The Honey and Your Choices for Purchases
There are still honeys, but here too, it is not won. A large majority of honeys do not come directly from the beekeeper, but come from conditioners, who cover the tracks with “local” packaging.
The Problems for You
The problem with these honeys is that they are mixed, so you lose the terroir, the particular taste of honey from a specific territory. A thousand flowers honey from the south of the sleeve will not have the same taste as a thousand flowers depending on the year, it will not be the same in the same area. But the aim of manufacturers is the stability of the product, so they will mix several honeys to systematically obtain the same taste, completely artificially.
The second problem is that these mixtures are made hot. And heating honey makes it lose many of its natural properties. You will therefore have a low-end raw honey. You can click here for the best choice.
Potted by the beekeeper
You don’t have much choice left on the stalls, but we can further refine our search. We come to a honey that comes from the beekeeper, with the indication “Origin France”. But it may not be harvested by him.
Some beekeepers are actually rather packers, they buy barrels of honey from others, put it in a pot, which allows them to indicate their local address on the pot. The annotation “potted by the beekeeper” is reassuring for the consumer, especially if he sees the beekeeper’s address on the pot. But in truth, this honey does not necessarily come from its region and may have crossed France. There are even orange honeys “potted by the beekeeper” in Normandy, look for the error.
How to find your way around?
Difficult therefore, to find your way around in all of these honeys… Certain details nevertheless, can put you on the right track.
The price
honey produced by your local beekeeper will sell between 10 and 15 € per kilo. Below, either your beekeeper will not last long, or the honey in question is not produced by him. For monofloral honey, the price can go up to 18 €, see more than 20 € in organic farming.
The consistency: Liquid honey is very often heated at high temperature to have this appearance. Only certain honeys, such as acacia, can remain naturally liquid for a long time. To a lesser extent, the very pure chestnut can also keep its liquid consistency for a while. Except for these typical honeys, all honeys crystallize and become hard around October following the harvest.
Harvested by the beekeeper:
Faced with very vague legislation, some beekeepers put the words “harvested and potted by the beekeeper”. There, you are certain that the honey was produced by your beekeeper, at the address mentioned on your pot.
Know the local producers:
Beekeeping is a small environment, everyone knows each other. If you meet a beekeeper, he will be able to tell you about who produces honey in your region (beware of steeple quarrels.)
