When we say our honey is raw, we mean a few things:
First and foremost, is that it has not been pasteurised or fine filtered. We want the honey in our bottles to be just as natural as it is when the bees produce it in their hives. Pasteurisation is done using high temperatures (at least 60°C), and fine-filtering removes much of the pollen and other small bits naturally found in honey. These processes significantly damage the flavour and beneficial properties of the honey, and we want to make sure our products are as healthy, natural, and tasty as possible. Any honey you see without the word ‘raw’ on the label will have been processed in these ways and possibly others.
We also only use unblended honey beekeepers. Most of the honeys we see in the supermarkets will have been produced by many different beekeepers in many different places (local & overseas), then blended together in a facility to ensure a very consistent end product. All our honeys are unblended and come from own hives and bees.
To ensure the best quality honey possible, we will only ever pack completely unpasteurised, only coarse-filtered, completely raw honey – the way honey should be.
The truth is, honey does attract ants! (In fact, we should concern if ants are not going near to the honey!)
How quickly it attracts ants varies from the moisture content, ambient humidity, and location.
Moisture contents vary among different types of honey. For example, honey that’s not so sticky and is almost watery has more air and scent molecules that are released through evaporation thus attracting ants. In the meantime, when the environment is humid, it’s easier for insects to pick up scents. Honey stored in humid locations will be an easy target for ants.
As beekeepers, at times we have to deal with hives infested with ants. Secure the colony by putting it in a location where there are no ants, or, the ‘traditional’ way, a bowl of water undernearth the hive’s stands to keep the ants climbing up to the hives.
No, nothing is wrong with your honey. All honey crystalises.
Some types of honey (eg: acacia) take much longer than other types, but this is a completely natural process that will happen to all honeys sooner or later. Honey which has been processed (pasteurised and fine-filtered) will generally take longer than raw honey to crystalise, but even this honey will crystalise eventually.
We only supply completely raw honey, which has the good bits still in it – the pollen and sometimes larger bits of propolis, beeswax and royal jelly. So, don’t worry if you notice small bits in your honey, but likewise, don’t worry if you don’t see them – individual grains of pollen are very, very small and may not be easy to see with the naked eye. These bits give the natural sugars in honey ‘seeds’ from which to start crystalising, which means our honey will often set more quickly than other less raw honey.
The amount of time it takes for a particular honey to crystalise depends on numerous factors, including the temperature at which the honey is stored, the amount of pollen and other bits in the honey, the proportion of natural glucose, the moisture content, the size of the container, etc. All these factors together make it impossible to predict exactly when a particular honey will crystalise.
If you have found that your honey has started to crystalise and you would prefer it liquid you can do this:
Put the bottle in a bowl of warm water. If it’s not liquid by then leave it a little longer.
You might think that the heat from this process will damage the honey – the important thing is that you don’t heat the honey beyond 40 degrees.
Everyone wants to know their honey is pure and natural, especially these days where stories of fraud, contamination, and deception are constantly appearing. This is why you’ll find lots of home testing methods demonstrated online or being passed around by word of mouth.
Do not trust these!
It’d be great to think there are simple, at-home methods to accurately test your honey, but the truth is none of these methods will tell you much of anything about the honey’s quality, purity, production, or anything else. Burning your honey, dropping it in water or on your nail, shaking it up, looking for honeycomb patterns, etc. They’re all fake tests.
So how do you test honey? Basically, it has to be tested in a lab.
There are a variety of tests than can be done, testing for the honey’s general physical characteristics, the honey’s pollen content, sugar content, pesticide amounts, etc. These can cost anywhere from RM200 to RM5000.
We have some of these tests done periodically on different batches to be sure the quality is kept high. So far, we have never found any sign of contamination or alteration.We will only ever sell the highest quality, pure and natural honey – always raw, just as it comes from the hives.
The answer is No.
Honey never expires or goes off so long as it is kept in its container with the lid on (this prevents too much moisture from getting in, which may allow the yeasts in the honey to begin fermentation).
It is unique amongst foods in this ability to stay good forever. Honey from hundreds and even thousands of years ago has been recovered from archeological sites, and it is still perfectly fine to eat.
All honeys are required to have a Best Before (different from expiry) date, but this date is mostly to signify how long the beekeepers think it will be before the honeys will almost certainly be fully crystalised (some will crystalise far more quickly of course). The best before date also takes into account possible temperature variations and the repeated opening of the jars, which may, over time, degrade the colour and flavour of the honey, but this date is set very conservatively just to be sure. In general, though, so long as it has been stored properly, honey past this date will still be perfectly safe and delicious no matter if it’s runny, fully crystalised, or somewhere in between.
Because all our honeys are single-source (not taken from many places and blended), they reflect the conditions of the area in which the bees are located. Different times of year and different years will have different weather conditions, which means the local plants will grow differently, and therefore different nectars will be available for the bees to collect. This is also true for honeys of the same variety but come from different areas.
Example:
A thyme honey from Spain will taste a bit different from a thyme honey from Greece, and both will taste a bit different from thyme honey from Italy.
This is both because of the different mix of plants in different regions and because the weather will be different. All of this adds to the uniqueness of each honey. Honey is quite similar to wine in this way.
And don’t forget that honey is always changing, and the honey you ordered previously may have changed from runny to crystalised or somewhere in-between since you last ordered. So, even if you have ordered honey of the same type and the same batch, it may have become more crystalised since your last order. This will have a slight effect on the perceived flavour because the solid crystals will take longer for your taste buds to pick up than runny honey. It will also have an effect on the colour of the honey, with crystalised honey looking lighter in colour due to the solid crystals reflecting light much more strongly than runny honey.
We believe it’s part of the fun and excitement of raw honey and most natural products! You never know exactly what you’ll get, but it all tastes great. If you find you’re purchasing honey that tastes exactly the same every time, it’s probably been blended and processed for consistency, which we don’t believe is good for the honey or for you.
There is a lot of debate about Manuka honey. Many people question whether it is more antibacterial than other honeys. What’s so special about it and why is it so expensive?
Due to the unique nature, unfortunately there has been a lot of fake Manuka in the shops and it can be difficult to determine which is genuine and which is fake.
All raw honey has some sort of antibacterial quality, not just Manuka. It’s mainly due to the hydrogen peroxide that bee enzymes release into the honey. However, this tends to get weaker over time. But the substance in Manuka that gives it its antibacterial quality increases for a couple of years or so after it is harvested. And it’s not affected by light or heat, like the antibaceterial hydrogen peroxide that exists in all honeys.
The main substance that gives Manuka its antibacterial quality is called Methylglyoxal (MGO). Sometimes you will see a rating on Manuka, called UMF (Unique Manuka Factor) or sometimes it might be called the NPA (Non Peroxide Activity) or MGO.
Whatever the rating system it is related to the amount of Methylglyoxal in the honey. 10+ is reckoned to be pretty good. The higher the rating the more antibacterial the honey is.
We are not medical experts, and due to current regulations we are not able to give any guarantees on whether or not our products will cure or help with or be safe for any ailment or condition. Nor are we able to say with certainty how our products may interact with other treatments or health regimens.
Please take care if you have any concerns about any product you may be thinking of purchasing. Do your research and consult your GP or relevant physician. We have many customers with a variety of conditions, who swear by the benefits of our honey, but we cannot verify or endorse any of these claims or their applicability to you.
Medical advice from the some countries’ Government is that you shouldn’t give honey to children under the age of 1 year or to anyone with an underdeveloped or compromised immune system due to the potential presence of the bacterium causing botulism (Clostridium botulinum).
However, from the research we’ve seen and offical advice, our raw products should be safe for consumption while pregnant. The possible botulism spores in the products should be wiped out by the mother’s digestive tract and immune system (assuming the mother doesn’t have a compromised immune system) well before they can turn into full-blown botulism. Additionally, it is not currently believed to be possible for the botulism toxin to get through the placenta even in the case of the mother contracting botulism, which, again, is extremely unlikely for a healthy person.
That said, we’re not doctors, and so this advice shouldn’t be taken as a replacement for speaking with a doctor.