Ripening

Definition

Ripening is not simply drying. A forager adds enzymes in the crop on the way home, the load is passed between house bees who add more and expose it to the warm nest air, and the colony fans to drive off water. Both things happen at once: sucrose is split into glucose and fructose while the water content falls from as much as 70% down to below 20%.

Where the word gets used loosely

Honey extracted before ripening is complete carries too much water and will ferment. This is why capping matters as a harvest signal, and why beekeepers testing with a refractometer are checking the same thing the bees already decided.

Honey records that discuss this

• Goldenrod honeyStrong, warm and spicy, with a hay-and-clove character and a slightly astringent finish. Assertive in a way that surprises people expecting an ordinary golden honey.
• Tualang honeySharply sour and dark, with a fermented-fruit tang over a molasses base — genuinely unlike any temperate honey, and an acquired taste.

Plant records that discuss this

• Strawberry treeValuable out of all proportion to its abundance, because of when it flowers. Late nectar lets colonies enter winter with fresh stores in a landscape that has otherwise shut down.

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.