Honey
Sugar from the hive, dense and floral and famously reluctant to dissolve in anything cold. It also does not spoil, effectively ever, and the reason is simply how little water there is in it for anything to live on.
Quick Facts
About Honey
Flavour Profile
Primary Flavours
Tasting Notes
Sweetness with a signature: floral, waxy and faintly acidic, changing with whatever the bees worked, from mild acacia to loud heather.
It Does Not Spoil
Honey has an effectively indefinite shelf life, and the reason is water. There is so little of it, and so much dissolved sugar, that bacteria and moulds cannot draw the moisture they need to grow. Honey is also mildly acidic and produces small amounts of hydrogen peroxide as it matures, which does not help anything trying to live in it. Sealed jars recovered from Egyptian tombs have been found still edible, which is a genuine fact rather than a story.
Crystallisation Is Not Spoilage
Honey turning grainy and opaque in the jar is the glucose in it coming out of solution, which is a physical change rather than a sign of anything wrong. It happens faster in the cold, faster in some floral varieties than others, and faster where there is a seed crystal or a speck of pollen to build on. Raw honey crystallises sooner than pasteurised because more of that material survives. Stand the jar in warm water and it returns to liquid, and boiling it is unnecessary and drives off the aroma.
Raw Against Pasteurised
Most supermarket honey is pasteurised and filtered, and that is done for appearance and shelf stability rather than for safety. Heating keeps the jar clear, delays crystallisation and makes blending easier. It also costs aroma, because the volatile compounds that make one honey smell unlike another do not survive heating intact. Raw honey is unheated and either unfiltered or lightly filtered, so it carries more of whatever the bees actually visited, and it crystallises sooner for exactly the same reason. Where the honey is meant to be tasted rather than simply to sweeten, raw is the jar worth buying.
Hot Serves Take It Neat
The heat in a toddy, a mulled wine or a hot buttered rum does the dissolving that a shaker cannot, so honey goes into those drinks straight from the jar. Stir until the liquid runs clear rather than assuming, since honey sinks and will otherwise sit at the bottom in a lump. For anything cold, cut it to syrup first. A warm spoon is worth the trouble either way, because honey leaves cold metal reluctantly and a measure lost on the spoon is a real proportion of a small pour.
Using Honey
Usage
Stirred straight into hot drinks, where the heat does the dissolving: mulled wine, toddies and the winter serves. For anything shaken or stirred cold it should be cut to honey syrup first, because neat honey will simply ball up.
Top Tips
- Warm the spoon before measuring. Honey slides off warm metal and clings to cold, wasting a good deal.
- Keep it out of the fridge. Cold accelerates crystallisation rather than preventing it.
- Buy raw where the honey is meant to be tasted. Pasteurising keeps the jar clear and costs it aroma.
Possible Substitutions
- Honey syrup: the 2:1 shaker-ready form
- Golden syrup: blander, dissolves more easily
- Maple syrup: a different register, the same weight
Storage & Handling
Sealed at room temperature: the fridge only sets it faster.
Shelf Life
Effectively indefinite sealed; set honey re-liquefies with gentle warmth.
Production Method
Made by bees from nectar, concentrated and enzyme-worked in the hive, then extracted from the comb. Runny and set honeys are the same product in different crystal states; gentle warmth returns set honey to pouring.
More to explore
Common Questions
Why will honey not dissolve in my cocktail?
What is the difference between honey and honey syrup?
What drinks use honey?
Has my honey gone off if it has gone solid?
Made with Honey
Featured In These Cocktails
Often Used With
Guide by Jerry Can Spirits