What exactly is Honey?

Well to define it honey is a viscous and sweet fluid produced by honeybees from the nectar of flowers. According to the United States National Honey Board 2003, "The definition of honey stipulates a pure product that does not permit for the addition of any other substances at all. This does include, but is not limited to, water or other sweeteners." What we're talking about here refers exclusively to the honey manufactured by honeybees (the genus Apis); honey created by other bees or other insects has very different properties.

Honey is considerably sweeter than table sugar and has attractive chemical properties for baking and cooking. Honey has a distinct flavour which leads many people to favour it over sugar and other sweeteners.

Liquid honey doesn’t spoil. You see, because of its high sugar strength, it kills bacteria by plasmolysis. Natural airborne yeasts are unable to become active in it for the reason that the moisture content is too low. Natural, raw honey varies from  appx 14% to 18% moisture content. For as long as the moisture content stays under 18%, practically no organism can effectively proliferate to significant amounts in honey.

 The research of spores and pollens in raw honey (melissopalynology) can establish floral sources of honey. Because bees bear an electrostatic charge, and can therefore can attract other particles, the same techniques of melissopalynology can be utilized in area ecological studies of radioactive particles, dust, or particulate pollution.

Perhaps the main effect of bees gathering nectar to make honey is pollination, which is vital for all flowering plants.

Monofloral honey. This is a type of honey that has  higher value in the marketplace. Why? Well, it has a distinctive flavour owing to its being largely from the nectar of a single plant species. While all honeys do have at least some medicinal value, Manuka honey  continually has been shown to have higher antibacterial activity than the other tested honeys.

The Manuka Tree

Leptospermum scoparium (Manuka or Tea tree) is a small tree or shrub native to New Zealand and the southeast of Australia. It is found right throughout New Zealand but is particularly widespread on the drier eastern coasts of the North Island and the South Island, as well as in Australia in Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria. Manuka is the Māori (indigenous New Zealanders) name used in New Zealand, and tea tree is the more common name used in Australia and perhaps to a lesser extent in New Zealand.

It is an abundant scrub-type tree and is frequently one of the first species to regenerate on cleared soil. Typically it is a shrub rising to 2-5 m tall, but it can grow into a moderately sized tree, even up to 15 m or so in height. The Tea Tree is evergreen, with dense branches and the small leaves being 7-20 mm long and roughly  2-6 mm broad, with a short spine tip. The flowers of the shrub are mostly white and occasionally pink, about 8-15 mm (rarely up to 25 mm) diameter. It has five petals.

The wood is hard and tough, and was frequently used for tool handles. The sawdust from the Manuka tree gives a delicious flavour when used for smoking fish and meats. Manuka honey, produced when the honeybees are busy gathering the nectar from its flowers, is quite distinctively flavoured, darker in color and richer in taste than regular clover honey. It has a high antibacterial potency whose properties are now being used in hospitals.