What is the best way to store Raw Honey?

So, What is the best way to store raw honey anyway?

Short Answer

• Long Term - The best way to store raw honey is to put it into airtight glass jars and freeze it!
• Short Term - The best way to store raw honey is to put it into an airtight glass jar and keep it at room temperature. This makes it easily usable. 

If you want the science behind the answers, read on:

HEAT vs COLD
​In most commercial honey processing plants, heat is used in almost every step. Many bottlers also bottle it hot, so that it will run through machinery easily, and so that it will take longer to crystallize in the jar. But that heat has a huge effect on the honey flavor, color, aroma, and importantly, the unique health benefits that raw honey has to offer.

Raw Honey has Enzymes that should not be destroyed!
Raw honey has many healthful enzymes in it, introduced by the bees during hive building and nectar gathering. Invertase, glucose oxidase, catalase, and diastase, along with many others.

• Invertase converts sucrose to fructose and glucose. It allows the bees to make honey thicker, and stops fermentation and spoilage.
• Glucose Oxidase produces gluconic acid, which brings the pH of honey down to approximately 3.9, which is extremely acidic! This acidity contributes to honey's antibacterial properties. During the Process of producing gluconic acid, and bringing that pH down, hydrogen peroxide is also produced. Hydrogen peroxide is an extremely useful anti-fungal. Once the pH hits 3.9 and below, the hydrogen peroxide production stops. But when honey is put on a cut or wound, the salinity of the body mixes with the honey, and the pH begins to rise, once again producing that useful hydrogen peroxide! 
• Diastase converts starch into sugar, and we can use diastase activity tests in honey to determine whether it has ever been exposed to heat, and for how long. 

Heat destroys Healthy Enzymatic Activity
We will use Diastase as an example. When Diastase is kept at 68 degrees Fahrenheit, its half-life is approximately 1,000 days.  So, within around 30 years, even non-heated honey loses that and other useful enzymes.  However, at 122 degrees Fahrenheit, the half-life becomes two weeks. At 170 degrees, the half-life is.... 30 seconds. 

Most packers, large and small heat their honey to 160 degrees, to make it easy to work with and to pasteurize it.  After just seconds at this temperature, the honey is effectively dead. It's now just pollen and sugar. The packers then go even further, and filter the pollen out! This is to get a nice-looking product, and to further halt the crystallization process. The poor honey consumer is now just buying liquid sugar. It is still a more balanced sugar, so they are not totally defeated, but just sugar nonetheless. 

Never microwave your honey! It instantly de-natures (kills) every enzyme in the honey.

So, buy Raw Unfiltered Honey, correct?
Yes, but be sure to do a little digging. Did you know that honey can be called "Raw" even if it is heated to 159 degrees Fahrenheit? A honey without enzymatic activity is not truly Raw Honey, it may be called raw legally, but it will not be. A conscientious honey purchaser won't be fooled be the term "Raw" but will look further into the Company's practices.

Why is it Better to Store Honey in Your Freezer?

Freezing preserves all the honey benefits and character. Temperature also has an effect on color, taste, and aroma. The higher the temperature, the more detrimental of an effect it has. When honey is kept cold, at below 32 degrees Fahrenheit this process stops almost entirely. So, a frozen honey will retain its characteristics for as long as has been measured. Several Decades, at minimum.   

Is freezing good for the enzymes? Yup! When honey is frozen, the enzymatic activity comes to a complete stop, and when thawed again, the activity picks back up right where it left off at the point it was frozen, as if time never passed!

Now you understand more about honey storage than most bee-keepers! Thanks for being an Elden Foods Customer. Feel free to check out our Raw Honey in Glass Jars below:

---

Pure Raw Citrus Honey - 5 lbs in Glass

$48.00

5 Lbs of Raw Honey in Glass - Right From the Hive!

​

This honey is gathered from a mixture of the citrus and wildflowers from California, giving it the un-beatable taste people have come to expect from Elden Foods Honey. Only the best!

• 100% Pure Raw Honey

• Un-heated

• Unfiltered

• All healthful enzymes and pollen intact

​

Guaranteed to be our best raw, unfiltered honey!

What does "Right from the Hive" mean? Basically that honey has not gone through any processing. The honey gets collected from the hive and put into a big stainless steel vat, which we call the settling tank. When the honey goes in, it has wax, bees that got stuck, bits of honeycomb etc. After sitting in the tank for about 72 hours, all of the stuff besides actual honey has floated to the top without any heating or filtering. Then, we pull the honey from the bottom of the tank via a 2 inch spout, and into the containers for sale. You get really raw honey, right from the hive!

Shop

Raw Creamed Honey - 5 LBS in Glass

$48.00

5 Lbs of Raw Creamed Honey - Smooth Perfection! Now in Glass

This honey is gathered from a mixture of the clover, rapeseed, and alfalfa flowers, giving it the un-beatable taste people have come to expect from Elden Foods Honey. Only the best!

Smooth, creamy, lightly colored, and with a rich flavor that captivates the senses, this may just be the best creamed honey you'll every try!

Not sure what creamed honey is? Read "What is Creamed Honey?"

Also called soft set honey, or spun honey.

​

100% Pure Raw Creamed Honey

• Un-heated

• Unfiltered

• All healthful enzymes and pollen intact

Nothing Added, Nothing Taken Away, just 100% Pure Raw Honey.

​

Guaranteed to be our best raw, unfiltered honey!

Shop