Suspiciously Light Honey

[TheHoneyPump]

-flatlander advice-  LoL.  Yes I suppose.  Though I have lived in Rockies for 10 years and the principle still applies.  They are getting it from somewhere; it takes a good eye and a walk to track them to it. 

[Ben Framed]

I just finished the Mr Van solubility test. Since we have established my honey was pure (By the cotton test), and the same honey was now used on the solubility test. I would assume the results are reliable in the time line this test was done. I will post a picture of each as follows. You will need to look closely as I used a pizza cup lol. The drop of honey is at the bottom next to the outer edge. It took almost four minutes until the puddle was fading away behind a reasonable view. So the conclusion: No offense intended, Member and Nyleve, but if your honey fails these two test, don't blame it on the test; you might be better served to blame it on the honey!      lol

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[The15thMember]

I took the liberty to play with a little honey and fire myself. I knew my honey was pure as no sugar has been fed here since before the first flow. This was from the comb honey I posted yesterday.

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Phillip, how exactly did you perform this test?  I tried it with some honey I harvested last year as a control, and I could not get it lit at all.  I dipped cotton swabs, cotton string, and little bits of cotton ball in honey and tried to lit them with a propane lighter, and all it did was caramelize and turn black.  I couldn't seem to get a flame going.           

[Ben Framed]

I took the liberty to play with a little honey and fire myself. I knew my honey was pure as no sugar has been fed here since before the first flow. This was from the comb honey I posted yesterday.

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Phillip, how exactly did you perform this test?  I tried it with some honey I harvested last year as a control, and I could not get it lit at all.  I dipped cotton swabs, cotton string, and little bits of cotton ball in honey and tried to lit them with a propane lighter, and all it did was caramelize and turn black.  I couldn't seem to get a flame going.         

What I did was dip a plastic stick Q tip into my honey. Pulled it out and stuck a lit match to it. Being very careful to make sure the flame was on the cotton part only. Walla! It glowed. Now bing I used a plastic stick q tip was risky because as you know plastic melts quite rapidly. Had it not caught up, rapidly with the lit match underneath, the plastic would have drooped and that would have been the end of that. Therefore insuring the cotton burning was on target. Now, if you are having trouble, makes me wonder about your honey? As you may recall, Mr Van said even 5 percent adulterated honey will not burn properly. Before you give up, try using a regular cotton ball (without the stick) dipped in honey and see what happens. Let us know.  Thanks.

[The15thMember]

Round 2 was also inconclusive.  Today instead of nothing burning, everything burned, even the sugar syrup.  Today I think that all I was doing was burning off the honey/syrup and then just the cotton was lighting.  I'm going to try one last time.  I have cotton string soaking in the different honeys/syrups, to create wicks of each substance, and tomorrow (time permitting) I'll try to burn those and see what happens.  3rd time's the charm?     

[The15thMember]

I tried the burn test again and it still didn't work for me.  I tried burning some of my honey from this year, some from last year, and some 2:1 sugar syrup to compare the results.  The difference in burn time was negligible and the sugar syrup burned the longest of the three.  I don't know.  I'll guess I'll have to see if it happens again next year, and see if I can find anything blooming around the time they are bringing it in that would be an extra light honey.  It's disappointing not to know for sure.         

[Ben Framed]

> Yes I did, and it definitely has taste, it's not straight up sugar syrup.  It is extremely sweet, and it's thick enough to "stack" when I pour it (if you know what I mean by that).  The thing that's so confusing to me is that if this light stuff is sourwood, than I have never had real sourwood.

Member you may have real sourwood honey?  Is there any way you can visit Bob Binnie and have him do a taste test for you? The man is an expert. He is very nice and kind at helping others. It would at least put your mind at ease. Is a visit in the realm of possibilities for you? 

[van from Arkansas]

Hi Ms. Member.

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Pic of four honeys.
Two labeled jars are both Sourwood.  The bear jar in acacia honey color 10 or white honey.  The sourwood is about color 20-30 the jar far left is 2019 color 30 from my apiary.

You may have clover honey or the likes which sometimes is color 10, the lightest color, the most valuable to the consumer eye.

Taste is the best indication, however there are many simple test to determine purity: cotton burn as mentioned by Ben, skin cream, dissolving in water etc.  taste is the best test to me.

[Ben Framed]

Good post Mr Van. I have a video about Mr Binnie (this year) concerning sourwood. If I can find it I will post.

[Ben Framed]

Mr Van I have no doubt you will find this video VERY interesting! Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/jEkJmvutinw

[van from Arkansas]

Bees usually segregate honey by flower type.  I have seen honey frames with a clear line between different flower types, very distinctive color change.  If your bees did have access to sugar syrup then most likely this syrup would be grouped on a frame along side natural flower honey.  So the obvious question is did your frames of honey appear segregated by color contrast.  Yes I realize a possibility of natural light color 10 Pure honey not being distinguished by segregation, but the odds are: on a more likely than not basis a color segregation contrast by sugar syrup with real honey.

[Ben Framed]

Bees usually segregate honey by flower type.  I have seen honey frames with a clear line between different flower types, very distinctive color change.  If your bees did have access to sugar syrup then most likely this syrup would be grouped on a frame along side natural flower honey.  So the obvious question is did your frames of honey appear segregated by color contrast.  Yes I realize a possibility of natural light color 10 Pure honey not being distinguished by segregation, but the odds are: on a more likely than not basis a color segregation contrast by sugar syrup with real honey.

In the video Mr Binnie takes off any supers that have that variance Mr Van, leaving little doubt that you are getting authentic, real sourwood.


Let me add, this authentication is dependant on his expert experience of sourwood honey taste. 😊 I am of the opinion the man is a honeygenius! 😊

[van from Arkansas]

That fella in the video knows his honey.  Thank You Mr. Ben!!

Sourwood honey has the slightest licorice flavor to me.  Anybody else notice this?

[The15thMember]

Hi Ms. Member.

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Pic of four honeys.
Two labeled jars are both Sourwood.  The bear jar in acacia honey color 10 or white honey.  The sourwood is about color 20-30 the jar far left is 2019 color 30 from my apiary.

You may have clover honey or the likes which sometimes is color 10, the lightest color, the most valuable to the consumer eye.

Taste is the best indication, however there are many simple test to determine purity: cotton burn as mentioned by Ben, skin cream, dissolving in water etc.  taste is the best test to me.

Thank you Mr. Van, that is a very helpful picture.  I should try the skin test using sugar syrup as a control and see if that helps me to notice any difference.  I agree that taste is probably the best test, but I'm just not experienced enough tasting different honey varieties.  (Before I kept bees I always bought sourwood, so I really only know what that tastes like.) 

Bees usually segregate honey by flower type.  I have seen honey frames with a clear line between different flower types, very distinctive color change.  If your bees did have access to sugar syrup then most likely this syrup would be grouped on a frame along side natural flower honey.  So the obvious question is did your frames of honey appear segregated by color contrast.  Yes I realize a possibility of natural light color 10 Pure honey not being distinguished by segregation, but the odds are: on a more likely than not basis a color segregation contrast by sugar syrup with real honey.

That is good advice, and I'll pay attention to this in the future.  The frames that this light stuff came from didn't have any sort of dividing line like that I could see.  (I'm pretty careful about keeping different colored honeys separated when I crush and strain.)  But like you said, if the honey alongside it is quite light (like sourwood), I think that would be difficult to detect, especially in a capped frame.  The other challenge is the different colors of wax in the different frames, which can make a light honey look darker.  I crushed and strained a frame today that I thought was too dark to be sourwood, but it turned out it was just a darker wax.   

Sourwood honey has the slightest licorice flavor to me.  Anybody else notice this?

That is actually a good way to describe it.  I've never really thought about it like that, but it kind of does remind one of licorice.  Sourwood has a VERY subtle "spicey" aftertaste like licorice.       

[BAHBEEs]

White Clover if you have little else mixed with it will get you honey exactly this color.  it is strongly floral and my favorite of the year.


Not suspicious...supreme is what it is.

Barry

I harvested some EXTREMELY light honey this morning, which I was quite excited about because I assumed it was sourwood.  But now that it's in the jars, I think something is wrong here.  This honey is too light, it's totally clear on a spoon, and it isn't at all golden.  The top picture is a jar I harvested last week, which I believe is sourwood, and the bottom is the jar from this morning.  The opacity is just air bubbles, but the color almost looks to me like sugar syrup.  Do you guys agree?  Do you think that the bees found and stored sugar syrup?  Or is there some sort of clear honey out there that I'm not aware of?
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Mine looks even clearer to me, it?s wild flower. People say they can taste a flowery taste


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