How to Spot Pure Honey: A Practical Buyer's Guide

Ask any beekeeper and they will tell you: most 'honey' on supermarket shelves has never seen the inside of a hive. Adulteration with invert sugar syrup is widespread because it is cheap and hard to detect by taste alone.

Some honest signals of pure, raw honey:

• Crystallisation. Real honey crystallises over time, especially in winter. Fake honey stays glassy forever. Crystallisation is a certificate, not a defect.
• Thickness and slow pour. Raw honey has low moisture and folds like a ribbon.
• Aroma. Pure honey smells of flowers, wax and earth — syrup smells of nothing.
• Foam and cloudiness. Raw honey carries pollen and tiny wax particles; crystal-clear honey has been fine-filtered and usually heated.

And the myths: the 'thread test', the 'flame test', and the 'water test' can all be passed by thick syrup. The only definitive answer is lab analysis — which is why we test every batch for moisture, Brix, and pollen profile, and publish the results.

Buy from someone who can tell you which forest, which season, and which bloom your jar came from.