Crystallization process

It is known that pumped honey contains up to 20-22% water, but over time, the crystallization process begins. To reliably determine how quickly honey of a fresh harvest thickens, you need to know the harvest time and the plants from which the nectar was collected by the bees.

The main part of natural honey is a mixture of natural sugars: glucose, sucrose, fructose. It is a monosugar that is very easily absorbed by the body. Crystallization of honey occurs when glucose settles in the total mass in the form of crystals, hence the name of the process.

Fresh honey can thicken quickly because it has a high glucose content. And vice versa, the less it is, the longer the mass will be liquid. If the glucose content in honey is less than 30%, then such honey practically does not crystallize, since fructose does not crystallize at all.

For example, honey masses collected by bees from fields sown with rapeseed, mustard, rape, buckwheat quickly become viscous. The crystallization process takes a little longer for the raw materials collected by bees from the flowers of linden, acacia. These varieties are stored for a rather long time, they begin to harden only at a storage temperature of + 10 ° C to 15 ° C.