Honey is a unique gift from nature. It is not only a pleasant delicacy and a "secret" ingredient in delicate baked goods, but also has a number of medicinal properties. Honey helps a person to strengthen the body and cope with insidious diseases. However, the choice of this wonderful product should be approached carefully. Its assortment today is so wide that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish high quality from a fake. There are several ways to test honey for naturalness.
As soon as you pick up a jar of a wonderful treat, pay attention to its color. It should be homogeneous, free of unnatural impurities. Honey should not be too white, even if you are assured of its uniqueness.
Another marker of high quality honey is a rich aromatic aroma. A fake smell is weak, or has a sour note.
If you choose liquid, transparent honey, then it should not drip or fall in a lump from the spoon, but smoothly flow down in a trickle, forming a pyramid underneath.
Honey can be conditionally divided into winter and summer. In the winter season, mainly candied varieties are found at markets or fairs. And this is natural. A couple of months after the autumn pumping, the honey is sugar. Therefore, if you come across transparent, liquid honey on the market in winter, then it is most likely warmed up and devoid of useful properties.
Remember that honey has a pleasant, mild taste and causes a slight sore throat.
There is one little trick you can use when choosing honey at a market or fair. For this you need a simple pencil. Apply a thin layer of the selected honey to the palm and run over with a pencil. If there is a clear mark on your hand, then, alas, you have a fake in front of you. On a natural product, the pencil will leave a barely noticeable mark, or it will not appear at all.
Natural honey is quickly absorbed into the skin. Rub some between your fingers. If you have a fake in front of you, then lumps will remain on the fingers when rubbed.
And a couple more tips on how to check honey at home, to determine the chemical composition of the product. Because "without leaving the checkout" such procedures are extremely inconvenient to carry out due to the influx of buyers.
Sly manufacturers sometimes add starch to the honey product. It imparts thickness and viscosity. To avoid cheating, add a drop of iodine to some honey. If the product turns blue, then the use of starch additives is on the face. The useful properties of such a product are minimal, which means that you should not purchase it.
And this deception of the manufacturer can be revealed without difficulty. Add vinegar or citric acid to a small amount of honey. If the honey starts to sizzle and foam, then it clearly contains chalk. Accordingly, the product quality can hardly be called high.
