What Is Honey?

Honey is food made by bees for bees, but many people also enjoy it. Humans have prized honey for its sweet taste for thousands of years. Some researchers say honey is more than a sweetener. It may also have health benefits, though there is little evidence for some of its medicinal uses.

Raw honey comes straight from a beehive. Some honey producers pass the substance through a coarse filter to remove foreign matter, but it remains unprocessed food. Most of the honey sold in stores goes through a heating process to make it less sticky and easier to filter.

High temperatures pasteurize honey and destroy yeast cells in it that can cause unwanted fermentation.

What is a honeycomb?

Honeycombs are the areas bees put honey while they create it. They're basically small wax storage units.

Is honey bee vomit?

No, honey isn't bee vomit. While bees do suck up nectar from flowers to make honey, it doesn't go into their regular stomach. It goes into an expandable crop, which is also called the honey stomach. This is a separate stomach and helps them turn nectar into honey. The honey will never reach the actual digestive tract of a bee.

Types of Honey

Honey can also be harvested and processed in different ways.

Pasteurized honey. Most honey found in stores is pasteurized, which means it's been heated. Various methods and temperatures are used to pasteurize honey. Some honeys are heated at 65 C (or 149 F) for 30 seconds. Others may be heated at 85 C (185 F) for 4-5 minutes.

There are many types of honey, from manuka to acacia. Some of the most popular ones include:

• Tupelo honey. This has a light amber color. Its flavor is balanced and not too strong. It comes from the tupelo tree that grows in swamps and alongside riverbanks in South Georgia and Florida.
• Sourwood honey. This type has an even lighter amber color. Despite the name, its taste isn't sour. It's sweet, like butter or caramel. The sourwood tree blooms from late June to July anywhere from the Appalachian Mountains in northern Georgia to southern Pennsylvania. They also bloom in Brazil.
• Mad honey. People in some countries (including Nepal and parts of Turkey) use mad honey as folk medicine to treat diabetes, high blood pressure, and digestive issues or to act as a sexual enhancement. Mad honey has a chemical called grayanotoxin in it, which comes from rhododendron plants. Sometimes people use it for its intoxicating effect. But this kind of honey can poison you. You could develop blurry vision, drooling, dizziness, headache, vomiting, or loss of muscle control. The chemical in this honey can also cause heart problems.
• Whipped honey. This type of honey, also called creamed honey, is in a crystallized form. But at room temperature, it spreads like butter or jelly.
• Clover honey. This can be white or light amber in color. It comes from the white clover blossom and has a mild flavor with a bit of a tangy aftertaste. You can find this honey everywhere. It's one of the most commonly used honeys for baking.
• Wildflower honey. This honey has a medium amber color. It tastes light and fruity, but the flavor can shift based on the flowers that are in bloom. This type of honey is made from the nectar of multiple flowers blended together, so it can be found anywhere in the world.
• Acacia honey. People usually use this type for tea. It's light amber in color and is very sweet. It can be used as an anti-inflammatory and helps liver function and your digestive tract. It's usually from the Black Locust trees in Europe and North America.