From: "yoonytoons" : "RAW is in; sophistication, out."

Yoon speaks for many of us, but it is such a shame that whenever we get
close to this subject the posts get so extreme.  The Really Raw web site
says many things to make a beekeeper cringe - no need to go so far. But then
Bob goes and says "Really raw honey has a terrible (my opinion) flavor and
what is the crunchy stuff if I dare to ask?" And that after Bob has claimed
to know honey!  The crunchy, Bob, is the large crystals that can form in raw
honey if it contains (some) coarse garanulating honeys. The 'slime' is NOT
of course 'wax' (it would have needed to be vapourised and condensed to make
small enough balls) but the ungraulated residue containing high quantiies of
aromatic oils (if the honey comes from the right plants). Spendid stuff -
superb on buttered scones - leaves the uniform, bland, mangled,
over-filtered, denatured by heating, bleached, blended, sweet tasting paste
manufactured by the large packers out of commercially-produced honey plus
cheap foreign imports   far , far behind.

May I repeat an earlier post concerning 'producing pure honey' when I said
we lack a set of definitions of different ways of producing/processing honey
that have a universal meaning, and this is dumd so far as generic marketing
goes.  If I buy milk fr the Co-Op of from a supermarket, ''full-cream',
semi-skimmed' and skimmed' means the same. Honey consumers have to find and
stick to one particular label to get consistency. I suggested Bob is well
placed to get a set of definions accepted by the various factions and this
would be a great service by Bee-L as well as a nice project to crown his
career. Any volunteers to help Bob or some other distinguished
project-leader?

Anyway,  the list that needs working up looks like (at least):
Organic - no poisons or manufactured chemicals (including thymol) involved
in any stage of production or processing
Raw - no filtering or heating in processing - only natural separation of
dross thru flotation
Pure - no dilution of floral honey by sugar honey (which means , from hives
never fed sugar, as some of ANY sugar feed will end up in supers, however
much the followers of certain beekeeping systems like to deny it - up to 25%
of sugar honey content cannot be traced by taste, according to research at
Rothamstead, IBRA abstract 888 of 1974)
Sugar honey - honey made by bees from sugar fed as syrup, perfectly
wholesome, containing the same balance of sugars as floral honey but less
than normal content of trace components found in nectar- BUT NOT TO BE
CONFUSED WITH PLAIN 'HONEY'
Fruited sugar honey - flavoured by addition of fruit juices to the sugar
syrup, as tried by the Russians  - even more wholesome, cheap to produce,
healthy in that the suga content is glucose/fructose not sucrose - a
possible growth area for beekeepers in areas with poor forage .
Fortified sugar honey - with added vitamins and minerals to act as diet
supplements
Honeydew - honey made by bees from plant juice that has not been expressed
thru the plants nectaries (and has been thru another insect on the way)
Filtered - filtered thru xxx mesh to remove all pollen
Runny - has been heated enough to prevent granulation
Processed - made into a consistent product thru blending in order to produce
large consistent batches for large-scale outlets

These categories are not of course exclusive - a honey for food faddists
might be 'Pure, raw organic honey'.  A paste might be , conceivably,
'processed organic honey' if derived from some remote mountainous area.

Has all this 'definition development' already been done? Does it only need
more publicity?  Do some beekeepers already mark their labels 'pure honey,
complying to definition zzz' ?  If not, why are we all so dumb when it comes
to marketing?

Robin Dartington

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