The color of any substance depends on the structure of the molecules of the compounds included in it. Collecting nectar from various plants, the bee, like a skilled artist, transfers the palette of flowers to the color of honey. Of the millionths of a milligram of colors, it makes up the picture that we used to call the color of honey. Its diversity depends on the compounds contained in the petals, stamens, pistils, called anthocyanins. They belong to the chemical group of flavonoids, the difference in the structure of which explains the individual color of the flowers. Anthocyanins in plant cells are present in conjunction with glucose. In the same flower, there can be several anthocyanins that are different in composition and structure. We observe this as a play of colors of the same petal: here are yellow, and pink, and purple, as well as other shades.

Previously, the variety of colors of anthocyanins was explained by their indicator properties, that is, the ability to change color depending on the acidity of the medium. Later, the influence of other factors was established, among which is the property of some metals to form colored complexes with flavonoids. For example, potassium ions create complex compounds of purple color, calcium and magnesium ions - blue. The appearance of methyl groups in the structure of anthocyanins causes a red color. Many yellow flowers contain yellow flavones and flavonols. They are also found in compounds with glucose. Water-soluble flavonoids pass with nectar into honey. Plants of the families Asteraceae (sunflower, thistle, burdock), legumes (beans, peas, clover, alfalfa, soybeans), boletus (mullein) affect the color of honey through the flavonoids contained in the flowers with a five-membered furan cycle - aurones (derivatives of 2-benzylidenecoumarone). Aurones are almost always associated with glucose, that is, they are present in plants in the form of glycosides and have a yellow or yellow-orange color.

Plants of the buckwheat, buckthorn, legume, lily, and St. John's wort families contain anthracene derivatives combined with various sugars: glucose, rhamnose, arabinose. The anthracene moiety (aglycone) is often a derivative of chrysacin (dihydroxyanthraquinone). These derivatives are found in honey and contain, along with hydroxyl groups, methyl, methoxy, carboxyl, which are color enhancers or auxochromes. The result of these groups is the appearance of a yellow, orange or red tint. Compounds of these substances with sugars are highly soluble in water.

The laxative effect of honey, especially its foam, is partly due to the presence, albeit in very small quantities, of chrysacin derivatives that enhance the peristalsis of the large intestine (the effect of herbal medicines is based precisely on this property). Honey foam has been used as a laxative since the Middle Ages. Honey was heated for a long time, removing the foam until it completely disappeared. The honey prepared in this way had a fixing effect, and the foam had a laxative effect.

Hawthorn flavonoids endow honey not only with a reddish tint, but also with cardiotonic properties recommended for use in functional disorders of cardiac activity, hypertension, and arrhythmias.

In the USA honey from the string is highly valued. Its flowers contain more than ten flavonoids and a significant amount of carotenoids. Glycosidic compounds of flavonoids, passing through the nectar into honey, endow it not only with a yellow color, but also with diuretic, diaphoretic and anti-allergic properties. Flavonoids exhibit P-vitamin activity, antispasmodic, choleretic effects on the human body.

One of the common structural elements of anthocyanins, flavones and flavonols are phenolic hydroxyls.

Phenolic hydroxyl also contains the amino acid tyrosine found in honey. When combined with iron ions, it gives a purple color, turning into black, so it is impossible to store honey in a metal container for a long time. (In the "Russian Folk Medical Book" it is recommended that a black substance formed during the interaction of a calcined rusty nail with honey, lubricate the abscessing gum at night. The abscess soon breaks through, and the swelling subsides.)

Rutin is the most common flavonol in plants. It is isolated from buckwheat flowers and used as a capillary strengthening agent.

The color created with the help of flavonoids is enhanced by bees with a palette of tiny pollen grains containing carotenoids. To date, about 70 substances belonging to this type of compounds have been isolated from various plants. Carotenoids contain a system of conjugated multiple bonds that affect the color of pollen. We see it in yellow, brown, red, light green, purple - depending on the plant visited by the bee.

In the light, phenolic hydroxyls are oxidized, and the color of carotenoids, flavonols, flavones, anthocyanins changes. Oxidation is facilitated by oxidase enzymes, as a result of which hydrogen peroxide is formed, which oxidizes carotenoids well. The catalase present in honey breaks down peroxide into water and oxygen. The more it is, the longer the color of honey lasts. Catalase gets into honey with pollen. When honey is heated, it is easily destroyed, and its effect on the color of the product disappears. Since the age and breed of bees affect the amount and composition of pollen, the color of honey and its stability are also directly related to these factors. Lipoxidase also affects the stability of the yellow color of honey carotenoids, in the presence of which carotenoids are also oxidized with the disappearance of their characteristic color.

There is an opinion among beekeepers that real buckwheat honey turns gray. The reason for this is the oxidation reaction of phenolic hydroxyls. Polyphenol oxidases, enzymes found in plants, also contribute.

Oxidation also affects other components of honey. In particular, the amino acid tyrosine is easily oxidized by the action of the enzyme tyrosinase and in this case gives dark-colored substances of melanin.

Glucose in honey, with the participation of glucose oxidase, is oxidized into gluconic acid. The darker the honey, the greater its acidity. For example, acacia honey has less acidity than linden honey, and it is lighter, sunflower - more than coriander, and the latter is lighter. Glucooxidase enters honey from the pharyngeal glands of bees. If the honey plants are removed from the hives, the nectar stays longer in the stomach of the bee, and the honey is more enriched with glucose oxidase. In this case, it acquires a darker color.

Glucose and other reducing sugars, as well as furfural and hydroxymethylfurfural, enter into condensation reactions with amino acids to form dark-colored products - melanoidins, which contribute to the darkening of honey when heated and stored for a long time. With an increase in the heating temperature, the darkening of honey increases. As free amino acids enter into the reaction, the increase in condensation products decreases, and after 4.5 months of storage, honey darkens more slowly. There is no difference in the darkening of filtered and unfiltered honey.

To explain the color of honey, we compared the amount of total nitrogen in it and the color intensity of the product. It has been observed that with an increase in total nitrogen, the transparency of honey decreases. These conclusions indirectly indicate a high probability of condensation reactions of free amino acids with carbonyl compounds, in particular, with glucose. There is also a correspondence between the transparency of honey and the content of oxides of alkali and alkaline earth metals in honey ash. It has been observed that if the flower produces light-colored honey, then the wax will be dark-colored, and vice versa. In support of this, we note: when bees work on a dandelion, white wax with a creamy tint is formed, and the color of honey can be from bright yellow to dark amber. When bees work on sunflowers, honey turns golden (light amber), and wax turns white. Linden honey (crystallized) is white and wax is yellow.

Bees produce wax by eating honey and bee bread. Consequently, the dyes of bee bread, processed by bees, with transparent honey, color the wax, and the dyes of honey do not stain the wax. Honey does not change color from the dyes contained in the wax.

The color of honey depends on natural factors: the composition of the nectar, the properties of the soil, the duration of the honey collection, the nectar productivity of the plant, the breed of bees. Human influence also plays a role. Thus, honeydew honey contains many amino acids that can enter into condensation reactions with carbonyl compounds. Plants selectively assimilate various metals from the soil and mineral components that affect the color of honey and enter the nectar in different quantities. With a long bribe, honey is always more transparent than with a short one. Bees of various breeds and depending on the length of the proboscis choose the most accessible plants for collecting nectar, containing nectar of different composition and color. Most honey plants delight our eyes with golden, amber, yellow honey of varying intensity. Sweet clover, fireweed, colza give honey with a greenish tint, and honey from buckwheat, angelica, red clover, cranberries, mountain ash - with a reddish tint. If the bees have worked hard in the thickets of burdock, then the honey will be dark olive.

Different qualitative and quantitative amino acid composition of honeys predetermine a different change in their color when heated under the same conditions. This is confirmed by the fact that clover honey almost does not change its color when heated, and buckwheat honey darkens. Most of all, when heated, the color of honeydew honey changes.

The color of freshly extracted honey changes over time. The fragrant amber jet from the honey extractor, when exposed to light, fascinates with the play of unique colors. But after a while, the coloring relatively stabilizes. Highly volatile aromatic oils (in their pure form, not only yellow, but also red, blue, green, violet) partially evaporate from a loosely closed container with honey.

So, the reasons for staining honey in one color or another are very different, and therefore it is not entirely correct to recommend honey of light or dark shades for the treatment of specific diseases. Moreover, from the same plant, but growing in different natural and climatic conditions, bees collect honey, which is unequally colored.

If necessary, use the advice of S. Mladenov more correctly. He recommends using mountain honey for diseases of the respiratory tract, as well as from oregano, thyme, linden; for violations of the digestive and intestinal tract - steppe, with mint, thyme, oregano; for heart diseases - steppe, forest, lavender, mint. In diseases of the kidneys - chestnut, from field herbs, fruit crops. Therefore, both light and dark honeys can be used to treat the same diseases.

To preserve the natural color of honey, it is necessary to exclude condensation reactions of aldehydes and amino acids. This can be achieved by storing it at a temperature not exceeding 10 ° C and supplying the bees with drinking water with the lowest possible content of alkali and alkaline earth metal salts. The preservation of color is also facilitated by the storage of honey in places that exclude direct exposure to sunlight and the oxidation of hydroxyl groups of flavones by oxygen in the air, from which the honey darkens. The entry of iron salts is most likely when bees visit water sources with a high content of iron hydroxide. Such changes are a reminder that apiary hygiene also affects the quality of honey.

O.N. MASHENKOV

Head: Yangolenko Lyudmila Gennadievna teacher of biology and chemistry.

Topic: Do the color, aroma and taste of honey depend on honey plants (what kind) and weather conditions?

Educational institution: MOU Luchanivska school

Relevance

A real beekeeper - the master of bees can only be one who knows firmly the course of bee life and knows how to apply his knowledge to business. A.M. Butlerov.

In the 7th grade in biology, the topic “insects” is studied. The biology teacher gave us additional material about bees, I was interested in this, because my father has been engaged in beekeeping for many years, and I try to help him with this. I have a desire to seriously engage in beekeeping, but in addition to desire, knowledge is needed. I know a lot about the composition and life of a bee family, but little about the product of vital activity - honey. What determines the color, aroma and taste of honey? We decided to study this topic together with a biology teacher. We have our own apiary, which is located in the vicinity of our village, where I conducted research in the summer.

Problem

Do the color, aroma and taste of honey depend on honey plants (what kind) and weather conditions?

Purpose: To investigate what determines the color, aroma and taste of honey, using the example of one

bee family, in an apiary near the village of Luchanovo.

1. To study the theoretical data on the color, aroma and taste of honey.

2. To study the material on the diversity of types of flower honey.

3. Conduct observations of the flights of bees during the period of mass flowering

honey plants. What types of plants are most often visited by bees, and differ

whether they are "persistent" in comparison to other insects.

4. Conduct observations on the influence of weather conditions on the release of nectar from honey plants

5. Analyze the results obtained, draw conclusions.

Object of study:

A bee family in an apiary near the village of Luchanovo.

Research methods:

Study, observation, analysis, comparison.

Hypothesis

Honey is a product obtained as a result of the processing of nectar collected from plant flowers in the body of a bee.

The color, aroma and taste of honey depend on the flowers from which the nectar was collected.

Hypothesis testing

honey color

The color of honey depends on the presence of coloring substances collected from the flowers along with the nectar.

However, from the same plant species, not in all cases, bees can collect nectar with the same

coloring agents. Honey of the same "botanical" variety, but collected in different places

or in certain seasons of collection, may have a different color.

By color, honey beekeepers sort into five groups:

1. colorless (transparent as water),

2. light amber (light yellow),

3.amber(yellow)

4.dark amber (dark yellow)

5. dark honey with a brown and brown tint.

When honey is stored, its color changes. It can be light amber to light brown in syrupy state, and amber in candied form.

Aroma of honey

Flower honey has a specific aroma characteristic of it, weak or well pronounced.

It depends on the presence of essential oils in it, which are contained in the nectar of plants visited by bees. Chemically, you can determine the presence of these oils in honey, we plan to study this in the future when I study the basics of chemistry.

A pronounced aroma appears when honeycomb is pumped out in centrifuges, and then a large amount of its aromatic substances is lost during subsequent processing. When honey is heated, almost all the flavor evaporates, and if it is not heated properly, the honey acquires the smell of burnt sugar. The method and period of storage are also reflected in the aroma of honey. Unfavorable conditions and length of storage weaken the aroma of honey. During fermentation, an unusual smell of honey appears, an unpleasant sourish or even sour.

Beekeepers say that determining the aroma of honey is one of the indicators of its nutritional value.

Unfortunately, the aroma cannot be measured in any specific units, and therefore it has to be assessed by the presence or absence of a certain pleasant characteristic honey smell inherent in one or another honey plant.

A Taste of Honey

Most varieties of honey have a peculiar taste, depending on the predominance of the nectar of certain honey plants. By taste, honey connoisseurs determine its "botanical" origin.

The main components of bee honey are glucose and fructose. With the help of qualitative reactions to carbohydrates, it is possible to determine the composition of honey.

This work is scheduled for next summer.

According to beekeepers, natural flower honey of all varieties has a sweet taste and has an irritating effect on the mucous membrane - astringency of varying intensity is felt.

These properties are not possessed by artificially dissolved sugar in honey, sugar honey.

When unripe honey is collected and stored improperly, honey can ferment and taste sour. Unpleasant taste may be from the presence in honey of substances collected by bees along with sugar-containing products.

The consistency is used to judge the maturity of honey and its moisture content. It depends on the chemical composition of honey, ambient temperature, terms and methods of storage.

Freshly pumped honey has a liquid consistency or it can be in the form of a thick homogeneous syrupy mass. After one or two months, it crystallizes and becomes more dense.

No matter how hard honey is, it has a sticky surface when cut.

Based on the fact that the color, aroma and taste of honey mainly depend on melliferous plants, what types of honey exist in our region?

THE MAIN TYPES OF HONEY IN THE TOMSK REGION.

Name	Characteristic
Acacia honey	Honey collected from white and yellow acacia flowers is one of the best varieties. Fresh-transparent, upon crystallization becomes greasy, white
Budyakovy honey	Bees collect from raspberry flowers of budyak or thistle. It is either colorless or greenish or golden, becoming fine-grained upon crystallization.
Borachkovy honey	Bees produce from the nectar of borage (borage). Honey is transparent, light and has a pleasant taste.
Cornflower honey	Bees are collected from blue and field cornflower. Greenish yellow honey with a slightly bitter taste. Reminds me of the smell of almonds.
mustard honey	This honey is still liquid, has a golden yellow color, then becomes creamy. It crystallizes in small grains, has a pleasant aroma and sweet taste.
Buckwheat honey	Bees make this honey from the nectar of flowering buckwheat. Has dark yellow with reddish a touch of color peculiar aroma and specific taste. During crystallization, it turns into a mushy mass.
sweet clover honey	Light amber or white in color, has an aroma reminiscent of vanilla.
fireweed honey	It is transparent, with a greenish tint, after crystallization it becomes white, reminiscent of snow grains, and sometimes lard. Heated honey-yellow
clover honey	Transparent, colorless, crystallization forms a solid white mass
meadow honey	Honey is golden yellow, rarely brown, has a pleasant aroma and taste. Bees prepare it from the nectar of various flowers growing in the meadows.
alfalfa honey	It is usually colorless or with an amber tint, upon crystallization it becomes white and has a thick consistency. It has a pleasant aroma and a specific aftertaste.
sunflower honey	golden-yellow honey, sweet in taste, has a slight aroma and a pleasant somewhat tart taste. It crystallizes in small grains becomes light amber with a greenish tint.
Rapeseed honey	It has a whitish color, sometimes yellowish, pleasant aroma, sugary, very thick.
cucumber honey	honey is yellowish in color, transparent, has a pleasant taste and aroma. Bees prepare it from nectar collected from cucumber flowers.

From the information I studied and observations of bees, I came to the following conclusions:

All the nutrients that bees need for themselves are found in the flowers of honey plants.

For many millennia, flowers and insects, adapting to each other, ensured their existence on earth.

Insect-pollinated flowers are always brightly colored and have a strong fragrance and, in addition, secrete sweet nectar.

Various kinds of butterflies and flies randomly fly from the flower of one kind of plant to the flower of another kind.

Some beetles and flies have a short proboscis, so they cannot reach the nectar.

Bees are distinguished by great "permanence", starting work on the flowers of one plant species, a large group of bees continued to collect nectar on the same flowers

During the period of mass flowering of honey plants, the bees did not switch to other plants, although there were deviations, but this was most often due to adverse weather conditions.

CALENDAR OF OBSERVATIONS OF THE FLIGHTS OF THE BEE FAMILY (July month)

Borage

The bees in our apiary most often visited such plants as: borage (borage), raspberries, fireweed (willow tea), red clover.

The main honey plants in our apiary are fireweed, clover and borage.

Fireweed or Ivan tea is a tall herbaceous plant that blooms in July-August. It grows in the forest in the meadows, sometimes in the peat bog. One of the most generous honey plants. Honey is transparent with a greenish tint, very delicate taste.

Red clover grows in meadows, is considered the main honey plant. Light, excellent taste and aroma of clover honey is unparalleled.

With the time of the beginning of flowering of clover, beekeepers associate the onset of the main bribe

Cucumber grass (borage) is a plant 60-100 cm high. The leaves are large, fleshy. The flowers are large, collected in corymbose panicles. The corolla is blue in color, and fresh flowers and buds are pink in color. Blooms from mid-summer to autumn.

Raspberries bloom in early summer and bloom for about a month. Raspberry honey of light, white color has a pleasant aroma and taste. Comb honey from raspberries is very gentle.

What affects honey flow?

The totality of all meteorological conditions.

The state of the weather prevailing in a particular beekeeping season.

Windless, warm and moderately humid summers are most favorable for honey collection.

When sunny days are replaced by short rains falling at night or early in the morning.

The same melliferous plants, under different weather conditions, produce more or less nectar.

And the color, aroma and taste of honey largely depend on this.

Isolation of nectar from CYPRUS at different times of the day

The release of nectar from Clover at different times of the day

Isolation of nectar from BORAGE at different times of the day

Nectar secretion from RASPBERRY at different times of the day

DURING THE WIND

Nectaries reduce the release of nectar most of all in fireweed and raspberries.

With a hot wind, nectar is not released at all, and the bees stop their flights.

If such weather drags on for a long time, honey subsequently turns out to be less fragrant and not very tasty, and the "harvest" is small.

ON A SUNNY DAY

On a sunny day, when sunlight is maximum, nectar is plentifully released in all honey plants: in borage and raspberries, in meadow clover and in fireweed flowers. In clear sunny weather, sugar is actively formed in all plants, and nectar is abundantly secreted by honey plants.

When the air temperature rises to thirty degrees and above, the plants sharply reduce the release of nectar. And the bees stop their flights at this time

The wind also adversely affects the release of nectar, and if it blows even in hot weather, then no nectar is released at all.

This summer was favorable for honey collection, the bees processed a lot of nectar into fragrant and tasty honey.

We have flower honey, and its properties are similar to meadow, fireweed and clover. It is golden yellow, very fragrant and excellent in taste.

Conclusion

Studying theoretical data, conducting observations, comparisons and analyzing the results obtained on this issue: Do the color, aroma and taste of honey depend on melliferous plants and weather conditions? I came to a conclusion:

The aroma, color and taste of honey directly depend on what plants grow in our apiary.

Many flowering plants grow on the territory of our apiary, but not all of them are melliferous, and bees are "well versed" in this, visiting those plants whose flowers are rich in nectar.

In addition, the bees are distinguished by the "permanence" of visiting the flowers of one particular plant species. In our apiary, these are fireweed, borage, clover and raspberries.

The resulting honey is similar in its properties to meadow, fireweed and clover. It is golden yellow, very fragrant and excellent in taste.

Weather conditions also affect the color, aroma and taste of honey.

The same honey plants under different weather conditions produce different amounts of nectar, which the bees then process into honey.

The good quality of honey is affected by calm, warm and moderately humid weather.

weather, which then gives way to light rain.

And tasty and fragrant honey will turn out if there is no excess moisture in the nectar and a sufficient content of fructose, glucose and aromatic substances.

There are very few aromatic and mineral substances, as well as various acids in honey, but the taste and aroma of honey depend on their presence.

Their presence can only be determined by chemical reactions.

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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 in terms of the 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, the crystals only give it a certain appearance and attractiveness.

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 types 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, 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 being implemented now, and therefore, before the New Year, and even in spring, the shelves in Russian stores are completely filled with transparent, unsweetened "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 acquisition 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 at all a guarantee against fakes - 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 consume 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 paper with a pencil, you can smear it with your finger, and try to write something on the “honey” strip 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?"

Most of us, when asked what types of honey he knows, will answer - linden, buckwheat, May, maybe he will name a couple more varieties. In fact, there are many more varieties of sweet treats, and learning to identify them is an art that is not accessible to every professional taster. Unfortunately, this is used by unscrupulous manufacturers who sell low-quality surrogates under the brand name of a natural product. If you do not want to fall for their bait, learn to navigate the variety of honey products. And we will help you.

A little about the classification of honey

Sweet, amber-transparent, viscous substance with a divine aroma. Honey is often compared with ambrosia - the legendary drink of the inhabitants of the Ancient Greek Olympus. The source for its production is sweet flower nectar and honeydew, which go through a complex path from partial processing under the influence of special enzymes in the crop of a bee to aging in honeycombs.
By botanical origin, the following varieties of honey are distinguished.

• Floral - a product obtained after processing the nectar of flowers. If it is collected mainly from one plant species, it is characterized as monofloral, from different - polyfloral. Monofloral honey is determined by the main honey plant (acacia, sweet clover, fireweed, etc.)
• Honeydew - a derivative of honeydew or honeydew - a sweet juice secreted by the green parts of the plant. Compared to flower honey, it is a lower (technical) quality product.
• Mixed - a natural mixture of the first and second directly in the honeycombs.
• Blended is also a mixture, but made by people, to equalize certain indicators of natural honey.

A bee cannot be programmed to collect nectar from any one flower, it does not matter if it is a linden or a dandelion. To get monofloral honey, you need a large array of a specific flowering plant (buckwheat field, linden grove). This does not mean that nectar supplements from other plants are completely excluded, but the main flower will prevail.

When, for one reason or another, there is little flower nectar (rainy summer or, conversely, drought), the bees are forced to collect the sweet juice secreted by the leaves and stems of plants. In the flower product, the admixture of honeydew honey increases.

Among the polyfloral types of honey from the so-called forbs, there are:

• forest;
• mountain;
• meadow (field).

Forest honeys contain a high percentage of nectar from flowers of trees (coniferous, linden, maple), raspberry, oregano and other inhabitants of the forest. In the mountain - a lot of acacia, chestnut, subalpine forbs. Fireweed, bruise, sage, sweet clover, St. John's wort - the basis of meadow (steppe) honey.

In the classification of a sweet product, attention is often focused on the geographical location of the beekeeping farm. Knowing this, one can orient oneself in the main honey plants growing in a particular area, determine how ecologically clean the region is. The Russians are in demand:

• Bashkir honey. Linden, forest raspberry, fireweed (willow-herb), thyme, oregano, meadow forbs grow here in large arrays. This is where many varieties of products come from. In ecological terms, the region is safe.
• Altaic. The region is synonymous with pristine nature, ecological cleanliness, and the richest plant diversity. From here they supply forest and mountain honey, including the famous - fireweed, angelica, taiga.
• Caucasian. Mountain honey based on acacia, chestnut and subalpine forbs is famous for its medicinal properties.
• Far Eastern honey has an unusual delicate taste. It is based on the nectar of the Amur and Manchurian linden, Amur velvet, raspberry, lilac, hawthorn.

Brief description of 12 popular varieties of honey

What makes up the popularity of certain varieties of honey? In fact, there are not many criteria. Taste and aroma play a decisive role for gourmets who consume sweetness often and with pleasure, replacing sugar with it. Medicinal properties are important if honey is used for therapeutic purposes, as an ingredient in medicinal formulations. Not the last role is played by the price - inexpensive and high-quality varieties are sold out even faster than rare, elite honey.
In view of the above, we have compiled this popularity rating. By indicating the region, they meant the area of ​​​​mass distribution of the honey plant, its natural thickets, which make it possible to collect nectar in large quantities. This does not exclude the cultivation of honey plants in other regions.

acacia

Thickets of acacia, sophora (a related plant) are massively found in the south of Russia, in the Caucasus mountains.

The product is recognizable by its liquid, transparent consistency, not prone to crystallization. Pure acacia honey may not shrink for several years, but when solidified, it forms a white or golden yellow fine-grained mass.

The taste is light, not cloying, with a delicate floral aftertaste and aroma. The undoubted advantage of this variety of honey is that it does not cause allergies and it is recommended to give it even to small children.

Lime

One of the most common species, as linden massifs are found throughout Russia.

The color is light, translucent, after standing for a while, it acquires an amber-yellow hue. It reminds a little of acacia honey, especially when it hardens, but unlike it, it crystallizes quickly.

Its taste is soft, but pronounced, at the very beginning, a slight bitterness is sometimes felt, which smoothly turns into sweetness. It smells like linden (or linden - honey?), Which in turn helps to easily distinguish a fake. It is famous for anti-cold and bactericidal properties.

Buckwheat

Produced everywhere where buckwheat is sown. Pure buckwheat honey in large quantities comes from beekeeping farms in Altai, central Russia, Belarus, Ukraine.

Refers to dark varieties, in appearance - dark brown with a reddish tint. Crystallizing, it brightens, acquiring a dark yellow hue and a coarse-grained structure.

It has a recognizable, rich taste with sharp notes and a pleasant bitterness in the aftertaste. Due to the unique smell, it is great in baking. It is considered one of the best in medical terms. The authenticity of buckwheat honey is easy to determine by a sore throat.

May

This name was given to the earliest spring honey of the first pumping. It is produced everywhere from early flowering honey plants - fruit trees, primroses, acacia, hawthorn, peonies. A sort of combined "hodgepodge" in which it is difficult to distinguish the prevailing plant.

It is translucent in color, has a rather liquid consistency, but it should not pour like water - this is a sign of products that have not matured in the honeycombs, which can ferment over time.

The taste is very sweet, even slightly sugary, with a neutral smell. In comparison with later varieties, it is not so saturated, but a lot of useful properties are attributed to it precisely because it is the first.

Donnikovy

This is one of the varieties of white honey, the best combination of excellent delicate taste and medicinal properties (in the USA, for example, it is considered a standard). Pure sweet clover honey is harvested in Altai, in Buryatia.

Fresh honey is light amber in color, frozen honey is white. The color may have shades depending on the impurities of the nectar of other plants.

The taste is sweet, with a slight bitterness and vanilla aroma in the aftertaste loop. It has pronounced analgesic properties, indispensable for insomnia.

Diaghilev

It belongs to rare varieties, especially valuable for its medicinal properties. Pure angelica honey is more common in the northern regions, where thickets of the medicinal plant are spread over vast areas.

The color is dark brown with a reddish-amber tint. Sits down slowly, acquiring a fine-grained "greasy" consistency and ductility.

It has a rich taste with a slight bitterness and a caramel aftertaste.

Floral (from herbs)

It is also called meadow or field, since there is no prevailing honey plant in it, but there is nectar of many plants that bloom at about the same time, for example, oregano, thyme, St. John's wort, plantain, sage. Produced everywhere.

The mixture includes herbs, which in their pure form serve as the basis for both dark and white varieties of honey. When mixed, they acquire a golden yellow color, more light than dark. Honey from herbs crystallizes slowly, forming a thick elastic mass.

The polyfloral composition also determines the taste - pleasant, rich, often with well-perceived fruit or herbal notes, but rather heavy, incomparable with linden or acacia honey. In many ways, the taste depends on which flower nectar was collected more.

sunflower

Believe it or not, this variety is one of the leaders in sales on the honey market. Firstly, due to the availability of honey plant, it is ubiquitous, and secondly, it compares favorably with an affordable price.

Like the honey plant, the product from it is characterized by a beautiful golden yellow color, which, after crystallization, darkens slightly, acquiring an amber, sometimes slightly greenish tint.

Pure sunflower honey is pleasant on the palate with tart notes and a fruity plume. You can recognize quality products by a slight sore throat.

fireweed

Another type of white honey from a plant common in Bashkiria, Altai, in the middle lane, Belarus.

Immediately after pumping, it has a light yellow color, sometimes with a greenish tinge. Sets quickly, forming a creamy-white elastic mass, reminiscent of cream in density. It crystallizes unevenly, forming clots.

It is characterized by a delicate texture and soft delicate taste, for which it is even called "children's".

Heather

Not the highest quality, but inexpensive variety of beekeeping products. Thickets of heather are found in Belarus, the Carpathians.

The color of heather honey is from dark yellow to red-brown. When solidified, it forms a jelly-like mass, after stirring it regains a liquid consistency.

The taste will appeal to lovers of bitter species with noticeable tart notes.

sainfoin

A rather rare and valuable variety in its pure form is produced in Siberia from a plant of the same name of the legume family.

When fresh, it is very light, translucent with a greenish tint. It does not crystallize for a long time. The shrunken mass has a creamy consistency and a fine-grained structure.

The taste of sainfoin honey is pleasant, fragrant, with herbal notes and a subtle aroma of roses. Pollen, which enters the honeycombs along with nectar, adds value to the product - it enhances its healing properties.

Phacelia

The main supply region is Siberia, the Caucasus, where the plant is cultivated as a honey plant and can bloom up to 4 times a year.

Outwardly, phacelia honey is very light, transparent yellow, crystallizing, it becomes almost white with a greenish tint, its consistency is similar to soft elastic dough. Fresh, if you don’t know, you can confuse it with an acacia or linden counterpart.

Due to the large amount of fructose, the product has a sweet and spicy taste with light tart notes, heady aroma.

Every man to his own taste

Experienced beekeepers note that the best varieties of honey for everyone are their own. When choosing a treat, we are guided by our own taste preferences, and our body subconsciously strives for what it lacks.

When giving a tasting assessment, take into account the taste, color, aroma, texture of the product. In the aggregate of these signs, the leaders are:

• herb honey;
• lime;
• acacia;
• sweet clover;
• hyssop;
• clover;
• lavender;
• crimson;
• mint;
• phacelium;
• sainfoin.

Some especially appreciate honey, which retains a liquid consistency for a long time. This is important if the product is mainly used for baking, for other culinary purposes. Examples of such varieties are acacia, angelica, chestnut, heather, alfalfa, most honeydew varieties.

Sweet treat colors

The honey palette is surprisingly extensive and depends on the pigments and minerals that fall into it along with nectar and pollen. The main color is amber-yellow, translucent. But there are varieties, both very dark and light, which, when solidified, resemble white lard or cream. It has been proven that color has nothing to do with taste - there are many first-class products among white varieties, and, for example, dark amber chestnut, heather honey is considered low-grade.
The most valuable types of white or almost white honey:

• acacia;
• sweet clover;
• fireweed;
• clover;
• crimson.

Some less valuable varieties of honey products obtained from the nectar of rapeseed, colza, alfalfa, and cotton also acquire a white consistency.

Of the dark varieties, the most common are:

• buckwheat;
• taiga (coniferous);
• chestnut;
• angelica:
• hyssop honey.

Dark varieties of the product are considered not as tasty, but they are often more aromatic and healthy. They have more iron and other trace elements, proteins, amino acids, plant pigments.

Useful properties of different varieties of honey

Now we will say a seditious thing - it is impossible to determine which type of honey is the most useful. A real natural product, from the nectar of whatever plants it is obtained, has a similar composition.

It consists of 75% carbohydrates (glucose, fructose and sucrose), a small amount of proteins and starch breakdown products, organic acids, trace elements, vitamins. Experts believe that the usefulness of honey is determined by the enzymes that are secreted by the bee while the nectar is in its crop. The longer he is there (from 20 minutes or more), the better. That is why, the farther the bee flies for nectar, the more healing honey is obtained.

The value of honey is due to its chemical composition, which is very similar to blood plasma. Almost in the same concentration as blood, it contains magnesium, iron, sulfur, phosphorus, chlorine, and potassium. It is no coincidence that this is almost the only product that is absorbed by 97%, and it is absorbed immediately, without needing to be broken down with the help of digestive enzymes.

Among the variety of types of honey, those collected from medicinal plants are considered more healing, since biologically active substances enter them with nectar. And also with additives of other bee products. So, the most useful honey.

1. Cellular. Natural packaging allows you to save a maximum of useful components, including propolis and pollen, deposited on the walls of the combs. These substances help to strengthen the immune system and the body as a whole. Chewing honeycomb is very useful for teeth, gums, oral disinfection.
2. With pollen. Incredibly useful for children, as it contains growth factors, affecting the endocrine system. Normalizes metabolism, stimulates the release of bile and other digestive enzymes. Helps cleanse blood vessels from low-density cholesterol.
3. Pine (taiga). Indicated for people with asthma, chronic bronchitis, prone to frequent colds. Well restores ability to work, saves from chronic fatigue.
4. Mustard. An ideal treat for colds and viral infections. Has choleretic properties.
5. Nardek. Watermelon honey is the best helper in the fight against influenza, bronchitis, and throat problems. Suitable for cores, help clean blood vessels, increase hemoglobin.
6. with propolis. The light bitterness that propolis gives to honey helps to cope with SARS and influenza, promotes tissue healing and body cleansing at the cellular level.
7. Uterine. Honey contains royal jelly - a substance consisting of 400 biologically active components. With the help of a useful product, they strengthen the immune system and normalize blood pressure, protect against stress and stimulate metabolism.
8. Zabrusny. This is the name of scarce honey with lids, with which bees close the honeycombs. They contain natural wax, propolis, pollen. The product is characterized by antibacterial, cleansing, preventive properties.
9. Bortovoy or honey of wild bees. Contains propolis, royal jelly, pollen, wax, very seasoned and useful. Recommended for cleansing the body of toxins, healing the liver, gastrointestinal tract.
10. Black maple. Rare honey from the Tatar maple, an analogue of the May vitamin product. It is shown to pregnant women as an antiemetic.

The list of useful types of honey can be continued - linden and buckwheat, bird cherry, almond, fig, cedar ... Enjoy a sweet treat and be healthy!

Many lovers of bee products prefer light varieties of honey: they are well aware of what plants they are obtained from. Do you know this?

Do you know that honey can be dark and light? In fact, you have probably seen a variety of varieties of honey at special fairs and imagine the variety of colors of this product.

However, it is not only the color that distinguishes a similar product. You can also talk about the features of the healing properties of various varieties of bee matter.

And on the healing properties, in turn, the use of this substance is built. And the reason for such differences is largely the plant, from the pollen of which one or another variety of honey is obtained.

Honey obtained from forest raspberries can also be attributed to light varieties of sweet bee matter. Like raspberry jam, this substance is an excellent medicinal and prophylactic agent that helps in the fight against colds and in order to strengthen the immune system.

Of course, a light color is far from a complete definition by which you can find out which particular variety is in front of you. The fact is that such a substance can be very light, for example, like acacia honey, or it can be, for example, light brown, like buckwheat honey.

The light varieties often include the so-called polyfloral variants of the sweet bee substance. What is it?

Such varieties are collected on the basis of the pollen of not one, but several species of flowering plants at once. They are also known as the forb variant of the crop harvested by winged beekeepers.

As a rule, they can be recognized by their appearance, because there is not such a wide range of colors. As a rule, such options are in the range from light to dark yellow.

As is known, forbs can be collected in different areas. As biogeographic communities that can serve as sources of flowering plants for collecting pollen for the sweet harvest of the apiary, we can note:

• forest land;
• meadows;
• fields.

Light varieties include those types that are obtained from plants such as linden and acacia. These are very good natural medicines.

And of course, these are far from the only plants that can produce non-dark versions of this sweet and tasty bee stuff. For example, they include Budyakovy and sweet clover variants.

For example, the Budyak type is distinguished by a beautiful light amber color, although there are other options here: colorless and greenish shades. It also rightfully belongs to high-class varieties in terms of its taste and healing qualities. Raw material source to obtain it is a budyak: a thistle, which differs from others in the following features:

• crimson flowers;
• grayish leaves;
• spiny stems.

The sweet clover variant when freshly harvested can also vary from light amber to greenish, and may also be whitish. In the process of crystallization, it acquires a light apple color.

Non-dark varieties include a sweet bee crop obtained by collecting pollen from sunflower flowers. It can be the following color:

• golden yellow;
• amber;
• golden.

This type of sweet bee substance is extremely sweet. It is quite tart in taste, and also has a pleasant, slightly perceptible aroma.

This type is also subject to crystallization processes. Often this happens even in the conditions of being in combs in the hive.

Non-dark types can also include fruit, phacelia and cotton varieties. All of them quite quickly and easily undergo crystallization processes, changing their original color.

Linden

Linden is one of the plants from which pollen is used to produce honey. This woody plant belongs to forest honey plants.

The color of this substance can be different: from a greenish-amber hue in the case when you are dealing with a freshly harvested crop, to a whitish hue when it has had time to undergo crystallization processes.

This variety can also be attributed to one of the best options if you are faced with the choice of which kind of sweet bee substance you prefer.

Linden is rightfully considered a kind of queen among honey plants: the fact is that it has excellent qualities for obtaining pollen as a raw material for further production of popular beekeeping products.

If the bees have chosen this plant for themselves for pollination, then you can be sure that you will not be left without a rich harvest. As a rule, from such a tree, under favorable climatic conditions, a bee family brings from 3 kilograms of sweet harvest.

There may be individual records, when the above figure is significantly exceeded. Weather conditions favorable for collecting pollen are warm and calm days.

In terms of composition, such bee products contain about 36-37 percent glucose and about 39-40 percent levulose. This variety is considered one of the most useful in terms of its medicinal qualities.

Along with the raspberry variant, this variety is excellent for colds and infectious diseases. Its use significantly strengthens the human immune system and increases the body's resistance to various infections. It has high qualities for removing sweat, with which all bad viruses and microorganisms leave.

If you are going to purchase such a natural medicine and exquisite delicacy, then it will be quite easy for you to recognize it among others. The fact is that it has a sharp aroma, similar to how the linden trees themselves smell. At the same time, it tastes very pleasant, without bitterness.

Unfortunately, this variety, as a rule, undergoes crystallization processes rather quickly. In fact, this is not a very favorable process, but even after being subjected to it, this natural medicine does not lose its beneficial qualities.

However, during crystallization, this sweet substance changes its color and consistency. Being yellow or greenish when freshly picked, it turns into a whitish substance.

From a liquid state, it is covered with medium grains. It should be noted that crystallization processes do not affect this sweet bee substance quite strongly.

white locust

Honey is also made from the pollen of white acacia flowers. In addition, winged beekeepers often collect nectar from yellow acacia flowers.

The acacia variety of the sweet bee substance differs from others in a very light color.

And if such a variety undergoes crystallization processes, then its color will become completely white.

It is believed that such a sweet bee substance is one of its best varieties. It has a very delicate aroma and taste, and also has excellent healing properties. If we talk in detail about its composition, then it usually contains about 35-36 percent glucose and about 40 percent fructose. It is quite liquid and has a medium grain size.

Raspberry

Honey is even raspberry. And this is one of the most healing varieties of this amazing natural remedy, obtained through the efforts of hardworking bees.

First of all, this variety helps people suffering from colds. If you have symptoms of respiratory diseases, then this variety will help you overcome them.

In addition, such a natural remedy can be used for preventive purposes. For example, to strengthen the immune system. The fact is that raspberry honey contains a large amount of vitamin C.

Linden, raspberry, white locust - all these plants are used to obtain light varieties of honey. However, color is far from the only characteristic of this beekeeping product.

The variety obtained from each of the above plants may also differ in taste. The healing properties of this substance also differ, which, in turn, determine the scope of this natural medicinal product.