripping from a spoon (at a temperature of +20 o C).

3. Quality honey should not foam. Foaminess indicates fermentation, i.e. spoilage of honey. Natural honey cannot ferment because it is bactericidal. (To obtain alcoholic beverages from honey by fermentation, it is either dissolved in water and brought to a boil. When heated, honey loses its bactericidal properties and can be fermented.)

4. Over time, honey becomes cloudy and thickens (candied) - this is a sure sign of good quality. Liquid honey happens, as a rule, in the summer (July-August) during its pumping. After a maximum of 1-2 months (depending on the variety), it crystallizes.
Therefore, if liquid honey is sold in winter or spring, it means that it is either warmed up or falsified. It should be remembered that when heated to a temperature of + 40 ° C and above, honey loses its main beneficial properties, turning into a simple sweet fructose-glucose syrup.
In candied natural honey, all useful properties are preserved, and it is undesirable to heat it up or add it to hot dishes and drinks.

Most often, real honey is candied 2-3 weeks after harvest. Given that the last bribe is taken in late September - early October, by October 20, natural honey can only be candied. The exception is white acacia honey (acacia honey), which does not crystallize for a long time (sometimes until spring), and heather honey, turning into a jelly-like mass.

FROM RUSSIAN HISTORY. Once upon a time, Catherine II issued a Decree to flog merchants with "sparse" honey in November and later. Unfortunately, this Decree is not currently being implemented, and therefore, before the New Year, and even in spring, the shelves in Russian stores are completely filled with transparent uncandied "honey", i.e. known forgery.

It happens that during storage, honey forms a crystallized layer below, and a syrupy layer on top. This indicates that the honey is immature and contains an increased amount of water.

5. Check smell and taste. Fake honey is usually odorless. Real honey has a fragrant aroma. This scent is incomparable. Honey with an admixture of sugar has no aroma, and its taste is close to the taste of sweetened water.

6. Determine if honey contains starch. To do this, put a little honey in a glass, pour boiling water over it, stir and cool. After that, drop a few drops of iodine there. If the composition turns blue, it means that starch has been added to the honey.

7. The addition of starch syrup can be determined with ammonia, which is added dropwise to a sample of honey, previously dissolved in distilled water (1: 2). The solution turns white with a brown precipitate.

8. An admixture of chalk can be detected if a few drops of vinegar are added to honey diluted with distilled water. In the presence of chalk, the mixture boils up due to the release of carbon dioxide.
Or you can just drop vinegar or some other acid on the honey. If the honey "boils", then there is chalk.

9. Determination of additives in honey sucrose (sugar). Dissolve honey in hot distilled water (in extreme cases, boiled) in a ratio of 1: 2 until an easily flowing (rather liquid) solution is obtained. Examine for the detection of mechanical impurities - a solution of natural honey (without insoluble additives introduced) will necessarily be transparent, without sediment and without foreign impurities on the surface. Then gently drop a few drops of silver nitrate solution there, observing the reaction. If honey is without added sugar, there will be no turbidity.
If sugar is added to honey, a distinctly noticeable whitish turbidity will immediately begin around the drops.

10. The presence of mechanical impurities. We take a sample of honey into a small test tube, add boiled or distilled water and dissolve it. Natural honey dissolves completely, the solution is transparent. In the presence of insoluble additives (for falsification) on the surface or in the sediment, a mechanical admixture to it will be found.

11. Traditionally, light varieties of honey are considered the best. However, this is not always fair. For example, dark-colored honey, say, buckwheat, may contain more iron, copper, manganese and other important substances and be more valuable to the body than light honey.

NOTE:

In general, all varieties of natural honey are almost equally very useful and necessary in a healthy diet. The difference between different types of honey is more in their varied taste and appearance, and the benefits are approximately the same and always excellent (see below the conclusion of Yu.A. Cherevko, professor of the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy).

The main thing is that honey should not be falsified and should not be collected in areas with a high content of toxic substances.

It should be taken into account that the toxic substances that get on the plants are concentrated in the honey collected from them (i.e., they are in a much higher concentration). Bees are insensitive to many toxic substances, and for people such honey can be very harmful, up to massive severe and even fatal poisoning (such cases are very common, because it is simply unrealistic to check honey in the laboratory for the presence of all possible toxic substances - there are too many of these.)

Honey collected from honey plants at military ranges, near chemical industry enterprises, large airfields, thermal power plants, in areas of increased radioactive contamination, as well as in areas of agriculture that uses enhanced chemicalization of fields with highly toxic pesticides is undesirable.

In Russia, there are quite a lot of heavily chemically or radiation contaminated areas in which it is impractical to extract honey. As an example of one of these zones - the Altai Mountains - see the article "Roskosmos and Poisoned Honey of the Altai Mountains" below on this page.
IN THE APPENDIX FOR THE INQUIRY at the end of this page - maps of various man-made pollution of the territory of Russia.

Storage of honey

Honey should be stored in complete darkness, because. many useful substances quickly break down under the influence of light. (This applies to all foods.)

It is best to store honey in a tightly closed glass container (for example, in glass jars with screw caps) in a cool place and always in complete darkness.

During long-term storage, loosely closed honey can greatly change its specific gravity, its own weight, and water content.

If it is stored in a dry place in an open container, then the water content in it can decrease to 14%, and the weight will decrease by 4-5%. And if stored in a humid room, honey is able to absorb the surrounding moisture from the air.

At a relative humidity of 60%, mature honey becomes watery, and as the humidity increases, the wateriness increases (honey absorbs moisture from the air). In this case, as a rule, honey sours.

In a dry room, closed mature honey is well preserved at any temperature. And at high humidity, it is better to store at a temperature below +10 degrees Celsius (for example, in a refrigerator) or above +27 (but not more than R32).

Honey is able to absorb odors, so the dishes and the room must be clean. Do not store sauerkraut, herring, vegetables, kerosene, etc. in it.

Honey should be stored in tightly closed glass, enamel or ceramic dishes (but in no case in iron, copper or galvanized). Galvanized and copper utensils are strictly prohibited! Honey enters into a chemical reaction with zinc and copper, filling with poisonous salts.

Non-enamelled metal utensils can only be made of stainless steel or aluminum, but in any case, non-enamelled metals are undesirable.

Honey can be successfully stored in wooden barrels or boxes. The most suitable material for barrels is linden. Beech, cedar, poplar are also suitable. In coniferous wood barrels, honey gains a resinous smell, in aspen barrels it becomes bitter, and blackens in oak barrels.

The shelf life of honey under optimal conditions is one year. After that, it loses its antimicrobial properties. The amount of glucose and fructose decreases by 10-20%. Vitamins B1, B2 and C begin to break down. The amount of sucrose and acids increases.

If you want to turn thickened honey into liquid, put the container with honey in a pot of hot water and heat while stirring (it is not recommended to heat the honey itself directly on the fire).
However, remember that when heated to 37-40 degrees Celsius and above, honey inevitably begins to lose many of its useful (healing) properties, turning into the usual sweet fructose-glucose mass.
For this reason, you should not add honey to hot tea and other hot drinks.
In addition, when honey is heated over 45 gr. Forms part of fructose hydroxymethylfurfural- a substance harmful to bees.
If it is necessary to dissolve crystallized honey, then it is necessary to heat it only in a water bath and make sure that the water temperature does not exceed 50 degrees. FROM.

Curious in the world of honey

Macedonian beekeeper sues bear for stealing honey
The state answered for the guilt of the bear

In Macedonia, a rather unusual court case was held in which a beekeeper sued a bear. As a result, by the decision of the court of the city of Bitola, the clubfoot was found guilty of stealing honey and causing damage to the beekeeper's farm.

Speaking about the details of the incident, the beekeeper said that he honestly tried to ward off the intruder with the help of loud turbo-folk music.

“I tried to scare the bear away with bright lights and music, because I heard that bears are afraid of this,” Zoran Kiseloski told the press after the case, which had been pending in court for a whole year, was completed in his favor. “So I bought a generator, put light on the territory and turned on the music.

The bear did not approach for several weeks, but as soon as the generator stopped working and the music died down, the clumsy again climbed for honey. Then the injured beekeeper went to court with a demand to curb the wild robber.

The bear was found guilty, but since it is not anyone's property and is a species protected by the state, the court ordered the state to pay 140,000 dinars (about $ 3,550) in damages to the beekeeper, but ordered the victim to continue to improve the security of his apiary so as not to expose the wild animal to unnecessary temptation.

Fake honey and how to identify them

The falsification or forgery of bee honey has been known since ancient times, especially in connection with the development of the sugar industry.

Amos Ruth in his "Encyclopedia of Beekeeping" (1876) reports on Hassel's book "The Detection of Falsification" (1855), where, in his opinion, information about the falsification of honey is given for the first time. He quotes a topical quote in our time: "Fake and adulterated honey is very common in our markets. The usual substance used is ordinary sugar, diluted with water in the form of syrup and flavored with various aromatic substances. This preparation is usually mixed with real honey." Among the impurities in the fakes, even alum, which is harmful to health, was found.

Over the past century, the techniques of falsification have improved. They began to use molasses, invert sugar and sucrose. For fakes, various substances containing carbohydrates were used, for example, potato and corn starch, and other products.

Forged honey has become difficult to distinguish from natural, not only organoleptically, but also in laboratory studies.

Therefore, in the articles below on this page, the SuperCook editors give all possible ways to independently check honey at home. Some of these methods are repeated in different articles, which indicates their popularity.

Protection of honey consumers from the purchase of counterfeit products in the trading network was undertaken by the state, but often honey, in addition to markets and shops, is purchased from private individuals.

Consumers should be aware of the existence of counterfeit honey and be able to recognize them.

To date, the known counterfeits of honey can be summarized in three large groups: natural honeys with the addition of foreign products to increase their mass and viscosity, honeys made by bees from sweet products of non-nectar origin, and artificial honeys.

Honey going on sale must always comply with GOST. The label must indicate GOST. Any deviation from it indicates unnaturalness and falsification. To assess the quality of natural honeys, 43 indicators are offered in the scientific literature: maturity, stability, water content, sucrose ... But, unfortunately, these requirements are often violated. How to identify benign natural bee honey?

Regardless of where you buy honey, you should always ask where and when it was harvested.

When buying honey in a specialized store(which, however, in Russia is also not a guarantee against fakes at all - now we have enough scammers everywhere in abundance) read it carefully label. She will tell you what kind of honey it is.

white label point to quality honey, blue- that honey is of low quality or honeydew. The label must contain the standard, variety, botanical type of honey, the time and place of its collection, the name and address of the supplier.

Methods for determining the quality of honey

The people have their own methods of how to determine the quality of honey, for example, by using chemical pencil. The bottom line is as follows - a layer of honey is applied to paper, a finger or a spoon and a chemical pencil is drawn over it, or a pencil is dipped into the honey itself. It is assumed that if the honey is falsified, i.e. contains all sorts of impurities (sugar, sugar honey, as well as an increased amount of water), then a colored pencil mark will remain. However, the researcher V. G. Chudakov in 1972 tested 36 samples of honey of different quality, including 13 falsified ones, and believes that this folk method for determining the naturalness of honey and assessing its quality is absolutely wrong.

There is another popular method to determine counterfeit honey, it is in the sample on absorbent paper. A small amount of honey is placed on blotting paper. If after a few minutes a watery spot appears on the back of the paper, this is considered a sign of falsification. Again, V. G. Chudakov conducted laboratory studies of this sample, which led to the conclusion that the sample actually allows you to determine almost 100% of counterfeit honey, but besides, some natural honeys also fall into the category of counterfeit.

If you buy honey, then look in the reference books for how it should look. The main thing is that it must have a certain aroma, honey taste, that is, a bouquet corresponding to a certain variety of natural honey; the color must match.

If the honey is too white this should arouse suspicion, is it sugar? If the color is dark brown- Isn't he a dick? If its aroma is dulled, the taste of caramel is felt - it means that this is melted honey.

Also pay attention to the consistency of honey- it should correspond to the density of the variety, at a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius it should be wound on a spoon, like a ribbon, with sweet threads, interrupted at a certain moment.

Liquid honey should arouse suspicion. Most likely, this is unripe honey. It will not be stored, it will ferment, as it contains a lot of water. Such honey will not "wrap" on a spoon, but will simply drain from it. If you buy honey in the winter, it should not be liquid, and if it is, then it has most likely been warmed up or diluted.

When buying, check the honey for fermentation. If, with stirring, it is felt that it is not viscous, it foams actively and gas bubbles appear on the surface. A specific sour smell emanates from it, and also has an alcohol or burnt aftertaste.

Before buying a large amount of honey, buy 100-200 grams for a sample.

Beware of purchasing honey from apiaries located along highways with heavy traffic. In such honey, there may be an increased amount of lead compounds and other substances that fall on flowers with car exhaust. With nectar and pollen, lead gets into honey, and this is dangerous for the health of those who use it.

Honey collected in areas with unfavorable ecology is also very harmful (see maps below).

How to identify impurities in honey

To determine the various impurities in honey recommend the following methods. Pour honey into a transparent jar, then add distilled water - the honey will dissolve, an impurity will settle at the bottom.

• In order to discover an admixture of flour or starch in honey you need to pour 3-5 ml of an aqueous solution of honey (1: 2) into a jar or glass and add 3-5 drops of Lugol's solution (or tincture of iodine). If the honey contains flour or starch, the solution will turn blue.
• An admixture of starch syrup(a mixture of cool water and starchy sugar) can be recognized by its appearance, stickiness and lack of crystallization. You can also mix one part of honey with 2-3 parts of distilled water, add a quarter of the volume of 96% alcohol and shake. If there is starch syrup in honey, then the solution will take on a milky color. After settling this solution, a transparent semi-liquid sticky mass (dextrin) will settle. If the impurity is absent, the solution will remain transparent.
• Detect impurities of sugar (beet) molasses and ordinary sugar can be added to a 5-10% solution of honey in water solution of silver nitrate (lapis). If a white precipitate of silver chloride falls out, then this indicates the presence of an impurity. If there is no sediment, then the honey is pure. There is another way: to 5 ml of a 20% solution of honey in distilled water, add 22.5 ml of methyl (wood) alcohol, with the formation of an abundant yellowish-white precipitate, honey contains sugar syrup.
• To discover invert sugar impurities there is a rather complicated way: grind 5 g of honey with a small amount of ether (in which the products of fructose breakdown dissolve), then filter the ether solution into a bowl, evaporate to dryness and add 2-3 drops of a freshly prepared 1% solution of resorcinol in concentrated hydrochloric acid (sp. weight 1.125 g). If the impurity turns orange (to cherry red), then there is invert sugar.

Increased percentage of sucrose in honey, which can be established in laboratory conditions, indicates its poor quality: in natural flower honey, sucrose is not more than 5%, not more than 10% - in honeydew. The better the quality of natural honey, the less sucrose it contains."Sugar" honey has its own organoleptic characteristics: the smell of old honeycombs, insipid inexpressive taste, liquid consistency (if it is fresh), during long-term storage it becomes thick, sticky, sticky.

"Sugar" honey, like all non-natural honeys, is distinguished by the absence of vitamins, organic acids, protein and aromatic substances, mineral salts. Silicon is the main element in sugar honey, and other salts are practically absent, there are only traces of them. In natural honey, the opposite is true.

• If honey does not crystallize, then it can be assumed that there is admixture of potato molasses.
• In order to discover admixture of honeydew pour 1 part of an aqueous solution of honey (1: 1) into a glass and add 2 parts of lime water, then heat the mixture to a boil. If brown flakes are formed that precipitate, then this indicates the presence of an admixture of honeydew honey.

A SET OF EXPRESS CHECKS OF HONEY FOR QUALITY AT PURCHASE

(Some points will repeat the above, but repetition is the mother of learning, because any reasonable adult is simply obliged not to allow himself to be fooled by any crooked crooks and in all cases be able to choose):

Can I buy honey from my hands? Only if you are sure what you are buying. Selling honey in a store is also not a guarantee of its quality.

The only true guarantee of the quality of the purchased honey is a personal acquaintance with the beekeeper, confidence in his integrity and the knowledge that his apiary is located in a safe area. Therefore, it is best to buy honey from a familiar beekeeper right in his apiary.

The most common honey adulterant is sugar syrup. The same syrup is often diluted with unripe honey to give it the missing sweetness.

First, the honey must be mature. After all, bees work on nectar for about a week: they evaporate water, enrich it with enzymes, break down complex sugars into simple ones. During this time, honey is infused. The bees seal the finished product with wax caps - it is this honey that has all its useful properties and can be stored for a long time (but not more than one year).

Very often, beekeepers pump out honey during the honey collection, without waiting for it to ripen, due to a lack of combs. The water content in such honey is sometimes twice the norm, it is not enriched with enzymes and sucrose, and quickly turns sour.

To determine the maturity of fresh unsweetened honey, its temperature is adjusted to 20 g. C, stirring with a spoon. Then the spoon is taken out and rotated. Ripe honey wraps around her. From time to time, honey can become sugary, this is normal and does not affect either the taste, or the aroma, or the healing qualities of honey.

With the help of simple tests, you can determine if honey is falsified.
- Flour and starch are determined by adding a drop of iodine to a small amount of honey diluted with water. If the solution turns blue, honey with flour or starch.
- If the solution sizzles when adding vinegar essence, there is chalk in honey.
- If in a 5-10% aqueous solution of honey, when a small amount of lapis solution is added around the drops, turbidity forms and a white precipitate forms - sugar has been added.

How can you determine the quality of honey?

1) By color.
Each type of honey has its own unique color. Flower honey - light yellow, linden - amber, ash - transparent, like water, buckwheat has different shades of brown. Pure honey without impurities, as a rule, is transparent, no matter what color it is.
Honey, which has additives in its composition (sugar, starch, other impurities), is cloudy, and if you look closely, you can find a sediment in it.

2) By flavor.
Real honey has a fragrant aroma. This scent is incomparable. Honey with an admixture of sugar has no aroma, and its taste is close to the taste of sweetened water.

3) By viscosity.
Take a sample of honey by dropping a thin stick into the container. If it is real honey, then it follows the stick with a long continuous thread, and when this thread breaks, it will completely fall, forming a turret on the surface of the honey, a pagoda, which then slowly disperses.
Fake honey, on the other hand, will behave like glue: it will profusely drain and drip down from the stick, forming splashes.

4) By consistency.
In real honey, it is thin, tender. Honey is easily rubbed between the fingers and absorbed into the skin, which cannot be said about a fake. Fake honey has a rough texture, and lumps remain on the fingers when rubbed.

Before buying honey in the market in reserve, take the product you like from 2-3 regular sellers. To start with 100 grams. Do the recommended quality tests at home and only then buy it for future use from the same sellers.

5) Check if water and sugar are added to the honey.
To do this, drop honey on a piece of low-grade unglued paper (for example, ordinary newsprint or toilet paper), which absorbs moisture well. If it spreads over the paper, forming wet spots, or even seeps through it, it is fake honey.

6) Determine if there is starch in honey.
To do this, put a little honey in a glass, pour boiling water over it, stir and cool. After that, drop a few drops of iodine there. If the composition turns blue, it means that starch has been added to the honey. This is fake honey.

7) Find out if there are other impurities in honey.
To do this, take a red-hot stainless steel wire (you can heat it in the flame of a lighter) and lower it into honey. If a sticky foreign mass hangs on it, this is a fake for honey, but if the wire remains clean, honey is natural or, in other words, full-fledged.

8) What should I pay attention to when buying honey?
Honey, incl. and when sold, it cannot be stored in metal containers, since the acids contained in its composition can give oxidation. This will lead to an increase in the content of heavy metals in it and to a decrease in useful substances. Such honey can cause discomfort in the stomach and even lead to poisoning.
Conscientious sellers store honey only in glass, earthenware, porcelain, ceramic and wooden utensils. If you see that honey is being sold from metal containers, immediately step aside.

9) How else can you distinguish a fake?

In a cup of weak warm tea, add a little of what you bought under the guise of honey. If you are not deceived, the tea will darken, but no sediment will form at the bottom.

Over time, honey becomes cloudy and thickens (candied) - this is a sure sign of good quality. And not, as many mistakenly believe, that honey has deteriorated.

Sometimes honey during storage is divided into two layers: it thickens only from below, and remains liquid from above. This suggests that it is immature and therefore should be eaten as quickly as possible - unripe honey only lasts a few months.

Careless beekeepers do not take out bees to collect nectar, but simply feed them sugar. Sugar honey is not natural. There is nothing useful in it. Such "sugar" honey is unnaturally white.

In real honey, there is no free water - in mature honey, water (about 20% of it) is completely bound in a true saturated solution. Honey with sugar syrup has high humidity - this can be checked in the following way. Dip a piece of bread into honey, and after 8-10 minutes remove it. Bread will harden in high-quality honey. If, on the contrary, it softened or completely spread, then in front of you is nothing more than sugar syrup.

But no one on the market will allow you to conduct such experiments, but they will give you a try. Often honey is dripped onto a small piece of paper for tasting. This is quite enough to conduct another experiment. When going to the market for honey, take a chemical pencil with you. Smear honey on a piece of paper with a pencil, you can smear it with your finger, and on the “honey” strip, try to write something with an indelible pencil. If after a few seconds an inscription or blue stains appear, you can confidently and loudly inform the seller (so that other buyers can hear) that starch or flour is present in the product. If there is no chemical pencil, a drop of iodine will do. The same blue hue of the proposed honey will unmistakably determine the starch and flour in the product.

10) What kind of honey is better - mountain or, let's say, plain?
Do not fall for the bait when they try to convince you that mountain honey is better than the one that bees collect in our open spaces. Mountain honey has no special advantages over “plain” honey. The quality of honey and the concentration of useful substances in it depends only on the decency and knowledge of the beekeeper, as well as on the ecological situation in the honey collection area. Here, however, there is a difference between honey collected in a clean environment, and what the bees collected from the beds of an industrial enterprise. But here it all depends on the beekeeper. Conscience should not allow him to earn on "industrial" honey.

11) Honey sellers have several tricks designed for gullible buyers.
First, plug your ears and don't listen to what they tell you. Check everything yourself. Of course, one honest seller can fall for a bunch of liars, but how do you know that the one who is standing in front of you is honest? Try honey not only from above, but also from the bottom of the jar. Feel free to put your spoon in the jar and don't listen to the salespeople who start yelling, "Don't ruin the product!"
Unheated honey - both fresh transparent and candied - is an effective antiseptic, and a clean spoon in a jar cannot spoil it. Another thing is if there was not honey at the bottom, or if this honey was previously heated, which led to the loss of its antiseptic and all other healing properties.

Do not buy honey on the market without checking or rolled up. The fact that honey is better stored rolled up with a tin lid is a myth. A simple screw-on or tight polyethylene lid is sufficient.

Crystallization (candied) is a natural process for honey, which does not affect its quality and composition of nutrients. Don't let crystallized honey fool you. Do not come the next day to the seller who promised you uncrystallized honey. They will bring the same, but warmed up. And in no case should you heat honey, because. this turns it into a simple sweet substance, devoid of so many useful properties!

12) Real honey has the following features:

Quality honey does not roll off the spoon too quickly. Take a tablespoon of honey and turn the spoon over several times in a quick circular motion. Honey will wrap around it, almost not flowing into the jar.

Immerse the spoon into the honey container. Pulling out a spoon, evaluate the nature of the flow of honey. A good one will form a ribbon, sit down in a hillock, and bubbles form on its surface.

All types of honey have a sweet taste, but some of the varieties have a specific taste. For example, tobacco, chestnut and willow varieties have a bitter taste, while heather is astringent. Any deviations in the taste of honey indicate its poor quality. Other taste defects may be due to the presence of impurities. Excessive acidity may be associated with the onset of fermentation, the aroma of caramel is the result of heating, obvious bitterness is incorrect storage conditions for a low-quality product.

The color of honey depends solely on the variety. It can be all shades of brown and yellow. Don't be alarmed by pale yellow, slightly hazy honey - this is normal for acacia honey that has stood for a while, because it is candied very slowly and for a long time - sometimes completely only by the end of winter (but be sure to try it and determine for yourself that it is acacia honey). Turbidity is not inherent in other types of non-candied honey, because. the process of their sugaring (turbidity and hardening) occurs quickly - it was just transparent and suddenly (2-4 weeks after the bribe - the period depends on the type of honey) it was all sugared at once.

Another very simple quick check: you need to drop honey on paper and set it on fire. The paper around burns, but real high-quality honey does not burn, does not melt and does not turn brown. If the honey began to melt, it means that the bees were fed with sugar syrup, and if it turns brown, it means diluted with sugar.

ABOUT HONEY
According to the materials of the journal "Science and Life"

1. SYNTHETIC HONEY, "Bodyazhny", "CHEMICAL", UNMATURE: HOW TO DETERMINE THE QUALITY OF HONEY

2. "HONEY" SITUATION AT THE STATE LEVEL

In recent years, the average Russian consumes, according to various estimates, about 0.25-0.3 kilograms of honey per year, that is, about 150-200 times less than a century and a half ago. And the annual consumption of sugar in Russia is 41 kilograms per person per year. That is, in a sense, the average "sweetness" of life has not changed, the taste and benefits of this sweetness have changed. Moreover, even according to the norms of modern medicine (many times revised upwards), sugar consumption in all products should not exceed 38 kilograms per person per year.

And how are things in other countries?

In Germany, for example, the average per capita consumption of honey is 5 kg per person per year, that is, about 20 times more than in Russia, the average for the countries of the European Union is 3.5 kg, in Japan - 7 kg, in Saudi Arabia - up to 8 kg per year. In general, we are lagging behind. More precisely, we are catching up with developed countries at a good pace in terms of per capita allergy sufferers, but we are lagging behind by orders of magnitude in the simplest and most natural ways of healing. It is known that honey is a good prophylactic. Consuming pollen and enzymes from various plants in meager amounts with honey, the body maintains a healthy response to them throughout the year.

Among the reasons explaining the lower consumption of honey in Russia, of course, is its price. At the retail price of honey, today's Russia has many times overtaken both Europe and the USA. And this is with gigantic territories from which you can collect honey.

Marketable honey in Russia is now supplied by several regions, including the Krasnodar Territory. There you can often see such a picture: a large flowering field, and on the edge - a trailer with beehives in two or three rows (up to 36 hives on a trailer). This is how nomadic beekeeping looks like, which not only gives a lot of honey (several tons from a trailer), but also significantly increases yields. It is known that the cost of additional crop production obtained through high-quality pollination by bees is 10-12 times higher than the cost of honey.

In rural areas of Germany, up to 70 bee colonies can be counted per square kilometer. And what about in Russia? Here we are lagging behind, and significantly. The federal law on beekeeping was discussed by deputies for a long time, but was never adopted.

With the traditional question "who is to blame?"

What determines the color of honey? Honey is a unique product in all its parameters, it has a fragrant aroma and a pleasant taste. And its beneficial properties cannot be overestimated, because it helps to get rid of various diseases, not to mention maintaining the immune system. This amazing product has many varieties, each of which is special due to its properties. Therefore, you should understand what classification of honey exists in order to choose the most suitable product.

Types of honey

The bee product has a huge number of varieties, each created from the nectar of a certain type of plant. In this case, the resulting product may have a light or dark color and a number of special properties. Usually these properties depend on the medicinal characteristics of plants. Thus, it turns out like nothing else and everyone's favorite delicacy. Now this delicacy can be divided into the following types:

1. Monofloral honey is a product collected from a single plant, such as buckwheat or linden. Of course, this delicacy cannot contain 100% nectar from a single plant. Therefore, honey can be considered monofloral if more than 40% of the nectar is collected from one honey plant. This is because bees cannot fly to just one plant. Usually, in the environment, many plants bloom in one period, so this variety is obtained.
2. Polyfloral honey collected from the nectars of several plant species. Such nectar is collected by bees in forests, mountains, and steppes. This product has a very rich taste and aroma and is the most common. But if such honey is collected from wild bees, then it is very rare and has a huge amount of healing properties.
3. May honey is a product collected for the first time after winter. Its name has nothing to do with its properties, because it came from ancient times, when the chronology was different, and the collection of honey began in May, hence the name. May honey is one of the most delicious varieties, since the nectar for it is collected from many flowering trees and flowers, because there are a lot of them in May.
4. Honeydew honey is special in that it is collected not from the nectar of plants, but from the sweet secretions of insects, including aphids. The composition may also include honeydew from trees such as linden, apple, maple and others. This happens when the summer is too dry and the flowers wither. The color of the bee product obtained in this way is usually dark green, brown, and in some cases yellow. This type of honey has a not very pleasant aroma and a viscous texture. Since it is the cheapest, it is used mainly in bakeries and confectioneries.

All these varieties and their characteristics are of great importance when choosing a treat. After all, everyone who buys this product is counting on its properties that can improve health.

What determines the color of the product?

Many are accustomed to seeing exactly yellow honey, since this type is the most common. Of course, the color can vary from light or even almost white to dark brown. But what determines the color of this delicacy? This issue needs to be looked into in more detail. Now honey is divided into four color groups:

• white, colorless;
• amber, cream;
• yellow;
• brown, brown.

The most important thing that affects the color of this product is what plants the nectar was collected from, and in what period of the year. In addition, the population of bees and the condition of their combs are affected. So, for different bees, the color of the product collected in one period may be different in one area. You should not miss the geographical location, because it also plays a big role, for example, completely different plants grow in the mountains.

Of course, this delicacy, despite the color and variety, has one common feature - to boost the immune system and treat colds. However, other properties may differ depending on its color and the nectar of the plants from which the product was made.

Now light colors of honey and rare white honey are gaining more and more popularity. This is due to the quality of the product, because it is made from medicinal plants, sometimes very rare. Acacia honey is especially popular; due to its taste, it has long been a first-class honey. What can not be said about linden honey, because it does not always turn out to be of the right quality. Sometimes, when collecting nectar, bees also collect honeydew from linden, so this product becomes dark in color.

Based on this, you should be more attentive to the choice of this sweet and ask the seller again what specific nectar it is made from. Indeed, often inexperienced buyers are sold a low-quality product, dark in color and at the same time they claim that it is made from special types of plants, but this is not always the case and instead of a useful product, the buyer receives the cheapest type of honey at a high price. Therefore, you should pay special attention to color, smell and especially taste, it should have a pleasant aftertaste, not bitterness. And it is best to buy this delicacy from trusted and conscientious beekeepers who are confident in the quality of the products or at fairs where the products have a quality certificate.

yellow honey

Everyone has long been accustomed to enjoy yellow honey, because this color is the most common. Such a color can be given to this delicacy by both flowers and meadow grasses. At the same time, a natural product should have a transparent structure and a special aroma.

Most often, the yellow color of this sweetness is given by the nectar of a plant such as sweet clover. This plant has excellent medicinal properties. At the same time, such honey is very useful for nursing mothers, because it increases lactation. Therefore, this product is in great demand. In the liquid state, sweet clover nectar has a yellow color, but after a long crystallization process it brightens and becomes creamy.

A yellow color can also be given to honey by a plant such as field cornflower, because it is a good honey plant. The product obtained from it has a special taste with a slight bitterness, and its pleasant almond flavor makes it popular among lovers of this type of delicacy.

The color palette of buckwheat honey is more diverse, depending on the season and the bee population, it can vary from light yellow to brown. It is very common and loved by everyone, as it has a very pleasant floral aroma and good taste, characterized by its long aftertaste.

Among all types of this yellow delicacy, sunflower honey stands out noticeably. Everyone knows about such a plant as sunflower, in addition to its fruits, it is an excellent honey plant, therefore it attracts bees with its flowering. Among its taste qualities, one can especially distinguish a pleasant bitterness and a characteristic aftertaste. Unlike previous species, this delicacy does not have a particularly pronounced smell, but this does not prevent it from being one of the most delicious varieties. At the same time, such a product quickly crystallizes and becomes granular and, which is very important, acquires a beautiful bright yellow color.

This product cannot have a fully white color, because it always acquires some shade, depending on the nectar of the plant. But it is light honey that is by far the most expensive and in demand, yellow shades of the product cannot always compete with it. This is due to the fact that a light product has more useful characteristics.

Popular varieties of honey

Each connoisseur of this delicacy believes that the most delicious are monofloral varieties of honey, that is, those that mostly consist of the nectar of one plant. So what is honey? Depending on the origin, that is, on the nectar of which plant it was made, a huge number of species are distinguished. Among which are:

1. Clover - this honey is transparent or has a slightly pronounced color. It is remembered for its floral aroma and good taste. After crystallization becomes a white thick mass.
2. Raspberry - has a pleasant light golden color and is popular due to the healing properties of the plant.
3. Heather - is distinguished by its reddish-brown color and has a tart taste and a not very pleasant smell. This product belongs to the lowest grade.
4. Acacia honey - has a pleasant, unique aroma and good taste. At the same time, such a product crystallizes very slowly and turns from light cream into milky or white. It is often used for insomnia and gastrointestinal diseases.
5. Mustard has a bright golden color, but becomes creamy when solidified. In addition to medicinal properties, it also has nutritional benefits.
6. Alfalfa, may have different shades, but upon crystallization it acquires a lighter color.
7. Chestnut has a dark color and the smell of chestnut flowers, especially with its bitter aftertaste.

Since this product is also polyfloral, it is characterized by the collection of nectar by bees in certain places, such as a field, meadow, forest. Therefore, there are also such varieties:

1. Field is a product that has a special aroma of field plants and a very pleasant taste. It is thanks to him that honey is in great demand among lovers of sweets. It can have both light yellow and dark shades.
2. Forest honey is the most valuable and rare variety, because it has good healing qualities. At the same time, it has special taste qualities, which are even better than those of the field and meadow species. Its colors range from light yellow to brown.
3. Lugovoi is special for its wonderful flavor bouquet and aromas. Therefore, it is very popular among connoisseurs of this delicacy.

Regardless of where this product was collected, it should first of all be liked by its taste and aroma. At the same time, one should not forget about the unique properties of this product.

Special types of honey

In addition to all known types of this sweet, there are also very rare ones that are very difficult to find and buy. However, they are no less unique than the usual species. The product of dark brown color with a special aroma of tobacco is called tobacco honey. This species is very rare and insufficiently studied, therefore it is not recommended to use it for the prevention and treatment of diseases.

Even more unusual is rock honey. It got its name from the fact that wild bees lay it in the crevices of stone cliffs. This product is unlike ordinary honey, as it is not sticky at all, and its honeycombs do not contain wax. Its peculiarity is the high content of glucose, due to which it is preserved without changing its qualities at all for several years. Because of its origin, it can also be called Abkhazian honey.

One of the special types of this delicacy is poisonous honey. This species is quite dangerous for humans, as it can cause symptoms such as headache, diarrhea, and vomiting. This is due to the fact that bees extract nectar from plants such as azalea, mountain laurel, Pontic rhododendron, hellebore. These plants are special due to their poisonous properties. Therefore, in its pure form, such a product can cause the above reactions. This type of treat should be tested in laboratories to avoid symptoms.

Usually this product is collected from plants in Japan, the Caucasus, the Far East and some other areas. At the same time, it is not always possible to establish exactly from which nectars such honey is obtained. Symptoms of poisoning appear after about 20 minutes and are accompanied by severe itching, pain, and even fever for about 5 hours.

Express honey is very difficult to call a truly healthy and natural product. After all, it is made by foreign or domestic researchers who position it as a medicinal product. It is created with the help of bees, which feed on sugar syrup and medicines. This idea came from researchers who decided that many diseases can be treated in this way without the use of medications. But, unfortunately, such a product was not supported by many people, because they do not believe in the possibility of such a treatment.

Features of choice

Each person, choosing such a treat for himself, should proceed from what effect he expects to receive and for what needs this product is needed. In most cases, honey is bought in case:

• colds or their prevention;
• maintaining immunity;
• for confectionery use.

If this delicacy is bought for diseases, then you should pay special attention to the nectar of which plant the product is made from. After all, each has its own healing properties. It is very important when choosing to look at the color and consistency, it can tell what quality this product is.

To support the immune system, especially when it comes to a child, it is best to choose light colors that speak of its healing properties and improved health. A lime or raspberry type of treat is well suited.

When such a delicacy is necessary solely for the preparation of confectionery, then it does not matter which product to choose. It can be either the cheapest variety or the most expensive. After all, when choosing, it is especially important to pay attention to the taste of sweets so that the intended confectionery products turn out to be incredibly tasty and fragrant. In this case, it all depends on the taste needs of each.

Weather conditions are unique every year, plants produce nectar in different ways and the taste of honey is always unique. Here you can draw a parallel with the blending of wine, when grapes of different varieties are mixed to obtain a special taste and aroma. So is honey - a complex blend of nectar from dozens of honey plants. Even frames with honey from the same hive can contain honey with different flavors.

A small part of the frames will contain honey collected in May and early June. This is the time of flowering gardens, dandelion, yellow acacia. Most of the frames contain honey collected by bees during the main honey collection from the end of June to the first decade of August. Here the main honey plants are linden, fireweed, white clover, pink clover. And a huge number of secondary honey plants - raspberries, burdock and others.

The most delicious honey is obtained when the summer is warm and moderately humid. In such a summer, regular thunderstorms only interrupt the solar extravaganza for a short time. The days are hot and a little stuffy. Moisture in the soil is enough for the flowers to release the most nectar. High temperatures and plenty of sunlight make the nectar rich in sugars and aromatics. Even the linden, which does not produce nectar every year during flowering, in such conditions pleases the beekeeper with a businesslike rumble that the bees scurrying around the tree emit. Honey in such years is the most fragrant and the most beautiful in color - sunny, golden.

In cold, damp summers, flowers produce little nectar and it is too liquid. Bees have to put a lot of energy to evaporate excess moisture from it. On rainy days, the bees wait in the hive, one might say - they are idle! But in fact, these little hard workers do not know what laziness and idleness are. After all, you need to constantly build new combs, feed the brood, caulk the cracks and holes of the hive with propolis - bee glue. But the main concern is to collect as much honey as possible for the winter, in a rainy summer it is poorly done. Honey in such years turns out to be liquid and, as a rule, quickly crystallizes. Its color is light yellow.

In hot, dry summers, plants produce a small amount of nectar with a low water content. Accordingly, the honey is thick and its color varies from yellow to light brown. There are years when bees are forced to collect honeydew instead of flower nectar. Pad is a sweet liquid, which, due to high temperature, shoots and young leaves of some plants - oak, maple, willow, pine and others - begin to secrete. On honeydew honey, bees overwinter very badly, but there is an opinion that such honey is useful for humans due to the high content of minerals.

We all know that honey is different. It can be thicker or more liquid, almost white or completely brown. However, the main indicator of the division of honey into varieties is its origin. According to this criterion, honey is divided into flower and honeydew. Floral, in turn, can be pure or mixed. There is also such a separate concept as honeydew. This substance can be produced not at all by bees, for example, in New Zealand, insects of beech forests produce an analogue of honey from black and red beech. Drops of nectar that they leave on the leaves glisten under the rays of the sun - hence the name.

It is easy to distinguish between the types of flower honey - they are named after the plant from which it is collected. The most common varieties in our strip are: flower, linden, buckwheat, acacia, clover and alfalfa. Alfalfa honey, for example, has a mild flavor and aroma; has a light golden color; can be quite watery. Clover honey and even lighter - in the light it may seem almost colorless; clover honey has an unobtrusive interesting aroma and taste. Clover honey is collected mainly from white clover.

Linden honey is legendary. It is recognized as one of the best varieties in the world because of a whole bunch of its merits. Firstly, it has an unforgettable taste and aroma, which, by the way, will change somewhat depending on the linden variety and its place of growth. Secondly, the healing qualities of linden honey cannot be listed right away - it is also the first remedy for various colds, wound healing, strengthening and anti-inflammatory agent. The color of linden honey is not only white, but also golden, sometimes with a green tint. When it crystallizes, it becomes creamy.

Another legend is acacia honey. Like lime, it is very widely popular because of its taste, and is also used everywhere in traditional medicine. It is considered very useful for children, used to treat diseases of the genitourinary system. With anemia, it is recommended to use buckwheat honey. It has a reddish tint ranging from golden red to brown. Above most varieties of honey puts it an abundance of vitamins.

In general, flower honey can also be divided into meadow and forest honey. Meadow honey is lighter, its spectrum of aromas differs from forest honey. Meadow honey is honey of the first grade (lower grades are produced using a different technology); has a golden color, its main components are: thyme, clover, thyme, sage, alfalfa and other herbs. Forest honey is mainly produced from nectar collected by bees from shrubs, including: blackberry, hawthorn, mountain ash. Forest honey also contains herbs and trees. The range of colors of forest honey is great: from almost transparent golden to deep dark brown.

Often in flower honey there is some percentage of honeydew, that is, one that is obtained from the processed nectar of other insects (honeydew). Honeydew honey is mixed with forest varieties and helps to create a special flavor. By the way, some types of forest honey can be dangerous for humans. They are also called drunken honey or poisonous honey, in appearance they differ little from ordinary honey. Such a substance causes a semblance of food poisoning, but does not cause serious harm to the body. According to the final result, honey can be divided into filtered, unfiltered, honeycomb and artificial. Comb honey is especially time-consuming, because the cells need to be fixed so that they do not break during transportation. The so-called artificial honey is a product of bees, when they are specially fed with sugar or honey from the previous harvest. Its value characteristics are much less than that of regular filtered honey.

Varieties and varieties of honey

acacia(white acacia) honey is considered one of the best varieties. In liquid form it is transparent, during crystallization (saccharification) it becomes white, fine-grained, resembling snow. Bees also collect nectar from yellow locust flowers. This honey is very light, but upon crystallization it becomes greasy, white in color, medium grain. Yellow acacia honey is also among the best varieties.

barberry honey golden yellow in color, fragrant and delicate in taste. Bees vigorously process the nectar of flowers of the common barberry berry bush, which grows in the European part of Russia, in the Crimea and is widely cultivated as a valuable hemostatic agent.

Budyakovy honey belongs to the first class. It is colorless, greenish, golden (light amber), has a pleasant aroma and taste. During crystallization, it becomes fine-grained. Bees vigorously collect it from beautiful raspberry flowers of a weed with prickly stems and grayish leaves - Budyak, drooping thistle.

Borage honey obtained from the nectar of large beautiful blue flowers of borage - borage. Borage is grown as a valuable honey plant and medicinal plant. Honey has a pleasant taste, transparent, light.

Cornflower honey- greenish-yellow in color, has a pleasant aroma reminiscent of almonds and a peculiar, slightly bitter aftertaste. Cornflower blue, or field, is a good honey plant.

heather honey obtained from the nectar of small pink flowers of a branchy evergreen shrub of common heather, common in the western and northern steppe regions of Ukraine, in the western and northwestern regions of Russia, in Belarus. Heather honey is dark, dark yellow and red-brown in color with a weak aroma, pleasant or tart bitter taste. Refers to low grades of honey. It has the ability to thicken into a gelatinous jelly with lots of air bubbles that can rise to the surface. With stirring or shaking, the gelatinous structure of heather honey is destroyed, and it again becomes liquid, but later thickens again. This property is called thixotropy. Buckwheat honey also has some thixotropic properties. After removal of protein substances from heather honey, thixotropic properties are lost.

mustard honey- a product collected from large yellow flowers of white mustard growing in Ukraine, Belarus, in the European part of Russia. In the liquid state, it has a pleasant golden yellow color, and later acquires a yellow-cream hue. Crystallizes in small crystals. It has a pleasant aroma, sweet taste. It has high nutritional and medicinal properties, due to which it is recommended for respiratory diseases.

Pea honey collected from the flowers of thin-leaved peas, growing in the steppes of Siberia.

Buckwheat honey they are produced everywhere, but mainly in the central and southern regions of Russia, in Ukraine. The color of honey is from dark yellow and reddish to dark brown; it has a sharp peculiar taste and pleasant aroma. It crystallizes into a homogeneous, most often coarse-grained mass of dark yellow color. Some tasters note that when eating buckwheat honey, it "tickles the throat."
In most cases, buckwheat honey is rated as high-grade and medicinal. It contains more protein and iron than other botanical honeys. In this regard, such honey is recommended to be taken in the treatment of anemia. People say: "Dark honey is very useful for pale faces."

angelica honey bees collect from the flowers of angelica, widespread in Russia, Crimea, Belarus, Ukraine.

sweet clover honey- very light, white or light amber. It has a delicate pleasant taste and aroma reminiscent of vanilla. Rated as one of the best varieties. Bees collect it from the bright yellow flowers of the sweet clover or yellow. It crystallizes quickly. Due to its high nutritional and medicinal qualities, it is very popular. Recommended for respiratory diseases, colds, headaches, insomnia. In the US sweet clover honey is rated as one of the best varieties; it makes up 50-70% of the total amount of all honey coming on the market.

blackberry honey bees gather from the flowers of widespread blackberry bushes. It is transparent like water and has high taste and medicinal qualities and a delicate aroma.

snakehead honey- light, transparent, with pleasant aroma and taste. Bees prepare it from the nectar of the blue-violet flowers of the Moldavian snakehead, which grows in the Caucasus, Altai, and Ukraine. The snakehead belongs to very valuable melliferous plants, as it contains a large amount of high-sugar nectar with a lemon smell.

willow honey- golden-yellow color, upon crystallization it becomes fine-grained, acquires a creamy hue, has high taste qualities. Bees vigorously collect it from the flowers of various species of willow trees and shrubs, of which there are about 170.

hyssop honey according to its organoleptic properties, it belongs to first-class samples. The nectar for this honey is collected from the dark blue flowers of the medicinal and melliferous semi-shrub hyssop.

stone honey- rare and unique. Wild bees collect it, laying it in the crevices of stone cliffs. This honey is fawn in color, with a pleasant aroma, good taste. Honeycomb contains little wax and is one crystallized substance that has to be broken off into pieces, like a lollipop, in order to be consumed. Unlike ordinary bee honey, rock honey is almost non-sticky and therefore does not require special containers. It is well preserved without changing its qualities for several years. Often also called Abkhazian honey.

chestnut honey has a dark color, has a weak aroma, unpleasant taste. To prepare this honey, bees collect nectar from the flowers of the chestnut tree, which grows mainly in the Crimea and Transcaucasia. Bees also produce honey from the nectar of the bell-shaped white and pink flowers of the ornamental horse chestnut tree. This honey, unlike the first, is transparent (colorless), liquid, but crystallizes easily and quickly, sometimes bitter. Chestnut honey belongs to the category of low-grade.

fireweed honey- transparent, with a greenish tint, becomes white during crystallization in the form of snow grains, and sometimes resembles a creamy or fine-grained mass. When heated, it turns yellow, has a very weak delicate aroma and does not have a distinct honey taste, so buyers often do not recognize its naturalness. This honey has to be blended more often than other varieties. Bees prepare honey from the nectar of beautiful lilac-red flowers of fireweed angustifolium (willow-herb), which occurs quite often in the wild.

clover honey- light, almost colorless, transparent, sometimes with a greenish tinge, with a delicate aroma and a pleasant peculiar taste. Quickly crystallizes into a solid white crystalline mass. Refers to high-grade, first-class honey.

maple honey refers to light varieties of honey, has excellent taste. Bees vigorously collect it from the beautiful yellowish-green flowers of Norway maple, found in almost all forests of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus.

cranberry honey produced by bees from the nectar of cranberry flowers. It has a beautiful color, delicate taste, very fragrant, less sweet than other varieties of honey (probably due to high acidity). In the USA it is in great demand.

Lavender honey belongs to the first class. This golden-colored transparent honey, with a delicate aroma and pleasant taste, is produced by bees from the nectar of light blue or bluish-violet flowers of the perennial lavender essential oil plant. Lavender is cultivated on the southern coast of Crimea, in the Kuban and in the Caucasus. Lavender honey is top notch.

Linden honey is collected everywhere and is considered one of the best among the population. Thanks to its exceptionally pleasant taste, it is highly valued. A sharp taste is typical for Central Russian meads and, in particular, for the Ufa "lipets". Linden Far Eastern honey is very delicate and fragrant. Freshly extracted from a honey extractor, this honey is very fragrant, usually transparent, slightly yellow or greenish in color. Ufa (Bashkir) linden honey, the so-called Lipets, is colorless, becomes white upon crystallization, with a golden hue and a coarse-grained mass. Amur (Far Eastern) linden honey of cloudy-yellowish color. All samples of linden honey have an excellent specific aroma and wonderful taste, despite the feeling of slight bitterness, which, however, quickly disappears. Honey crystallizes into a solid white mass, has a coarse-grained cage. Crystals of calcium oxalate were found in linden honey. It is believed that the content of these crystals is typical only for linden honey. Their detection can serve as an additional sign of the establishment of a variety of linden honey. Linden honey is produced by bees from the nectar of linden flowers, which has high honey qualities. Linden honey has valuable nutritional and medicinal properties. Its antibacterial action is manifested in relation to gram-positive and gram-negative microorganisms, as well as in relation to ciliates, amoebas and Trichomonas. It contains volatile, non-volatile and slightly volatile antimicrobial substances, has expectorant, anti-inflammatory and. mild laxative effect. It is successfully used for diseases of the respiratory tract (tonsillitis, runny nose, laryngitis, bronchitis, bronchial asthma), as a heart strengthening agent, for inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, for diseases of the kidneys and gallbladder. It has a good local effect on purulent wounds and burns. Sometimes linden honey has a light yellow or greenish-gray color, which comes from honeydew honey. (The fall on the linden is common.) In folk medicine, linden honey is widely used for colds, mainly as a diaphoretic.

Burdock honey has a sharp spicy smell, has a dark olive color, is very viscous. To obtain this honey, bees collect nectar from small dark pink flowers of felted burdock and large burdock. This nectar is of a beautiful yellowish color, sometimes it can have a greenish tint, and has a strong pleasant spicy smell. Honey collected from the flowers of burdock felt (cobweb) has an olive color, light, viscous, easily wrapped on a spoon.

Meadow honey (Forbs) has a golden yellow, sometimes yellow-brown color, pleasant aroma, good taste. Meadow ("prefabricated") honey bees produce from the nectar of various meadow flowers.

alfalfa honey bees collect from lilac or violet flowers of alfalfa. Freshly pumped honey has various shades - from completely transparent to golden amber; it quickly crystallizes, becoming white, and resembles thick cream in its consistency. The color depends on the water content: the lower the water content, the lighter the color of the honey. This honey has a pleasant aroma and specific taste. If honey is stored in a warm room, it can remain liquid for a year.

Raspberry honey belongs to the light varieties of honey of the highest quality, has a pleasant aroma and good taste. Comb honey from raspberries has a delicate taste and seems to melt in your mouth. This honey is made from the nectar of wild and garden raspberry flowers. Due to the fact that the raspberry flower is tilted down, the bee, extracting nectar, is, as it were, under a natural canopy or umbrella and can work even during rain.

Melissa honey has a transparent color, pleasant aroma and taste. Bees harvest it from the nectar of light purple or pink melissa flowers with a strong smell. Bees are very fond of the smell of lemon balm.

carrot honey has a dark yellow color, strong aroma. Bees produce it from the nectar of fragrant white flowers of umbrella-shaped inflorescences of a cultivated biennial plant - carrots.

mint honey bees produce from the nectar of fragrant flowers of a perennial essential oil and spicy peppermint plant, which produces abundant collections of high-quality honey. This honey has an amber color and a pleasant mint flavor. Mint honey is considered high quality in Western Europe. This honey contains a lot of vitamin C, has a choleretic, soothing, analgesic and antiseptic effect.

Dandelion honey has a golden yellow color, very thick, viscous, quickly crystallizing, with a strong odor and a sharp taste. This honey is obtained from the nectar of a well-known and widespread weed - dandelion.

Thistle honey is white, fragrant, tasty. This first-class honey is produced by bees from nectar collected from numerous golden-yellow flowers of the sow thistle weed.

sunflower honey has a golden color, weak aroma and tart taste. Crystallizes quickly. When crystallized, it becomes light amber, sometimes even with a greenish tint. This honey has valuable dietary and medicinal properties.

motherwort honey- very heavy, light yellow in color, with a specific, but unsharp taste. Bees collect nectar from the pale purple flowers of the motherwort honey plant.

Rapeseed honey has a color from white to intense yellow, weak aroma and sugary taste, thick, quickly crystallizes. It is poorly soluble in water and quickly turns sour during long-term storage. Bees prepare it from the nectar of rapeseed flowers.

Resed honey belongs to the category of high-grade, has a pleasant aroma, and can compete with linden in taste. Bees produce this honey from the nectar of flowers of the odorous mignonette, which is a good honey plant.

rowan honey has a red color, strong aroma and good taste. During crystallization, a coarse-grained mass is formed. Bees prepare honey from the nectar of rowan flowers.

Rape honey has a greenish-yellow color, has a slight aroma, but a pleasant taste. Not suitable for long term storage. It is produced from the nectar of golden-yellow colza flowers.

pumpkin honey has a golden yellow color, pleasant taste, crystallizes rather quickly. Bees harvest it from large golden pumpkin flowers.

tulip honey has a reddish color, has a pleasant aroma and good taste. Bees collect this honey from a greenish-reddish ornamental tulip tree. This tree is a good honey plant, as it contains the largest amount of nectar compared to other subtropical honey plants.

Phacelia honey has a light green or white color, has a delicate aroma and a pleasant delicate taste. Belongs to the best varieties. After crystallization, it resembles dough. It is prepared from the nectar of phacelia flowers, which is considered a good honey plant.

cotton honey- very light and only after crystallization becomes white, has a peculiar aroma and delicate taste. Honey collected from cotton leaves by bees is no different in taste from honey collected from large cotton flowers.

Cherry honey. In some regions of Ukraine and southern regions of Russia there are large areas of cherry plantations, which are also honey-bearing. From the nectar of cherry flowers, bees produce cherry honey. It has a characteristic lemon-sweet taste, white-yellow color, pleasant aroma. Well accepted by the body. Has antimicrobial properties.

blueberry honey has an exceptional aroma, pleasant taste and has a reddish color. Produced by bees from the nectar of blueberry flowers.

sage honey has a light amber or dark golden color, has a delicate pleasant aroma, good taste. Produced from sage flowers.

Eucalyptus honey- unpleasant in taste, but highly valued, as it is used in folk medicine for the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. Bees produce this honey from the nectar of large single flowers with numerous stamens of the evergreen round eucalyptus tree, cultivated mainly in the subtropics.

Sainfoin honey belongs to valuable varieties. It is light amber in color, transparent as a crystal, has a pleasant delicate aroma and taste. It slowly crystallizes in very small crystals. When settled, it is a white solid mass with a creamy tint, resembling lard in appearance. Harvested by bees from the nectar of the plant sainfoin, or vikolistny, growing in the wild. In addition to nectar, bees take brown-yellow pollen from sainfoin. According to available data, during the flowering period of sainfoin, its pollen is dominant in any bee pollen.

apple honey has a light yellow color, very delicate aroma and taste, quickly crystallizes. Prepared from the nectar of apple blossoms.

To make a teaspoon of honey, two hundred bees must work all day collecting nectar from thousands of flowers. Well, in order to stock up on a kilogram, not a hundred, but a thousand bee army will go to collect nectar, which will have to fly over millions of honey plants. Massive work! But the matter is not limited to the extraction of nectar alone - it must also be turned into honey. That is why the bee colony is called an independent factory: it provides a complete production cycle - from processing raw materials to preserving the product.

Calling a person the owner of a bee "factory" would be unfair to these insects. Bees are independent and independent creatures, living by their own laws. Therefore, a person can, at best, count on the position of a manager, whose duties include developing a strategy for a successful honey collection, caring for the multiplication of a bee colony, building "apartment" hive houses, and receiving his share of honey as a fee for hard work.

From the hollow to the new building

Job responsibilities of bees

The honey "factory" is a seasonal enterprise operating according to natural hours. At the time of flowering, when the days are long, sunny, work on it does not stop for a second. The division of labor among bees is excellently organized: a special “staff” of workers is responsible for each stage of production.

The collection of raw honey is the duty of the bee-producer. Biologists have calculated that in one flight it brings an average of 30-40 milligrams of nectar, and makes a dozen or even a dozen flights a day, each time moving several kilometers away from the hive. A bee goes on a flower flight at a speed of 60 km/h, it makes a return flight with a load of nectar at a lower speed - only 25 km/h.

Nectar for bees - liquid food. She will get it with her proboscis from the most complex flower. Swallow a little - after all, you need to refresh yourself - and bring the rest to the hive. Returning from the flight, they hand over the prey to the receiving bees, and they immediately begin to process it: they swallow the nectar and release it on an extended proboscis, swallow it again - and release it again, and so hundreds of times to remove excess water. After such processing, the bees place droplets of nectar in the cells of the honeycombs and then sort them from cell to cell for a long time and painstakingly: thanks to all these repeated movements, the future honey gradually thickens and at the same time is saturated with bee enzymes, organic acids, minerals.

The microclimate of the hive is monitored by the service of fan bees. They work diligently with their wings, evaporating excess moisture from honey storages and maintaining the right temperature. When the honey is ripe (it takes a week on average), the bees seal the hexagonal cells of the honeycomb with thin wax caps. These "marks of quality" are the main sign of the maturity of honey. Mature means brought to a certain level of humidity, which should not exceed 18-20%. With a higher moisture content, after a while it will simply deteriorate, turn sour. But a quality product can only be sugared. By the way, this is a normal property of any honey that does not affect its value. Most varieties usually remain liquid until late autumn, and by winter they thicken, become grainy. Until winter, only the most persistent ones will retain their syrupy state: acacia honey, chestnut and some mountain varieties.

bee holidays

Since pre-Christian times, bee holidays have been celebrated in Russia. One - in the spring, at the very beginning of the honey flow, the other - in the fall, when the hives with bees were removed for the winter. With the adoption of Christianity, they survived. Spring began to be celebrated on April 30 - "on Zosima", autumn - on October 10, on the day of Savvatiy the beekeeper. And it is no coincidence: the Solovetsky saints Zosima and Savvaty were “appointed” by the Orthodox Church as patrons of Russian beekeepers. In the old days, the Honey Spas was celebrated on the first day of August. According to the new calendar style, it falls on August 14th. On this day, the Orthodox go to church to consecrate the new collection of honey, gingerbread and gingerbread. The holiday coincides with the beginning of the Dormition Fast, short but strict. Honey and fresh cucumbers are served at the table. From that day on, beekeepers begin to select honey from filled combs and, as an old tradition says, treat everyone who comes to the apiary with it.

honey names

The honey season begins with the first spring warmth, with the appearance of primroses. Their bitter smell lures out the bees that have barely come to their senses from wintering and serves as a signal to start work. And when spring comes into full force, the "suppliers" of nectar are trees and shrubs - plums, cherries, apple trees, bird cherry, maple, currants, gooseberries and, of course, dandelion is considered one of the most generous honey plants. Spring honey is rarely taken from hives. First of all, the bees themselves need it to feed the young, who have just been born and are gaining strength for the summer suffering. After all, it is bees that are the main eaters of honey, and a far-sighted beekeeper should keep this in mind, trying to take away only the surplus from the bee colony so as not to put it into a strict regime of feed saving.

Meanwhile, May honey is sold in fair quantities in the markets.

Beekeepers explain: in most cases, the name "May" is a hook that is easily caught by a buyer who wants to purchase the freshest, very first honey in the season. May it was called in the old days, before the shift of the chronology by two weeks. Therefore, according to the modern calendar, it is more correct to call the first honey early summer, because beekeepers usually carry out its first pumping out in mid-June and only in the south of Russia in the first days of the month after the white acacia has faded.

The real "honeymoon" comes with the flowering of lindens, melliferous flowers and herbs. For beekeepers, this is the hottest time, or, as they say, the main bribe. If the apiary is located not far from the linden forest, the bees have a lot of work, and most of them will be occupied not so much with extraction as with the processing of nectar. The main thing is that the linden is “in the mood” (in other years, its capricious flowers do not emit nectar) and that you are lucky with the weather - the rains wash away the nectar from the flowers. If the conditions are favorable, a hectare of flowering linden gives a ton of nectar and one bee family can prepare about a pood (sixteen kilograms) of honey per day. However, an industrial scale for the collection of pure linden honey is possible only in those areas where large forests of these trees are still preserved - in the Far East, in Bashkiria. The Bashkir Medlipets is known all over the world. In pre-revolutionary Russia, it was brought from the Ufa honey market, and it cost twice as much as others, although outwardly it did not differ much from other varieties: in a liquid state - light yellow, even slightly greenish, however, very fragrant, and when it is candied, it becomes light amber, dense.

In Russia, luxurious linden forests have been brought down a long time ago. But at the height of summer, carpets of forbs are spread here - in meadows, forest edges, glades, clearings. Fireweed, sweet clover, clover, cornflower, meadow geranium, wild strawberry, wild rose are blooming - a real flower "cocktail". And honey collected from different melliferous plants, that is, polyfloral, will contain various nectars and be called according to the place of its collection: meadow, forest, mountain. It is most commonly found on sale.

It is much more difficult to get honey from any one plant, that is, monofloral. That is why it is highly valued. If, for example, impressive plantings of sunflower bloom near the apiary at the end of summer, then the beekeeper has every chance to get monofloral sunflower honey. In general, the name of honey is given depending on the pollen of which plant prevails in it. More pollen from fireweed means they will be called fireweed. Pollen from raspberries predominates - to be raspberry honey. It is not easy to determine the composition of the taste, and this can only be done on the basis of laboratory tests.

Honey is also honeydew. This is a very special variety, prepared by bees from honeydew - sweet juice, which is secreted not by flower nectaries, but by tree leaves or small insects sucking them. Honeydew, which bees collect from leaves, is sometimes also called honeydew. Honeydew particles can get into flower honey, giving it a bitter taste. In our country, honeydew honey is usually treated with some distrust and even disdain, and in European countries it is sometimes valued higher than some varieties of flower honey: honeydew has more minerals.

However, every honey is valuable in its own way. The main thing is that it is natural. Artificial, which is made from beet or cane sugar, watermelon juice, melon or other sugary substances, is devoid of the beneficial properties of whole bee honey.

What is good for bees...

Not every honey is good for a person. Others may even present an unpleasant surprise. History knows many examples of honey poisoning. The story of the Athenian commander Xenophon about the "drunk" honey that knocked down several thousand soldiers from his army became a textbook. This historical incident is described in some detail in the work of Xenophon "Anabasis", which tells about the military campaigns of the Greeks. Arriving in Colchis, where, according to the commander, “there was nothing unusual, except for a large number of beehives,” the soldiers tasted delicacies and ... became seriously ill: “those who ate honey lost consciousness: they vomited, they had diarrhea, and no one was in able to stand on their feet, but those who ate a little honey looked like they were very drunk, and those who ate a lot looked like crazy or even dying. No one died from that honey, on the third or fourth day the soldiers were on their feet, but it can be assumed that after that ill-fated meal they no longer touched the honey at all. At the time of Xenophon, it was not yet known from which honey plants the bees bring poisonous nectar. On the territory of Adjara (formerly one of the regions of Colchis), rhododendron grows in large numbers. Modern Batumi beekeepers are well aware of what this honey plant is capable of. Most likely, the Greek warriors tasted rhododendron honey - it contains the alkaloid andromedotoxin, which causes poisoning. No less generous supplier of poisonous nectar grows in the Far East. This is heather calyx. Its thickets bloom rapidly and for a long time - a whole month. A teaspoon of honey from the juice of this plant is unlikely to harm a person, but a larger amount - 100-120 grams of "delicacy", according to special literature, can "cause loss of consciousness, delirium." But honey from the nectar of small pink flowers of common heather - dark amber and very fragrant - does not cause any trouble, except that it has a diuretic effect. The researchers found that drunken honey can be obtained from the nectar of laurel, aconite, privet shrubs and wild rosemary. There is no harm to bees from such honey, on the contrary, it is only good. Beekeepers specially leave it in the hives so that the bees have something to eat during the winter. Although, if desired, poisonous honey is quite possible to eat. It is easy to turn it into a completely harmless one: heat it up to 46 degrees - and the toxic substances will evaporate. Other poisons are much more insidious: nitrates, pesticides, heavy metals - the "memory" of bee flights to fields and gardens, to green pastures near large highways. Antibiotics, with which beekeepers save bees from their bee diseases, can also leave their mark on honey ... How can you protect yourself from such gifts, and in general, protect yourself from fakes? There is only one way out - to buy only the honey that has passed laboratory control. And ideally - to find, as they say, "your" seller. One who has an apiary, bees, and honey - real, correct.

Mustache flowed

In the old days they fed on honey - they ate and drank it, they improved their health. Apart from honey, no other sweets were known. They seasoned cereal dishes, cereals and, of course, ritual kuti. It was eaten with pancakes and pancakes and added to flour, kneading dough for pies and gingerbread. By the way, honey is still used in gingerbread not only for sweetness, but also so that they stay fresh for a long time.

Honey is somewhat similar to wine - it also has youth and old age, it can also be stored for a long time and it is also blended, that is, different varieties are mixed together. Honey is not always blended, but only in those cases when it is necessary to make its taste softer. Some varieties of honey are harsh and sharp. So they add to them calmer, neutral in taste and aroma, such as, for example, fireweed, the one that bees get from Ivan-tea flowers.

Before the advent of sugar and vodka, almost all strong drinks were prepared with honey. An old man among the "drinking honeys" is considered to be honey. This drink was aged from 15 to 40 years in tarred barrels buried in the ground, like grape wine or cognac. It was prepared from honey and natural berry juice, and no water was added at all. A long aging period was established empirically: they tried to open the kegs earlier, after five years, but the drink was not yet ripe and, as they say, left much to be desired. Much faster, in the third or fifth year of aging, hoppy meads ripened - to speed up the process, vinegar and hops were added to them. Over time, the technology has become even more simplified - drinking honeys have become in mass demand. So, boiled honey was added to the intoxicated and brewed honey - it was brewed like beer. This popular drink was prepared in just one week. The production of drinking honey practically ceased in the 16th century, when a fundamentally new drink, vodka, reigned in Russia. And the recipe of the named, primordially Russian drinks was forgotten for a long time. Researchers of Russian cuisine have restored it in our time. It is curious that mead, which is often identified with the life of Ancient Russia, is an invention of the 20th century. This is an ordinary kvass, fruit or yeast mash with the addition of honey, the preparation of which does not require any special efforts or complex technologies.

How to determine the quality of honey

Each variety has its own "ability". Light honey is traditionally considered to be of higher quality. Although dark, dark brown, brown varieties have no less advantages: they are rich in healing minerals and phenolic compounds. Buckwheat, for example, is recommended for anemia, and coriander - as a choleretic agent. However, when buying honey, focusing only on color is wrong. First you need to ask the seller for a certificate issued by a special laboratory, and then choose honey - according to taste, aroma, texture. Here you often have to trust your intuition. But according to some signs, the quality of purchased honey can be determined at home: 1. Natural flower honey should be tart to some extent. It irritates the throat a little, but the taste is pleasant and sweet. Sour taste - in fermented honey. 2. Ripe honey flows slowly from the spoon, it cannot be too fluid. Unripe or diluted honey - trickle or drip. 3. To determine if honey is diluted with sugar syrup, you can dip a piece of bread into it for a few minutes. If the crumb swells and softens, the honey is most likely diluted. 4. There are two ways to detect an admixture of flour or starch in honey: add a drop of iodine or a little vinegar to the honey solution. If in the first case the solution turned blue, and in the second case it began to emit bubbles, like sparkling water, then there are impurities in the honey. 5. You can dilute honey in a glass of boiled water. If there are mechanical impurities in honey, they will settle to the bottom or rise to the surface. Not only the honey itself, but also its solution must be pure and homogeneous.