Crystallisation

Definition

Honey is a supersaturated sugar solution holding more glucose than water can normally dissolve, so the glucose comes out of solution over time. How fast depends mainly on the glucose-to-fructose ratio, and secondarily on temperature — fastest around 14 °C — and on the presence of pollen grains and dust for crystals to start on.

Where the word gets used loosely

Routinely mistaken for spoilage, and occasionally presented by sellers as proof that honey is raw. Neither is right: crystallisation is normal, reversible by gentle warming, and every honey does it eventually. Ultrafiltered honey resists it longest because the nucleation sites have been removed.

Honey records that discuss this

• Acacia honeyClean, light and sweet with almost nothing in the way. The honey to reach for when you want sweetness without a flavour opinion.
• Clover honeyWarm, mild and rounded — sweet with a faint cinnamon-and-hay note underneath. The taste most English-speaking readers picture when they read the word honey.
• Rosemary honeyDelicate and softly aromatic — floral first, with a thin thread of resin behind it that tells you where it came from.
• Rapeseed honeyVery sweet, very mild, faintly cabbage-like when fresh and cleanly bland once set. Texture is what it has instead of flavour.
• Tupelo honeyButtery and clean with a pear-and-green-apple lift, and a long soft finish that never turns cloying.
• Meadowfoam honeyToasted marshmallow and vanilla, unmistakably. The one honey most people identify blind on the first spoonful, because it tastes like something they already know.
• Sage honeyMild, clean and slightly herbal, with a heavy silky body that is more of the experience than the flavour is.
• Yapunyah honeyMild and buttery with a light caramel sweetness and a clean finish — smooth in a way that people notice before they notice the flavour.
• Coolibah honeyMild and clean with a light caramel note and a soft buttery finish — undemanding and pleasant.
• White box honeyClean and lightly caramelised with a faint buttery smoothness — mild, dense and highly regarded within Australia.
• Prickly box honeyMild and clean with a soft floral sweetness and a faint honeyed-almond note — pleasant and considerably gentler than leatherwood.
• Sunflower honeyStraw, beeswax and pollen, with a slightly waxy mouthfeel and a fresh, faintly herbal edge.