1. My honey was liquid, now it is solid. Is that bad?
Almost all raw, natural or unheated honey crystallizes. Individual crystals form slowly until honey thickens, turns white, and then becomes a solid block. This process is natural. Your honey has not spoiled. This is all part of having good honey. Honey bees encounter the same change in their own honey stores.

2. How long before my honey goes hard? This depends on three things:
a) The floral source. High fructose honey, like fireweed, will crystallize more slowly than low fructose honey, like dandelion. It is almost impossible to tell when the typical multi-floral honey will crystallize.
b) Storage. On a bell curve, crystallization is fastest at 57 F/13.8 C. Honey in a basement or a fridge will harden faster than on a kitchen shelf. In a warm cabinet, at body temperature, crystallization is slow to unobservable. The same is true for honey stored in a freezer.
c) Processing. Higher moisture honey, honey that has been heated and filtered honey will crystallize slowly. Traces of pollen and some enzymes are lost in the process. Raw honey purchased from a small beekeeper will crystallize more quickly, but the honey remains whole.

3. It is solid but I prefer it liquid. What should I do?
Heat slowly, preferably below 120 F/ 49 C. Best is by placing the container in warm water. If you must microwave it, which we don’t recommend, use low settings and longer times. Honey is thick. It will boil on the outer perimeter and remain cool in the middle. Risk of burning yourself or the honey can be significant.
If you removed all crystals, your honey should stay liquid for 90 days. If heated long enough, or hot enough to become pasteurized, it will stay liquid longer but taste and texture usually change.

To question 4

 

4. What is creamed honey?
Creamed honey has been deliberately crystallized with a seed of small honey crystals. There is no cream in creamed honey, just honey. Creaming prevents the formation of less palatable, large, uneven crystals.

5. I bought creamed, churned, or whipped honey. It was soft but now it is really hard and difficult to get out of the jar, what do I do?
Creaming, churning and whipping are all efforts to solve the challenges of crystallization. Any hard honey product can be softened by heating gently. At some point before it becomes liquid, crystallized honey will “slough,” slump, or lose its cohesion. If you stop heating just as it becomes soft, it should be useable and remain that way awhile without being liquid.
honeyshop.ca has developed a ‘soft-creamed’ honey process that keeps most of our flavoured creamed honey from hardening.

6. What is the best way to store honey?
Honey can be stored in the kitchen where it is handy and ready to use. In the unlikely event it will be stored for a long time, it should be stored out of direct sunlight and in an container where it cannot draw moisture out of the air.

7. The last regular honey I bought had the same label but tastes different. Why?
We are small beekeepers and we buy honey only from other small beekeepers. Since each flower contains nectar with a unique taste, and since we don’t heat and blend, each batch we process will taste slightly different. We often are surprised at the subtle taste differences even from hive to hive within the same yards and we are happy to pass along the joy of discovery and wonder