Honey myths are many. I've heard both 'real honey crystallises' to 'my honey's gone off because it's gone hard' and everything in between.
At their heart, these myths are based on honey consumers wanting a high quality, authentic product.
Unlike other livestock produce, honeys can look, feel, smell and behave differently due to the huge range of plant species bees collect nectar from, which they turn into honey inside their hive.
A jar labelled 'honey' in Australia will always be 100 per cent honey, however, whether that honey is a liquid, crystallised solid, spreadable and creamy in texture, or partway between liquid and crystallised, depends on the unique plant species whose nectar the bees gathered to make it.
Nectar-producing plants, which yield enough for hives to produce a honey crop, range from over 200 species of gum trees for example Eucalyptus, Angophora, Corymbia to crops like canola, citrus, lucerne, macadamia, and many other native plant species.
Each of these honey plants produce nectar that is unique in its chemical properties such as the types and quantities of naturally occurring sugars in the nectars.
The main sugars, namely glucose, fructose and sucrose, are produced by the plant specifically to attract pollinators like bees, moths, butterflies, birds and bats.
Depending on which sugar is dominant, the honey will change in texture and visual appearance over time, but it is still good to eat.
Many other factors affect the properties of different plant nectars such as the type of soil, climate, wind and sun the plant is exposed to before and during a 'nectar flow', as beekeepers describe honey production events.
Natural chemical properties of honey also contribute to its unique smell, taste, colour and texture.
Australian honeys are a wonder, with canola, clover, lucerne, and forest red gum honeys readily crystallising.
Honey from many gum trees in the box and stringybark category may stay liquid forever in the jar (except if the bees have also collected a readily crystallising honey at the same time).
Enjoy your honey however it comes and remember gently heating a glass jar of crystallised honey with the lid off in a water bath will get it back to liquid form if that's your preference. To your health.
