Choosing good honey in the market or in the store is not an easy task. There are more than 200 varieties of this healing delicacy in Russia, and each of them is unique in its own way. But the main thing in such a purchase is not the beautiful name of the variety. After all, if you buy the “wrong” honey, you will not only lose money, but also harm your health. Check the quality of the product first.
It is necessary
A liter of honey, a tablespoon, a glass, cow's milk, a few drops of iodine, vinegar and ammonia, scales, a sheet of paper, a piece of bread and stainless steel wire
Instructions
Step 1
Hold the honey in your mouth.
It is best to sample the product from the bottom of the container.
Its taste will depend on the variety. For example, linden honey is very sweet, while heather and tobacco are slightly bitter. Should be locked in the throat. High-quality natural honey completely dissolves in the mouth! There should be no particles left on the tongue.
The caramel flavor suggests that the already thickened delicacy has been melted. Most likely, there are almost no nutrients left in it. The specific taste of malt occurs when honeydew is added (excretion of insects and plants). If honey resembles sweetened water, it is sugar syrup processed by bees. Put such "sugar" honey in warmed milk, and it will curdle.
Step 2
Breathe in the smell of honey.
A fragrant aroma will indicate the naturalness of the product. Its smell depends, first of all, on the melliferous plant. Raspberry honey smells tenderly of raspberry flowers, sweet clover honey smells like vanilla. But during fermentation and strong heating, adding molasses and sugar, the honey smell disappears.
The sense of smell can deceive: high-quality honey from clover, willow tea, rapeseed or white acacia almost does not smell.
Step 3
Examine the contents of the jar.
Natural honey shades - from light yellow to dark brown. Artificial honey is almost transparent. By the way, the acacia variety is also very light, and whitens in a dense state.
We noticed a precipitate - something was mixed into the product. It can be sugar, molasses, starch or other extraneous components. But bits of insects, pollen and herbs do not necessarily indicate the quality of the product. Careless sellers often mix them on purpose, "for naturalness."
Scattering bubbles and foam are a sign of unripe honey fermentation. It was pumped out before the bees covered the honeycomb with wax. There are not enough nutrients in it, and the excess moisture has not evaporated. Natural mature honey cannot ferment, it is bactericidal!
Step 4
Run simple tests.
Artificial or unripe honey if:
• You dipped a spoon into it and began to rotate it horizontally. The honey did not "wound" and did not stretch down in a continuous ribbon, but dripped and dripped. It immediately merged with the contents of the jar, without forming "peaks".
• A liter of honey (minus tare weight) weighs less than 1, 4 kg.
• They kept a piece of bread in honey - it got wet, not hardened.
• They dropped honey on the paper, and it got wet.
• The honey is half thickened - the top layer remains liquid.
• The honey stood for a long time and did not thicken at all.
At the end of October, high-quality natural honey should be “shrunken” and candied. True, the acacia variety will thicken only in spring, and the heather variety will look like jelly.
Step 5
Check honey for impurities.
Foreign components are mixed into it if:
• A tablespoon of honey in a glass of water has completely dissolved, sediment and floating particles have appeared.
• We drained the water and dropped it on the resulting precipitate with vinegar - carbon dioxide was released (chalk was mixed).
• A drop of iodine - and the honey turns blue (there is starch or wheat flour).
• Ammonium alcohol was carefully dripped onto a 50% solution of honey, it turned dark yellow (molasses).
• A red-hot stainless steel wire was dipped into honey - a sticky mass adhered.
To be completely sure of the purchase, ask the seller for quality certificates, and the beekeeper for a veterinary certificate and apiary passport.
