Why your honey goes solid (and why that's good)

Every autumn we get the same email: “My honey has gone solid, is it bad?” It isn’t. It’s the best sign you could ask for.

What’s happening in the jar

Honey is a supersaturated sugar solution: it holds more sugar than water can normally dissolve. Over time the glucose comes out as tiny crystals, and the honey turns cloudy, then creamy, then firm. Supermarket honey is often heated and finely filtered so it stays clear on the shelf for longer. Ours isn’t, so it does what honey naturally does.

Clover honey crystallizes fastest, in a few weeks. Lavender takes longer, wildflower somewhere in between.

Making it runny again

1. Put the closed jar in a bowl of warm water, about as warm as a bath.
2. Leave it for twenty minutes, then stir.
3. Repeat until it runs.

Please don’t use the microwave or boiling water. Heat above 40 °C cooks away the flavors the bees worked so hard on.

Or don’t bother. Creamed honey spreads beautifully on warm toast and doesn’t drip off the knife.