Moisture content

Definition

Finished honey runs between about 15% and 20% water, with most temperate honey near 17%. Bees cap a cell only when the moisture has fallen far enough for the honey to be stable, so capping is the colony's own quality control. Above roughly 20% the osmotolerant yeasts naturally present in honey can ferment it, which is the one genuine spoilage route honey has. Codex and the EU directive set a maximum of 20% for most honey, with a higher allowance for heather and a few others.

Where the word gets used loosely

Low moisture is often marketed as a mark of quality. It is really a mark of climate and of harvest timing — honey ripened in Sahelian or Australian air reaches a lower water content than honey ripened in a Devon summer, and neither is better for it. What matters is whether the figure is below the fermentation threshold, not how far below.

Honey records that discuss this

• Rapeseed honeyVery sweet, very mild, faintly cabbage-like when fresh and cleanly bland once set. Texture is what it has instead of flavour.
• Ironbark honeyRich, buttery and dense with a warm caramel depth and a clean eucalypt lift at the end.
• Jataí honeySharply acidic and fruity with a fermented tang — closer to a sharp fruit syrup than to what most people expect honey to taste like.
• Sugarbag honeySharply tangy and fruity with a resinous edge — often described as lemon-and-caramel, and quite unlike honey bee honey in every respect.
• Kelulut honeyDistinctly sour and tangy with a fruity, almost fermented character — closer to a sharp fruit syrup than to what most people expect honey to taste like.
• Heather honeyStrong, smoky and slightly bitter, with a lingering woodfire-and-toffee character. One of the most complex honeys produced anywhere.
• Siberian taiga honeyComplex and warm with a herbal lift over caramel, and a density that comes directly from the low moisture — thick, concentrated and long on the palate.
• Sea buckthorn honeySharp and fruity where berry juice has been added, and an ordinary golden coastal honey where it has not. The two are quite different products under one name.
• Oil-tea camellia honeyPale, thin and distinctly bitter, with an astringent tea-like finish. Not a beginner's honey and not really a pleasure honey.
• Jandaíra honeyFluid, sharply acidic and aromatic — closer to a fruit vinegar than to honey as most people know it. That acidity is normal rather than spoilage.
• Uruçu honeyFluid, sharply acidic and floral — closer to a fruit syrup than to honey as most people know it, and the acidity is normal rather than spoilage.

Guide records that discuss this

• How honey is madeNectar is mostly water. Honey is mostly sugar. Everything interesting about honey happens in the gap between those two sentences.