What is Candied honey?
Candied honey is formed by encouraging the natural crystallization process of raw honey.
Natural honey contains 2 types of sugars, glucose, and fructose. Honey will begin as liquid but over time, especially in the cooler months, crystallization will natural happen when the glucose forms crystals. The honey will start to change in texture and the crystals will form a semi solid state.
Summertime in Tasmania, when we harvest our honey from the honeycomb, it is in its natural liquid state. Once extracted it is stored in bulk containers but in a matter of weeks, the natural sugars in honey will begin to crystalize, and the entire contents of the container will eventually set hard. When the honey is required for bottling, we gently re-liquefy the honey in a warm room, all while monitoring the temperature so it is maintained below 38°C, mimicking the temperature of the hive.
Liquefying the honey is necessary to enable it to be pumped into a tank, where we seed it by adding a small amount of honey that has already developed a fine crystal structure. The honey is then stirred intermittently over 3-4 days which loosens and polishes the crystals. Once this process is complete the result is the beautiful creamy texture that is our signature soft candy (candied) honey.
Glucose crystals are naturally pure white therefore candied honey will appear lighter in colour than liquid honey.
Approximately 5% of each batch of candied honey produced will be set aside and becomes the seed/starter for the next batch. Similar process to sour dough starter, we believe each of our candied honey gets better and better!
Why we prefer candied honey over liquid honey:
The only way to keep honey in a liquid state is for it to be over heated. Heating above 45°C will damage any nutrients raw honey naturally produces including enzymes, antioxidants, amino acids, and minerals (calcium, iron, magnesium to name a few). Too much heat is what prevents honey from crystallizing but heat damage to these nutrients is what keeps the honey liquid! Over heating honey no longer contains any health benefits, effects the flavour and is not considered “raw” honey.
How to store your candied honey:
To prevent candied honey from returning to its liquid state, we recommend it to be stored below 20°C and away from direct heat or sunlight.
