Why honey does not smell like honey: reasons and what should be the smell of a natural product

The main advantage of honey is not only a delicacy, but also a he althy product. Therefore, the question of quality is not at all idle. You can define "authenticity" by various criteria: taste, texture, color, smell. Sometimes buyers are worried about the problem - why homemade honey does not smell like honey. Since peculiar or foreign odors may indicate a counterfeit product.

Why does honey smell?

Volatile substances (esters, alcohols, aldehydes) give a peculiar smell to the honey product. When stored for a long time, aromatic substances evaporate, and usually the smell comes out when you open a container with a treat or when you add sweetness to hot tea.

But sometimes there is disappointment when the product smells like urine. The reasons for this may be different: the substance was heated several times, poorly stored. Sometimes even a fresh product can give off a slight smell of manure. This effect is observed if unripe honey that has fermented was pumped, or bees collected pollen from plants with a specific smell (black maple).

How to distinguish natural honey differently

External evaluation of a product is often not enough to make sure it is natural or free of extraneous additives. There are several popular ways to test the quality of sweets at home:

• if a portion of “pure” honey is heated in a 50% alcohol solution, the product will almost completely dissolve. The appearance of precipitation, cloudiness of the solution means the presence of impurities (most often starch, grape sugar);
• Sprinkle honey drop with starch. If the powder retains the appearance of a white “cap”, then the delicacy does not contain impurities. Unnatural additives will most often react with starch;
• a small portion of sweetness is placed on paper. The product, diluted with water, forms a liquid spot on the paper surface or even leaks through the sheet. And natural sweetness will “lie unchanged”;
• pure, without impurities, honey turns into a clear liquid when heated. Cloudiness of the heated product indicates the presence of additives;
• formation of foam on the surface means that the nectar was pumped unripe or fermented;
• a few drops of iodine are dripped into the product diluted with warm water. The appearance of a blue tint in a substance means the presence of starch.

Assessing the delicacy, you need to consider the possibility of the presence of particles of wax, pollen, propolis or perga.

The smell of a fresh product is peculiar, even somewhat sharp, and there are tart notes in the taste.

Foreign odors

The treat may smell atypical. The presence of unpleasant odors can be due to several reasons:

• presence of the smell of manure can be explained by the proximity of the apiary to the farms, and honey absorbs foreign odors well;
• some beekeepers observed that the bees ate caramel, molasses from tanks stored on the railway tracks. Naturally, under such conditions, the honey product will smell like caramel;
• if you put a red-hot knife into a treat and take it out, nothing will remain on the tip. Fake sweetness forms a burnt product at the tip;
• The aroma of unripened honey has slight notes of sourness. Such a delicacy does not store well;
• sometimes there are peculiar medicinal notes in the aroma. This situation arises when treating moth frames with chemicals or in the case of treating bees shortly before pumping nectar.

Therefore, the beekeeper must carefully use medicinal and chemical preparations and carefully select the location of the hives.

How real honey should smell

The aroma of the delicacy depends on several factors (weather conditions, abundance of flowering), but most often it is determined by the type of plants from which the bees collected nectar:

• buckwheat flowers, coriander give sweetness spicy notes;
• Special smell comes from pollen collected from flowering chestnut trees;
• thin fragrant notes of nectar provide flowering linden, acacia, clover;
• meadow honey, May honey, from herbs is distinguished by a rich floral aroma.

When choosing a treat, you need to take into account that most often sweetness does not have a pronounced aroma. A substance stored in an open container quickly loses its distinctive honey flavor.

Beekeepers provide consumers with a choice of sweet product for every taste. In order not to make a mistake with the purchase, you need to carefully choose the sweetness, taking into account its characteristics. When in doubt, it's a good idea to do a little test of the treat at home.

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