How To Store Honey

Honey is one of the longest lasting foods – and medicine – you can store in your pantry. It’s possible to keep a jar safe and sweet for years and years, if you don’t spoil it in a moment, accidentally, with a dirty spoon.

Let the following sink in, so you can see just how valuable honey is:

A worker bee only produces a total of 1/12 teaspoon of honey throughout their entire lifetime.

That’s a lot of work for so little honey.

From that perspective, you can figure that it takes a hive of bees to produce a jar of delicious golden honey. That’s approximately 1152 busy bees to fill a 16 oz. jar.

I am sharing some dos and don’t about storing honey, so you don’t have to waste a spoonful.

There are several reasons for storing honey at home, let’s start with flavor:

honey is a sweet, delectable, natural sweetener that has a lower glycemic index than beet or cane sugar.

it contains amino acids, vitamins, minerals like iron, zinc and antioxidants.

honey is also anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and antifungal, wonderful from a medicinal perspective.
buying local honey helps small beekeepers, it may also help relieve seasonal allergies.
refrigeration is absolutely unnecessary.
honey is a high-value product that can be used in canning, used in skin care products and wound care. Is honey an antibiotic?
Honey is one of the oldest known antibiotics, tracing back to ancient times. Egyptians frequently used honey as a natural antibiotic and skin protectant. Honey can help kill off the bacteria and aid in the healing process.

For all these reasons and more, you should always keep a few jars of quality honey on hand, I recommend our honey of course 😊

How To Store Honey

The first thing you need to know about honey is that it is hygroscopic. All this means, is that it has the ability to absorb moisture, as is the case with common table salt or sugar.

To keep the moisture out, all you need to do, is store your honey in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. Storing your honey in a glass jar is as ideal as you can get for long term storage. In a glass jar, honey will not lose water content, nor will it lose its flavor, texture or aroma.

For a short while, some food grade plastics are okay to use in storing honey. However, in the long run, there is always the possibility of chemicals leaching from the plastic into the honey. You don’t want that to happen.

Honey stored for longer than a few months in a plastic bottle is subject to being spoiled, in color, texture, taste and aroma.

Glass is definitely the way to store your honey for decades.

What about storing honey in metal containers?

Outside of stainless steel, food grade containers, metal should not be used at all when it comes to storing honey. Honey is acidic, with a pH ranging from 3.5 to 5.5, depending on the source.

Honey stored in metal will eventually promote oxidation of the container. You don’t want that to happen either. This may result in heavy metals being released into the honey, or it may lead to a decline in nutritional elements. Steel and iron are among the worst metals for storing honey, as rust may be an issue.

This is why we use the classic glass honey jar when bottling our honey. If you request a plastic jar due to shipping costs, we highly recommend that once your intended receives it they change it to a glass jar. A glass canning jar works great. Stick to glass containers for long term storage of honey. Or use a glass or clay honey pot for dishing up a smaller amount that will be used up faster.

Keep honey in a room temperature area away from direct sunlight. Do not refrigerate.

Does honey expire?

Honey does not go bad. In fact, it's recognized as the only food that doesn't spoil. It will, however, crystallize (becoming thick and cloudy) over time (fake honey does not crystallize due to the other ingredients that large producers sometimes add to their honey). If this happens, just remove the lid from the jar, place it in a pan of water, and warm it over low heat until the honey returns to its original consistency. Keep in mind, you should never heat honey over 110 degrees Fahrenheit or honey will lose the benefits of it being raw honey (you have essentially paturized it).

You said not to store honey in metal..what about using a metal spoon to dip honey?

You can use a metal spoon because you will probably have the honey on your metal spoon for less and 2 seconds certainly not enough time for oxidation to occur but a dipper is designed especially for honey because:

A honey dipper releases a slow and steady dribble, allowing you to get an even coating of honey. It is also difficult to keep honey on a spoon without it dribbling down the side of your honey jar and over your kitchen counter. ... Traditionally, a honey dipper is stored in the pot with the honey.

How to use a honey dipper

Dip It! – dip the honey wand into your honey jar at an angle.

Cover it! – Cover the tip of the honey dipper in honey. ...

Twist it – Slowly twist the handle of the dipper while lifting the tip out of the honey. Continue to twist. ...

Drip it! – To release the honey simply stop twisting.

How To Store Honey

​

Honey is one of the longest lasting foods – and medicine – you can store in your pantry. It’s possible to keep a jar safe and sweet for years and years, if you don’t spoil it in a moment, accidentally, with a dirty spoon.

Let the following sink in, so you can see just how valuable honey is:

A worker bee only produces a total of 1/12 teaspoon of honey throughout their entire lifetime.

That’s a lot of work for so little honey.

From that perspective, you can figure that it takes a hive of bees to produce a jar of delicious golden honey. That’s approximately 1152 busy bees to fill a 16 oz. jar.

I am sharing some dos and don’t about storing honey, so you don’t have to waste a spoonful.

There are several reasons for storing honey at home, let’s start with flavor:

honey is a sweet, delectable, natural sweetener that has a lower glycemic index than beet or cane sugar.

it contains amino acids, vitamins, minerals like iron, zinc and antioxidants.

honey is also anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and antifungal, wonderful from a medicinal perspective.

buying local honey helps small beekeepers, it may also help relieve seasonal allergies.

refrigeration is absolutely unnecessary.

honey is a high-value product that can be used in canning, used in skin care products and wound care. Is honey an antibiotic?

Honey is one of the oldest known antibiotics, tracing back to ancient times. Egyptians frequently used honey as a natural antibiotic and skin protectant. Honey can help kill off the bacteria and aid in the healing process.

For all these reasons and more, you should always keep a few jars of quality honey on hand, I recommend our honey of course 😊

​

How To Store Honey

The first thing you need to know about honey is that it is hygroscopic. All this means, is that it has the ability to absorb moisture, as is the case with common table salt or sugar.

To keep the moisture out, all you need to do, is store your honey in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. Storing your honey in a glass jar is as ideal as you can get for long term storage. In a glass jar, honey will not lose water content, nor will it lose its flavor, texture or aroma.

​

For a short while, some food grade plastics are okay to use in storing honey. However, in the long run, there is always the possibility of chemicals leaching from the plastic into the honey. You don’t want that to happen.

Honey stored for longer than a few months in a plastic bottle is subject to being spoiled, in color, texture, taste and aroma.

Glass is definitely the way to store your honey for decades.

​

What about storing honey in metal containers?

Outside of stainless steel, food grade containers, metal should not be used at all when it comes to storing honey. Honey is acidic, with a pH ranging from 3.5 to 5.5, depending on the source.

Keep honey in a room temperature area away from direct sunlight. Do not refrigerate.

​

Does honey expire?

You said not to store honey in metal..what about using a metal spoon to dip honey?

You can use a metal spoon because you will probably have the honey on your metal spoon for less and 2 seconds certainly not enough time for oxidation to occur but a dipper is designed especially for honey because:

A honey dipper releases a slow and steady dribble, allowing you to get an even coating of honey. It is also difficult to keep honey on a spoon without it dribbling down the side of your honey jar and over your kitchen counter. ... Traditionally, a honey dipper is stored in the pot with the honey.

​

How to use a honey dipper

Dip It! – dip the honey wand into your honey jar at an angle.

Cover it! – Cover the tip of the honey dipper in honey. ...

Twist it – Slowly twist the handle of the dipper while lifting the tip out of the honey. Continue to twist. ...

Drip it! – To release the honey simply stop twisting.