Soft-set honey refers to honey that has crystallized (also termed “granulated”). Other terms used are “creamed honey” and “whipped honey”. Because our honey is technically not “creamed” which usually refers to the process of adding “seed honey” to control crystallization, nor is our honey mechanically whipped or ground, we prefer to call it “soft-set honey”.

All natural honey starts out as a liquid. Most raw honeys will naturally crystallize over time. The rate that honeys crystallize depends mostly on the floral source and the temperature, as well as other factors. Some raw honeys remain liquid for many months at room temperature, while others, like most honey from the prairies in Canada and Northern USA, tend crystallize quite rapidly. For this reason, Northern prairie honey is often crystallized (creamed or whipped) before it is sold to ensure that the crystallized honey is relatively smooth and soft.

When we package Wendell Estate Honey, we choose our finest honey that will crystallize smoothly in the jar naturally. This requires packaging it fresh and controlling the storage conditions over several weeks.

The first reason is that soft-set raw honey generally lightens in color as it crystallizes. Our honey is a light amber color when we extract and package it. However, even then, it is a very light color compared to other honeys. In the industry the color is referred to as “white” or “water white” (the lightest official color designation for honey).

Different honeys from different floral sources have a wide range of natural colors. We prefer the subtle, delicate flavors that tend to prevail in light-colored honeys, so that’s the honey we choose to package in our retail jars.

Importantly we don’t add anything or do anything to make our honey whiter: the color is entirely natural. There are factors that tend to cause any honey to darken, regardless of its initial natural color. Two important ones are ageing and heating, both of which diminish the flavor and the health benefits of natural raw honey. The exceptionally white color of our honey is a testament to its freshness and the care we take in preserving the natural whiteness.

This is soft-set honey that has been allowed to crystallize before we sell it (see above “what is soft-set honey?”).

We think you will enjoy the signature silky smooth texture of our soft-set honey. It’s softest and most spread-able if kept at temperatures around 75 to 80°F (23 to 27°C). If you find your honey is too hard, you can gently warm in in a water bath of ~85°F, or keep it in a warmer place in your kitchen.

You can melt it into a liquid by gently warming it to about 95°F, but please be aware that when it cools and re-crystallizes the honey will lose it’s original soft smoothness. You can easily re-warm it until it becomes liquid again.

An excellent question! True mono-floral honey is quite rare and labels are often not accurate. On the Canadian prairies, our summers are short, but intense, with many kinds of flowers blossoming simultaneously. Honeybees forage nectar from any flowers available, up to 3 miles (5 km) distance or more. Most honey from the Canadian prairies comes from multiple floral sources.

We choose the honey to package into Wendell Estate jars based on flavor and honey quality parameters. This means any jar of Wendell Estate Honey will contain honey from flowers like alfalfa, clover, canola, sometimes borage, and any other wild or cultivated nectar-producing flowers that are blossoming near the bees at the time.

Traditionally, brands of honey found on supermarket shelves tend to be sourced from many different honey producers, blended together to arrive at a uniform, mid-grade product. Then the honey is often further processed by ultrafiltration and pasteurization to extend shelf life and prevent crystallization.

However, heating the honey to pasteurize it diminishes both the flavors and the health benefits of natural honey. Ultrafiltration removes the bee pollen naturally found in honey and also makes it more difficult to detect the floral and geographic source of the honey and possible adulteration with cheaper sugar syrups.

Raw honey is honey in its natural state. “Raw” implies the honey has not been heated beyond 104°F (the maximum temperature inside a healthy beehive). “Raw” also means that the natural bee pollens, and possibly bee propolis have not been removed from the honey.

The advantages of raw honey include a more complex flavor profile and un-diminished health benefits. Honey sold raw is usually a premium variety of honey, while blended processed honeys usually mix inferior, cheaper honeys with higher-quality honey to achieve a mid-grade product.

Yes! Pasteurization of processed honeys is done to increase shelf life and does not increase the safety of honey in any way. The world-renown Mayo Clinic has this to say about the safety of raw honey: “‘Pasteurization’ of honey actually has no technical meaning, and heating honey doesn’t provide any food safety advantage. Producers may heat honey to keep it from crystalizing but there is nothing safer about honey calling itself ‘pasteurized’ honey versus ‘raw’ honey…Foodborne pathogens actually do not survive in honey, so there is no additional risk in consuming it raw. Yeast can survive and grow in honey, but this fermentation will turn honey into mead, and a consumer would know this easily with visual inspection.”

Natural honey is remarkably safe to eat and never spoils in a way that can cause harm if eaten. If you can eat pasteurized honey, you can eat raw honey.

Infants below the age of one year should not eat any honey (pasteurized or raw). There is a small, but real chance that Clostridium botulinum spores occasionally found in honey could cause infant botulism when eaten by infants whose intestines have not yet been colonized fully by healthy bacteria. People older than one year of age are fully protected from this rare condition and cannot get infant botulism from eating honey.

 

In North America, organic certification for honey is especially complex and legitimate USDA (or Canadian Organic Regime) certified organic honey is extremely rare. Major requirements for organic certification of honey lie outside the control of the beekeeper and depend on land management of all the land within 1.8 miles (3km) of the beehives. Choosing organic honey to influence more sustainable agricultural practices is unfortunately much less effective than it is for other food products where the producer has full control over factors that contribute to organic certification. Virtually all USDA organic and much COR organic honey is imported rather inexpensively from countries like Mexico, India and Brazil. This article goes into more detail on the complexities of USDA-certified organic honey. All that being said, Wendell Estate Honey is at least as clean and free from pesticides, antibiotics, heavy metals and sugar syrups as the imported organic honeys. This is continually verified by independent laboratory testing and our honey awards (which test the honey rigorously).