RAW AND PURE HONEY

The finest selection of raw honeys, propolis and pollen, mainly from Spanish local beekeepers all over Spain.

Summary: Raw honey is a fantastic food that we have been taking for millennia. Furhtermore, it is rich in vitamins and other nutrients that provides great health benefits. Also, in our store in Las Rozas de Madrid we offer a fantastic selection of high-quality honeys from local beekeepers all over Spain. Honeys from eucalyptus, lavender, rosemary, thyme, etc.

Related studies: Where to buy raw bee honey-Unpasteurized raw honey-The best designations of origin for honey-The most expensive honeys in the world.

1. Our selection of raw honeys

Firstly, we show you the most important information about our raw and pure honey:

a) Highest quality: 100% raw honey

All the honey that we offer in our shop is raw honey, that is to say, honey that has not been filtered and pasteurized. Therefore, real honey that preserves all the natural enzimes, pollen and floral essence.

b) Colour

The color and taste of honey depend on the plants that bees have visited. Consequently, the color of honey can vary from very light almost white colours to dark and even to black color. Furthermore, many of them take amber colour with reddish, grayish or greenish reflections. However, these variations of color depend on suspended particles like pollen and minerals.

In addition, we show you a table with the different colours that you can find in a real honey.

Photo 1: Colour grading of honey

c) Certify the quality

Furthermore, we have visited all our beekeepers, their packing rooms and their apiaries, in order to ensure they follow sustainables and responsible beekeeping practices. Likewise, we have checked their certificates, especially in organic beekeeping.

d) Ecological and conventional

We offer both organic certified and conventional honey of high-quality.

e) No advisables consumers

Do not feed honey to infants under two years old. Also, people suffering from diabetes should also be careful and ask a doctor.

f) Gift of nature

Moreover, honey is one of the few foods that nature gives us, where no living being suffers.

g) Government controls

Similarly, all the honey  has passed all spanish state controls laws.

h) Beekeeping and sustainable production

When we visit the apiaries and meet the beekeepers, wemake sure that all environment and animal wellfare care have been taken.

Photo 2: Bee poem

i) Rural development

In addition, beekeeping play a important rolle in rural areas and in our our natural environment. They are esential for the polinization of crops and labor creation of rural areas.

2. Raw and pure beehoney 

Pure and raw honey is a natural product that comes from plants through the intermediary of bees. Plants supply food to bees in two ways:

• The nectar produced by the flowers of the plants
• By substances exuded by insects and stingers, called myelates.

a) How is honey elaborted?

First of all, the bees collect nectar and myelates from plants, keep them in their crop. At the same time , transporting pollen from the flower to flower and carrying out the olinitation.

Also, in the bee’s crop, the raw material is mixed with its saliva, which fluidizes it and enriches it with enzymes, and with biochemical catalysts that participate in the transformation of honey sugars. Then, once the bee has filled its crop, it moves to the hive, in order to empty the contents in the rest of the beehive.

Video 1: Honey production

Then, once the pecorator bees bring it to the hive, they pass the nectar to their sister bees one to another. In the same way, this nectar or honeydew is passed from one to the other. Therefore, it goes from stomach to stomach in order to enrich it, lower its content in water and transform it into honey.

b) The time of harvesting

Finally, bees put this nectar which could already be honey in the cells of the hive.  Here, its water content decreases even more in contact with outside temperture. After, when it reaches a sugar concentration between 70 and 80%, bees make to seal off this honey in each cell. In this moment honey is the ready for harvesting. Approximately when 80% of the cells are sealed off, the honey is at its optimum moment.

c) Practices against quality

Some beekeepers, in order to obtain higher yields, harvest honey from before is ready. In other words, this honey is not made yet and has a higher water content. These practices can ferment the honey due to its high water concentration. In addition, this is honey with more water that it should have, a honey of lower quality.

In another hand, we work with beekeepers which are commited with the quality. Also, our beekeepers are involved in every steps, from managing the hives, to bottling the honey. Consequently, garanting the best qualitythey make sure that we offer the finest raw honey.

“Obtained in a natural and environmentally friendly way”.

Photo 3: Unoperated honeycomb 

d) Symbiotic relation

Flowers provide bees with food, but they receive polinitation in return, so they make a symbiotic relationship. When the bees collect nectar from the flowers, the bees soak up pollen. When the bee visits another flower, it spreads the pollen on other flowers and fertilizes them. In this way, the plant gives food to the bee, but it has to spend less energy to produce large amounts of pollen as anemophilous plants do, which transport their pollen with the wind.

e) How to differentiate them?

How to differentiate a high-quality honey with a low quality or adulterated honey. The answer is easy when adulteration is very clear, but it is not so easy, when the adulteration is more sophisticated. In general, when we buy a raw honey, we have to take into account the following points

1. If it is crystallized, it indicates its high-quality
2. It has a great flavor
3. It can’t be very liquid.
4. Avoid very low prices
5. Trying to buy honey from local beekeepers

In another words, these would be 5 basic points to ensure that the honey you buy is a high-quality raw honey. However, you can find more information in our article “Raw unpasteurized honey”.

3. Ecological or organic honey

Secondly, many of us wonder if there are differences between organic and conventional honey. From the visual and taste point of view there is no difference, but there is a difference in terms of quality control and production characteristics.

a) What is organic honey? Differences between organic and conventional honey

Organic honey is honey with a organic certificate. To get this certificate, beehives must follow a stricter guidelines of ecologial beekeeping. For example, they should bring his hives to organic fields and use only organic treatments. Consequently, organic beekeeping must comply with more stricter environmental requirements and controls than conventional honey.

In summary, the differences between organic and conventional honey are  how beekeepers work and the honey bees are kept.

Furthermore, it must be taken into account that bees cannot survive without human control. The diseases they suffer will eventually kill the entire hive if left untreated. Therefore, a hive must always be treated even in remote places.

b) Honey with more governmental control only?

Organic or ecological honey uses only organic products, such as thymol in the care of its bees. Conventional honey, on the other hand, may use chemical or pharmaceutical products, although all chemical products are controlled by a veterinarian.

Table 1: Differences between the different types of honey.

“The finest selection of organic and non-organic honeys”.

4. Composition of raw and pure honey:

Honey is composed primarly of glucose and fructose, but also contains other components. However, this composition varies, depending on several factors. Factors that we will see below:

1. Floral source or source of myelate
2. Soil conditions
3. Race of bees
4. Bee health status
5. Time of year, etc.

In general, the honeys coming from myelates (heather, forest, holm oak, oak…) are darker honeys than the light honeys, which come from the nectar of the flowers (orange blossom honey, rosemary, thyme, eucalyptus…). Likewise, dark honeys have a high concentration of minerals. On the other hand, light honeys are richer in nectar and antioxidants.

Specifying a little more, in honey we find the following nutrients:

Firstly, the composition of honey can be divided into two groups, the main element, sugar that sccountd for 95 to 99% of honey dry matter. Also,  it contains many other components.

a) Primarly components:

On average, the major components are as follows:

Table 2: Primarly components of honey.

Quality honeys are usually 17% water, although the legal limit is 21%. Likewise, in the case of the calluna (heather) honey, its humidity usually reaches 23%.

On the other hand, the set of sugars constitutes between 95 and 99% of all dry matter.

b) Other components

Minor components: organic acids, amino acids and proteins, enzymes (glucose invertase, glucose oxidase, amylases α and β from bee saliva, large amount of water-soluble vitamins, carotenoid pigments (red), flavonoids (yellow) and minerals.

5. Properties of honey:

First of all, honey is a completely natural product with enormous medicinal and healthy properties. Therefore, a food that everyone should take daily.

Among the most important properties, we can name the following:

• Pure honey help to cures or reduces intestinal problems, stomach ulcers, help to fall asleep, constipation, sore throat.
• It is an important source of energy and gives muscle vigor.
• In its external use, it is ideal for healing burns, wounds. Its high content in sugars and the enzyme glucose-oxidase, causes the release of hydrogen peroxide along with low water content, provides bactericidal and antiseptic conditions.

In addition to many other properties that are known by traditional wisdom, but that science has not yet demonstrated.

6. Where to buy raw or pure honey?

In other hands, finding pure honey on the market isn’t that easy. Especially if you’re looking for it in supermarkets where most of honey sold is pasteurized honey.

Therefore, in our shop located in Las Rozas de Madrid, you can find also a fantastic selection of pure and raw honey from Spain and Europe. They all come from serious and honest local beekeepers. As a result, we offer only real honey.

Table 3: Different options to buy quality honey.

* We have to inform who to buy from, because on the internet it sells low as high quality.

7. Our brands and beekeepers

We have selected beekeepers who are committed to quality, respectful and sustainable beekeeping practices. We only only offer high-quality honey, so everything in our store is real raw honey. In summary, we work with the following beekeepers:

Antonio Simón	Apícola Moreno	Como una Reina	Obreras de Aliste
Phone number: 91 620 90 47 E-Mail: correo@miel-antoniosimon.com Webpage: miel-antoniosimon.com/	Phone number: 949 28 10 21	Phone number:  962 260 384 Webpage: www.comounareina.com	Phone number: 619 94 55 94 Webpage: www.lasobrerasdealiste.es E-mail: info@lasobrerasdealiste.es
Madrid	Guadalaja, no Do La Alcarria	Valencia	Zamora

Table 4: Beekeepers we work with.

More companies we work with.

Rancho Cortesano	Rika	Valderromero	Sala-Higón
Phone number: 956 23 75 28 E-Mail: miel@eanchocortesano.net Webpage: www.ranchocortesano.net	Phone number: 622 437 753 Web page: www.rikamiel.com E-mail: rika@rikamiel.com	Phone number:  962 260 384 Webpage: www.comounareina.com	Phone number: 962 52 74 27 Webpage: latiendadelamiel.com E-mail: info@lasobrerasdealiste.es
Cádiz	Tenerife	La Alcarria, Guadalajara	Valencia

Table 5: Beekeepers we work with.

All our beekeepers handles all steps from harvest to bottling

a) More brands

In Spain there are also thousands of beekeepers spread all over the country. We have selected these, and in the future we will add some more. This does not detract from the fact that you can also find other quality honeys.

Photo 4: Our shop in Las Rozas de Madrid

7. FAQ

In addition, these are frequently asked questions:

• Is honey good for your health?

Honey is a natural product that contains minerals and vitamins, which are very beneficial to health.

• How can I make it crystallize before?

If we want to accelerate the crystallization, we must put the jar at a temperature close to 14 celsius degrees. At other temperatures it is delayed, and in case of high temperatures it liquifies.

• Are these all Spanish honeys?

Almost all the honeys we sell are Spanish, but there are some from other countries. For instance, we bring honey from Germany, New Zeland, Hungary, Poland, Portugal….

• Are all the honeys you sell here really Spanish?

We have visited almost all our beekeepers, their facilities and apiaries in order to ensure the highest quality of the honey we sell. For this reason, we can tell you that we sell real high-quality honey.

• What consistency does it usually arrive with?

It depends on the variety and the time of the year. The dark honeys always arrive liquid, the rest of the honeys are sometimes solidified, with the exception of summer, when the heat makes them almost all liquid.

• Can we heat honey?

If honey is heated in an infusion or coffee, it loses some properties, but few. However, the real problem is ti heat honey for long periods of time, as happens with pasteurised honeys.

• Are our honeys kosher?

Any of our honeys have kosher certificate.

Sources:

The english media BBC

 “Finally, for more information, please do not doubt to contact us. Further, we are pleased to help you”.