Types of Honey and Their Uses
Honey is a sweet, nutritious liquid that is taken out from the nectar of flowers by the bees. Each buzz these busy bees make is very healthy and nutritious for us as it gives us honey. Different types of Honey have many benefits. It is good for health, stomach, digestion, wounds, burns and skin.
Honey comes in different colours and flavours. It all depends on the nectar and the blossom from where the honey sucks out the honey. These different types of honey bees on various flowers have given more than 300 types to honey.
Each one of them has a different and unique flower origination. The colours in which honey is present are various shades and tones of dark brown. The flavours differ in terms of mildness, strength, richness and boldness.
Light-coloured honey is relatively milder in taste than dark-coloured honey, which is much stronger. The lighter the honey colour is, the milder its taste is.
The production of honey takes place in many, usually all, countries of the world. Let’s look at the different types of honey that are most common, depending on their floral origination.
The local beekeeper, the beekeeping association and the honey packer in your area could also provide you with information regarding honey.
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What Is Honey?
Honey is a golden fluid, which is used as a sweetener and flavouring option to white sugar. The healing property of honey makes it useful in the treatment of various ailments.
The nutritional benefits of honey raise its consumption in different foods and beverages. There are several grades, and types of honey are available to buy in the market.
The flavour and type of honey depend on the nectar source that a bee visited. From Manuka honey to clover honey, a wide variety of honey exists with substantial health benefits.
How is it made?
Honey is so yummy, so sweet, and so thick. It has historic value and has been consumed for multiple purposes. Ever thought, where did this honey come from? How is it made?
Whenever we consider honey, all we think is that honeybee has to do with its creation. But there is a long series of activities that honeybee maintains to give ample honey. Here is the story of the honey-making process, broken into points:
- Bees dances in different ways to inform the locations and the distances where they stored food sources.
- Bees possess highly sophisticated taste buds.
- Since they have great tastes, they fly over to select those flowers with a high concentration of sugar.
- Once they find it, they use their proboscis, which is like a long tongue, to suck the nectar of that particular flower and store it in the honey stomach, which is termed as a reservoir.
- In the proboscis, the nectar reacts with the bee’s enzymes. Then the hunter bee gives the sweet substance to the home bee at the hive, whose task is to deposit the substance into the honeycomb. That’s where the sweet matter is dried and formed into honey.
- The bees have a strong sense of when the nectar is ready; the preparation is over when the nectar is concentrated and has less than 17 percent water.
- The honey is then covered with a wax cap on it, and this is stored for the winter season.
- According to beekeepers, the queen honey bee lays 2,000 eggs in a day in peak season.
- Talking about how much the queen bee is pampered; she is taken care of by a circle of bees around her, touching her antenna, always alert for the time whenever she needs to be fed.
- She is also fed a special kind of jelly made in the honeycomb. The jelly is also beneficial for her daughter, who will one day succeed her.
This is how bees make pollen into yummy honey. Honey is therefore prepared after a long term effort of honeybees.
Complete list of all of the types of honey
Visit any reasonable-sized supermarket, and you’re sure to discover a tremendous selection and choice of honey. Unless you’re really clued-up, it’s hard to know which one to pick.
It’s so tempting to stretch out and pluck the cheapest jar from the shelf or the one with the prettiest packaging. But these aren’t necessarily the best.
So, let’s take a look at different types of honey so that you’ll better understand them, knowing which ones to select and which will be the most beneficial.
Following are some most common types of Honey and the different varieties.
Clover Honey
Clover honey is thick, mild in taste and has antibacterial properties. With a pleasing taste of this honey from the clover plants, the Clover honey contributes the most honey to the United States compared to any other type.
The colour of pure clover honey varies from water white to light amber and amber, with a subtle flavour.
The most important components for this honey production are red clover, Alsike clover and sweet yellow and white clovers.
It can be used as a sweetener in tea and added in baking as a sugar substitute.
You can buy it from Amazon UK or other online stores.
Alfalfa honey
Alfalfa honey is light in colour and produced expansively throughout North America.
It is yielded purple blossoms. It has a light colour, and since it is light in colour, it also has a mild taste and flavour, which is very pleasant.
It is used as a remedy for sore throat, skin problem and cough. This sought-after variety of honey is available on Amazon UK.
Avocado honey
Avocado honey is dark in colour. Avocado honey has a rich, creamy, and sensational buttery taste.
This honey type, Avocado, is collected from flowers of California that are called the Avocado blossoms. Its dark colour gives a rich flavour.
You can buy avocado honey from Yumbles, eBay and Amazon UK. It is used as a tea sweetener and will give your smoothies and mead a unique kick.
Blueberry Honey
This sweet light coloured honey which is originated from blueberry, white and tiny flowers.
The nectar of the blueberry bush makes blueberry honey light amber in colour and strong in flavour.
It is used to make flavoured lemonades or smoothies. It is available at happy valley honey. You can find blueberry honey on amazon UK.
Eucalyptus honey
Eucalyptus honey is one of the stronger flavoured types of honey. It is used for mild cough and cold. Eucalyptus honey has a variation in colour and flavour.
It has a strong flavour and has some little medicinal scent in it. This herbal flavoured honey is available on amazon in the UK.
Buckwheat Honey
The wheat in the name Buckwheat is enough to describe the colour of this honey that is dark brown and rich.
Buckwheat honey has a higher level of minerals. This kind of honey contains essential fatty acids. Buckwheat honey is available in the health food section of any grocery store.
The additional benefit of this type of honey is that it contains comparatively more antioxidants than other light-coloured honey.
It is pungent in flavour with malty tones. This is a natural sweetener-means; you can use it as a sugar substitute for any of your dessert, smoothies, waffles or baked goods. You can buy it from Amazon UK or freshly fermented.
Wildflower Honey
Wildflower honey is just like anonymous honey and produced in Cornwall and Devon, UK. It means that you don’t’ know the source from where this honey comes from.
So, all honey that has an anonymous source falls in the category of Wildflower. Wildflower Honey is known for its numerous medicinal benefits. The taste of wildflower honey depends on the variety of wildflowers available to bees.
It is used to heal scars and treats pollen energy and burns. You can buy them from Amazon, Tesco, British Honey and natural vita.
Fireweed honey
The flavour of firewood honey is like a summer pear. This variety of honey comes from a perennial herb, which cultivates in open woods.
It is light in colour and mouthwatering. Light in colour, this honey type called the Fireweed is produced from the herb, which has pink coloured flowers and which grows in the open forests.
It is fruity, sweet in taste with a buttery finish. It can be used in any honey recipe like meat glaze and others. It is available on Amazon UK.
Orange blossom
Orange Blossom honey is orange in colour, which is why it is called Orange blossom honey. It has a mild flavour, has a light colour and has a fresh taste of the combination of citrus ingredients.
You can find it on amazon or the ‘British corner shop’ and wild about honey’. It is rich in vitamin C, which’s why it is used to treat ulcers and insomnia.
Tupelo
It has a light golden amber colour with a tinge of green. It has a mild flavour and a very different taste. The fructose in this honey makes it slow to granulate.
It comes with great antibacterial and antioxidant properties. It is used to soothe a sore throat and helps people who have sleeping difficulties. It is available on eBay, Etsy and Amazon UK.
Tupelo honey is rich in antioxidants and antibacterial properties. It’s a good way to soothe sore throats and treat the underlying infections causing them.
Manuka Honey
Manuka honey is dark in colour and mostly gathered in New Zealand. It is considered as best types of honey. Manuka Honey is well known for its antibacterial and healing properties.
It is widely used and consumed because of its health benefits. Manuka honey is also worth a mention for it contains a powerful phytochemical and is particularly effective in stimulating hydrogen peroxide, making it an excellent healer for open infected wounds and burns, not to mention internal ailments.
Manuka honey comes from the Manuka tree found in New Zealand. You need to take care when buying it, for there are many fakes.
Check the label to see that it states the Unique Manuka Factor (UMF). Number 16 or above is ideal. It is used for soothing sore throats, improving digestive issues and healing wounds. You can find it on amazon.
Pure Natural Honey
Natural honey is a rich source of vitamins, amino acids, antioxidants, flavonoids, and minerals. The quality of honey depends on a number of factors. Various types of honey have different health benefits. In fact, the nutritional benefits of honey made it a significant ingredient of Ayurvedic medicines.
If you’re after a good quality, straightforward honey, you should go for pure natural honey. You’ll be able to tell whether or not it’s pure honey simply by reading the label on the jar. If no extra ingredients have been added, then you’ve got pure honey, and this is what you want.
As with most types of honey, the colour and flavour will vary according to the flowers and plants from which the honey bees collected nectar.
For example, depending on where you live, you could have a choice of lavender, sage, thyme, orange, clover and many more. It is used as a natural sweetener for tea or coffee. You can buy it from amazon right here.
Organic Honey
In order to produce organic honey, the beekeeper has to follow an extremely strict set of rules and undergo stringent testing.
For example, the bees have to be at least a certain distance away from contamination and pollution, the equipment has to be squeaky clean and free of unapproved chemicals, only low heat can be used, and accurate and traceable labelling is required.
The bees are ensured that their natural life cycle, natural habitat, and nourishment are maintained.
Organic honey farming has to satisfy effective, accurate, and exhaustive criteria for observing and evaluating the production of organic honey in order to pass the consulting body to certify the honey as organic honey.
It is used to relieve cough, heal wounds, help in digestive issues and soothe your sore throat. You can buy it from Amazon UK.
Raw Honey
Raw honey is perhaps Nature’s purest medicine, as it’s the honey still in its untouched state.
It is considered one of the best types of honey UK. You’re most likely to find this locally, perhaps at your nearby farmers market. If commercially produced, raw honey can only be labelled as such when minimum processing and low temperatures have taken place.
It has various health benefits as it has beneficial ingredients as pollen, Propolis, beeswax, and parts of the honeycomb.
Fortunately, the beekeepers tend honey nutrition to strain out any dead bees. It comes with a thick creamy texture, so you can use it in plenty of foods as a sweetener.
Even you can add it in smoothies and salad dressing. You can find it at bee roots and on amazon in the UK.
Andy
Ever since I started cooking I’ve been fascinated by how different people’s techniques are and how they best utilise the ingredients around them. Even the person living next door will have their own unique way of frying an egg or cooking a salmon fillet.
This fascination led me on a journey across the globe to discover the countless practices and traditions the world of cooking has to offer. I thought you’d enjoy and find value in sharing that journey with me so I created Cooked Best!