I get a heap of emails everyday with questions relating to raw, unprocessed and unfiltered honey. Here is our explanation and our thoughts on the subject! Hope you find this very helpful!
Several honeys out on the market can be labeled as “raw” or “uncooked” honey. As anyone who’s ever tried to scrape a spoon through a jar of cold honey knows, honey has to be kept warm during the bottling process.
In a hive, the honey is naturally kept at a temperature between 92-95 degrees F…just a few degrees under human body temp. Many beekeepers agree that honey can be heated between 112-120 degrees without any significant change in flavor, aroma, or texture. This is warm enough to keep the honey moving but not so hot as to cook it. Heating the honey beyond 120 degrees can destroy some of its trace vitamins as well as destroy some of the volatile elements of taste and aroma.
Here at Beeyond the Hive we follow a minimal method that our family has used for many generations. As a rule, raw honey is usually minimally processed and we follow that rule to a tee! We only gently heat the honey in order to keep it moving through our machines as well as filter the honey with a cheesecloth. We still hand bottle every single jar! As a result of our madness, the honey retains more individual characteristics than those found in regular commercial honeys! We guarantee the the best honey available!
Next topic of discussion….Can honey really be organic? Stay tuned!
Hi Jamie,
Thanks for the raw honey info. Do I understand correctly that the honey I just bought from you on Friday has been through a machine that heats it up to 120°? I thought that I was getting raw/unheated with all the enzymes intact.
Carol Padget