# How to keep honey from crystalizing?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-keep-honey-from-crystalizing/654908
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 5, 2013, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-keep-honey-from-crystalizing/654908 "2013-04-05T11:21:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@67java89](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/67java89)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2013, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-keep-honey-from-crystalizing/654908/1 "2013-04-05T11:21:39Z")
When I buy honey it looks like a beautiful golden liquid. After I use it a few times (less than a month in the cupboard) it crystalizes and I can’t even get it out of the jar or bottle. Why does it do this and is there a way to stop it? I just had to waste a bunch of honey.
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### Author:  [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2013, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-keep-honey-from-crystalizing/654908/2 "2013-04-05T11:31:26Z")
Gently heat the jar/bottle to melt the crystals down to liquid honey again. You can do this in small sequences in the microwave, or by boiling some water in a pan on the stove and lowering the bottom of the honey bottle into the water enough to melt the crystallized parts. (Make sure to not melt a plastic bottle in the process.)
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2013, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-keep-honey-from-crystalizing/654908/3 "2013-04-05T11:53:51Z")
> [@67java89](#):
>
> I just had to waste a bunch of honey.
Did you throw it away? As said, it’s pretty easy to uncrystalize honey in the microwave or stovetop and it doesn’t affect the taste in any way.
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### Author:  [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2013, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-keep-honey-from-crystalizing/654908/4 "2013-04-05T11:55:27Z")
If you can store it in a warmer spot that should keep it from crystallizing. Perhaps in a cupboard above the stove?
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### Author:  [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2013, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-keep-honey-from-crystalizing/654908/5 "2013-04-05T13:14:48Z")
Make sure the bottle is sealed tightly, and store it in a warm place.
If you regularly find crystals, consider getting a mason (glass canning) jar, and when you buy honey in the normal plastic containers, immediately transfer it over to the mason jar. That way whenever it starts to crystalize, you can just heat the jar in a pan of hot water until they’re gone again. Plastic doesn’t really like being repeatedly heated up, and to decrystalize really needs water that hits right at the edge of melting plastic.
I hope you didn’t already throw it away, it was perfectly good honey!
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2013, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-keep-honey-from-crystalizing/654908/6 "2013-04-05T14:11:22Z")
> [@Telemark](#):
>
> Did you throw it away?
Yeah, good god, I hope not. Honey crystallizing is perfectly normal and usual. There’s nothing wrong with honey that is crystallized. As everyone has already said, just warm it back up and you’re golden.
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2013, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-keep-honey-from-crystalizing/654908/7 "2013-04-05T15:37:46Z")
stick the honey jar in your armpit.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2013, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-keep-honey-from-crystalizing/654908/8 "2013-04-05T16:17:04Z")
If you buy something like fireweed honey, it doesn’t crystallize, or at least it takes a hell of a lot longer to do so.
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### Author:  [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2013, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-keep-honey-from-crystalizing/654908/9 "2013-04-06T05:16:41Z")
Creamed honey has less tendency to crystallize. Actually, it’s already crystallized, but the crystals are so small that they don’t cause the honey to become gritty or chunky.
Also, as **Chefguy** says, some honeys tend to crystallize more than others. [Here](http://www.montcobeekeepers.org/Documents/Honey_Crystallization.pdf) is a discussion of honey crystallization that has a list of different types of honey and how fast they crystallize ( **Warning: PDF** ).