Runny or Set?

Have you ever opened the kitchen cupboard, pulled out your jar of Haughton Honey and noticed that it's started to granulate and set?

All raw, unprocessed honey will eventually set naturally depending upon what plants and flowers the bees have been collecting nectar from and this process is called granulation. For instance Spring honey, which often has some oil seed rape nectar in it, granulates quite quickly due to the high glucose content. Whereas Summer honey tends to stay runny for a lot longer.

Granulation is actually a sign of your honey's purity and quality and most main-brand honey, containing imported product from China, the United States and European countries, is often heat-treated (or pasteurised to use another term) in order to prevent it from setting.....because you can't sell 'set' honey in squeezy bottles!

What we see in the shops as 'soft set' honey is normally creamed. It’s a blend of runny honey with a seed culture of naturally granulated honey which is mixed together to cause it to set with very small crystals.

Naturally granulated honey is also a set honey although it’s not as light in colour as the creamed version as the crystals within it are much larger and it usually sets a bit harder than creamed honey eventually.

Did you know that all raw honey eventually sets?

Haughton Honey comes as clear and runny and sometimes naturally granulated honey on shop shelves - not creamed, because we don't like to mess with it - all made with nectar from our national flowers.

**To turn any granulated or partially-granulated honey back in to a clear, runny honey just remove the lid and gently warm the jar through in a small pan of water (rather than a microwave!). Turn the hob on to 'low' and leave the jar in until the honey goes runny - make sure that you keep the water around or below 50c (placing the jar in a warm oven also works....at plate-warming temperature). This doesn’t affect the goodness or flavours at all but it will make it stay clear and runny again for quite some time.