# Honey
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey/440692
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 9, 2008, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey/440692 "2008-03-09T05:02:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2008, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey/440692/1 "2008-03-09T05:02:33Z")
I have some store-brand clover honey that has solidified into a hard mass. There’s no give in the plastic container. And I have some locally-produced fireweed honey in a glass jar that shows no sign of crystalisation even though it was opened before the other stuff.
Why would one solidify into a brick, while the other didn’t?
---
### Author:  [@wouldn\_t\_you\_like\_to\_know](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wouldn_t_you_like_to_know)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2008, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey/440692/2 "2008-03-09T06:47:28Z")
no idea as to why it happens, never really thought about it before. hopefully someone will provide an answer.
I just came in to say if you pop that hard honey into the microwave or run the plastic bottle under hot water, the honey will loosen up and taste as good as new.
---
### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2008, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey/440692/3 "2008-03-09T06:53:39Z")
> **[Honey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey#Honey_preservation)**
>
> Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primarily floral nectar) or the secretions of other insects, like the honeydew of aphids. This refinement takes place both within individual bees, through regurgitation and enzymatic activity, and during storage in the hive, through water evaporation that conce H...
It sounds like the glass jar is probably more air-tight.
---
### Author:  [@Carson\_O\_Genic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carson_O_Genic)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2008, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey/440692/4 "2008-03-09T10:52:27Z")
Crystals,I tell ya.
Some honey has pollen which is difficult to remove and granulates predictably.Some never crystallises.This also depends on processing.Heating and filtering aid in a longer liquid product, but many feel this destroys flavour and other intangibles.
Your store brand clover honey is likely a blend of many honeys,largely clover,but from many producers and possibly countries.
I have some bird’s foot trefoil 19 years now,still liquid.Goldenrod extracted last fall is already setting up.
---
### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2008, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey/440692/5 "2008-03-09T16:13:28Z")
Fireweed honey will probably never crystallize. It’s just one of its properties, probably (as **Carson** said) because it comes from smaller producers from very localized bee farms, so there is little chance of other pollens getting into it. Local producers up here make the stuff and it is far superior to clover honey in flavor and its ability to remain liquid.
---
### Author:  [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2008, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey/440692/6 "2008-03-09T18:02:25Z")
As a kid, when the honey in the cupboard would solidify on top to a thick white ‘crust’… that was the best part! It was like candy.
---
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2008, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey/440692/7 "2008-03-09T21:09:02Z")
[QUOTE=Sage Rat]
> **[Honey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey#Honey_preservation)**
>
> Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primarily floral nectar) or the secretions of other insects, like the honeydew of aphids. This refinement takes place both within individual bees, through regurgitation and enzymatic activity, and during storage in the hive, through water evaporation Hon...
It sounds like the glass jar is probably more air-tight.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve got it in a pot of hot water on the stove. (I made a foil coil to keep it off the bottom, and I’m pretty sure it’s under the temperature in the article.)
I have an empty glass jar from some local honey I had over the summer. I think I’ll transfer it into there to see if that has any effect.