Honey is a natural sweetener and an ideal energy source, rich in vitamins and minerals, anti-inflammatory and antifungal properties. It is used not only in cooking and cosmetology, but also in medicine, including folk medicine. Honey is a home remedy for a variety of ailments - cuts and burns, sore throat, insomnia, and even hangover. Of course, only real natural honey has all these properties, and not its analogues.
Instructions
Step 1
It is impossible to determine whether honey is good by color. There are hundreds of shades of natural honey from white to dark brown, from red to almost black. There is also yellow-green honey and the usual golden one. Generally, the lighter the honey, the softer it tastes.
Step 2
The maturity of liquid honey is checked by dipping a stick or spoon into it. If during rotation the honey winds up, lies down in folds, then it is mature honey, if it flows down, it is unripe.
Step 3
Clear evidence that honey is of poor quality is foam, it is an indicator that it contains bacteria, and therefore impurities. To create alcoholic beverages with honey, it is specially dissolved in water and heated. Good honey cannot ferment by itself.
Step 4
The fact that the honey has become cloudy and sugared, on the contrary, is an indicator of its naturalness. But honey crystallizes only during storage. If you are offered liquid honey in winter, it is either a falsified or pasteurized product, but in summer and early autumn, only old, last year's honey can be candied. The only exceptions to this rule are two types of honey - acacia honey, which crystallizes much longer and heather honey, which over time acquires a jelly-like consistency.
Step 5
The smell and taste of honey can also vary. The cheapest natural honey - padium honey - has practically no smell at all. There are many varieties of honey, but in order not to choose a good one for a connoisseur, it is enough to remember the correspondence of color, smell and taste in the most popular varieties. For example, acacia honey is pale yellow with a delicate taste and an unobtrusive floral aroma. Linden honey is almost white, very fragrant. Its persistent aroma is slightly mint, with hints of balsam. Buckwheat honey is one of the darkest, it is deep brown, candied, brightens to dark cream, the color of boiled condensed milk. Its taste cannot be confused with anything, it makes the throat a little "sore". Melilot honey is amber in color; you can easily distinguish vanilla notes in its aroma.
