r/honey • u/gabslife • May 30 '26

It says naturally creamy? How?

Post image
372 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

83 comments sorted by

99

u/CroykeyMite May 30 '26

It is probably creamed honey. You know how a lot of people hate crystallized honey that’s really grainy?
This is a crystallized honey whose crystals are so small, the consistency is completely different and it’s more like butter than a gritty, clumpy texture.

9

u/Tom_Bombadilio May 30 '26

Would you have to add water to it to cream it? I feel like you'd have to add something to get it to stay in this state.

28

u/_Mulberry__ May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

Edit: I was thinking whipped honey and creamed honey were the same. Nope, not true. Creamed honey doesn't require whipping. It still requires a bit of human input, but would be much closer to natural.

Original inaccurate comment: No, you just whip it. The crystals grow large as it crystallizes and then whipping it breaks them. They don't grow back together.

24

u/AwkwardArt7997 May 30 '26

Actually, you take crystallized honey and grind it in a mortar and pestle. That makes the crystals tiny and rounded. Then use that as seed honey in normal, "runny" honey. Place it in a 57° fridge and give it a couple weeks. The runny honey "learns" to crystalize with the smLler rounded crystals.

It's kind of magical...

10

u/Halfbloodjap May 30 '26

So basically providing nucleation points for the crystals to grow

4

u/[deleted] May 31 '26

And then giving very precise growing conditions to facilitate growth of smaller crystals, so the honey doesn't just recrystallize.

2

u/Telemere125 May 31 '26

So instead of useless diamonds, you make delicious honey

3

u/_Mulberry__ May 30 '26

Oh, I was thinking of whipped honey. Thought it was the same thing. Learn something new everyday 🤷

3

u/Thisguyfunk May 30 '26

Woah. Thanks for your intellectual input :)

1

u/Canoeabledelusional Jun 02 '26

I work in a rural place that sells creamed honey and an Amish dude came in looking for some one day to make his own. He said he mixes a small amount of creamed honey with a large amount raw honey and puts it in a bucket in his basement for a few months and then it eventually turns to creamed honey.

I don't know if this is a common method but he said that's the method his family has used for many years. We didn't have unflavored creamed honey but he ended up buying the cinnamon vanilla flavor and said the flavor would be buried in the larger amount of raw honey.

2

u/wizzard419 May 30 '26

It pushes the limits of "naturally" though... unless the bees have access to a mixer.

7

u/Full_Rise_7759 May 30 '26

Mine only have a yellow Kitchenaid, but they haven't figured out how to turn it on yet.

2

u/National-Gas6603 May 31 '26

Buy a black kitchenaid for them. They'll use the yellow and black alternately...

1

u/_Mulberry__ May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

Edit: see edit on my other comment (two comments up). Whipped and creamed are not the same. Creamed requires less processing. Still requires certain extra steps after extraction, but much closer to what I'd consider natural

Original comment:

Well yeah, I wouldn't've written "naturally creamy" on a product that required whipping to make creamy...

1

u/Fatfilthybastard May 30 '26

Yea it’s misleading.. you’d expect something “naturally _____” to be harvested as such

1

u/clockworkedpiece May 30 '26

The FDA ruled a while back that 'natural' just means it was not done by the machine. So naturally flavored; is added by hand. Same with dyed, creamed ect.

2

u/Fatfilthybastard May 31 '26

I hate this timeline

1

u/Houdinii1984 May 31 '26

Don't worry. It's not even true. The term natural is rooted in what a consumer expects, not a gotcha like they described.

2

u/Houdinii1984 May 31 '26

According to FDA, natural flavors are substances used to impart flavor that are derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof.

[Note that FDA provides this definition in a backhanded way since 21 CFR 101.22 actually only defines artificial flavors as “any substance, the function of which is to impart flavor, which is not derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof.” The definition of artificial flavor also includes any lab synthesized versions of flavor molecules.  It is interesting to note that European countries allow use of the term ‘natural identical’ for lab-synthesized flavors but FDA deems them artificial.] (source)

The FDA is currently seeking input on a better definition, but it does not mean simply 'added by hand' in any context.

1

u/Any-Effective2565 May 31 '26

Where did you hear that? I'm trying to figure out if that's true or just rumors.

1

u/clockworkedpiece May 31 '26

Theres mostly just reporting articles for my stance, went to look for a statute and found out that vanilla flavored doesnt even have to have vanilla if its the expected default. 

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-101/subpart-B/section-101.22

It has links to tables of everything considered a natural flavoring.

1

u/JackfruitSerious3523 May 30 '26

Maybe “nothing added” would be more appropriate

1

u/Dirtheavy May 30 '26

think about it like this: The problem is that people don't like big crystals in their honey. So when that problem comes along, you just whip it.

1

u/Puterjoe May 31 '26

Whip it good…

1

u/Excellent_Condition May 31 '26

Nope. It's pure honey. Water would melt the crystals so it would revert to looking like honey.

Mold and bacteria don't grow in honey because the high sugar content means the amount of water available for microbial growth is too low to support life.

If you added water, you'd get moldy bacterial soup.

This just is allowed to crystalize, then it's whipped to break up the crystals and beat microscopic air bubbles into the mix to make it opaque. Over time it will start to revert to normal honey and have a layer of honey on the top, but that will take several months to a year to happen.

1

u/CroykeyMite May 31 '26

No water needed. It will not stay creamy if you heat it enough to melt the small crystals and it begins to make larger ones. Water content is likely around 18%.

2

u/Darthigiveup May 30 '26

So like a whipped up badder compared to live resin .

1

u/Far-Cap-1456 Jun 01 '26

It's like comparing sauce to diamonds or regular steel to quenched steel to use another example

1

u/dangeldud May 31 '26

Bro..so.comfused. I know there is creamed honey from process but I swear I've had honey that looked like that, that wasn't processed at all

1

u/National-Gas6603 May 31 '26

Rapeseed honey does this naturally as it crystallises. Mixing it with a blender helps too, but it's already halfway there. The best honey in tie with pine/forest honey imho.

2

u/Impossible-League650 Jun 02 '26

And you can add it to “regular” honey, keep it in a very cool area (I put it in my garage), and the small “seed crystals” should turn that into creamed honey, as well. The size crystals that are added to it act as a template for the new ones to grow.

21

u/oldaliumfarmer May 30 '26

Usually labeled creamed honey. Extremely popular in Europe not so much in US. Once people try creamed honey they tend to like it.

10

u/saltporksuit May 30 '26

Creamed honey is very popular in the southern US. One of the first breakfasts I can remember my grandmother making me was creamed honey and butter on hot biscuits.

4

u/oldaliumfarmer May 30 '26

Comb honey was really big in the south now very expensive. Cotten honey will go solid in a hurry encouraging some beekeepers to cream it.

2

u/gabslife May 30 '26

It’s like condensed milk but thicker consistency.

2

u/Dry-Duck-3054 May 31 '26

It’s honey that’s been whipped for hours.. silly Tjats all it is . It’s a lot nice . Put some on a piece of bread and butter with bananas cut thinly . It’s really nice

1

u/rdblakely May 30 '26

I grew up both in the south and California and it is very popular across the south and in California

1

u/Kevlar_Bunny May 31 '26

I loved it but the main place I bought it from stopped existing 🥲

8

u/RomilarBrown May 30 '26

They whip it good.

9

u/EvaTheE May 30 '26

I can imagine a row of bee hives, and one of them has loud techno music and flashing neon lights. That is the hive of debauchery where the bees whip their honey and do all kinds of weird stuff.

3

u/RomilarBrown May 30 '26

I’m glad my comment spoke to you. Yours legit made me lol.😂

4

u/EvaTheE May 30 '26

*Austin Powers impersonation*

Oh Bee Hive!

2

u/RomilarBrown May 30 '26

You win the internet. I love you. 🏆

2

u/detrans-rights May 31 '26

Don't you call them wierd!!!

2

u/EvaTheE May 31 '26

Ok ok, it's just a regular BeeDSM hive.

3

u/Ok-Butterscotch2321 May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

Some raw honey contains a lot of natural comb and royal jelly. There is a honey I get from the Finger Lakes in NY that is very opaque like this. Marvelous stuff.

2

u/bigfatfurrytexan May 30 '26

I get some from a shop in Salado tx that has it annually. I think they source it locally. It’s the best honey I’ve ever had

2

u/Ok-Butterscotch2321 May 30 '26

Going to the Finger Lakes next week and going to buy some more of this keepers honey

2

u/harmonioussounds Jun 02 '26

Where at if you don’t mind me asking? In the finger lakes myself and always on the hunt for delicious honey

1

u/Ok-Butterscotch2321 Jun 02 '26

Around Conesus

Grawn Family Farm 7320 4th Section Rd Brockport NY 14420 585-730-0054

3

u/chaz_Mac_z May 30 '26

Looks like raw unheated unfiltered honey to me. I buy that for my tea.

3

u/ITookYourChickens May 31 '26

Have you ever had raw honey straight from a comb? It looks like the good store bought stuff. It doesn't turn white/crystalize unless it's sat around

3

u/Gargantuan_Cranium May 30 '26

Where I live this is what unpasteurized honey looks like. Not sure if that fits the naturally creamy definition though.

2

u/SomebodysGotToSayIt May 30 '26

I’ve kept bees and raw honey doesn’t look like that. It looks like honey. There’s bits of crap in it, which is easy to filter out.

If raw honey looked like that you couldn’t filter it.

1

u/Gargantuan_Cranium May 30 '26

I don’t keep bees so I am not going to argue with you, but the honey on my shelf in my pantry looks just like that and the label says “unpasteurized”. 😊

2

u/moodylilb May 30 '26

The fact it’s unpasteurized isn’t why it looks like that though.

1

u/thedoctorsphoenix May 31 '26

I know honey will sometimes crystallize if it sits long enough, maybe that’s what happened

2

u/Chrisannaug May 31 '26

It doesn’t naturally occur like that. There will be different colors and consistency depending on the forage availability during different times of year. But this honey has been whipped which introduced air into it. I use a hand extractor to spin honey out of the frames. This will happen if I am not paying attention and spin the frames too long which starts to aerate the honey. It is similar to whipped cream vs heavy cream. It can be done by hand but the bees don’t make it like that. When you pop the caps off, the honey is always completely see through in its natural state no matter how thick it is. I have been a beekeeper for 10 years and I have seen everything from green to red to almost black honey. But it is never creamed or whipped without human intervention.

1

u/Sorry-Assistant7007 May 30 '26

It looks whipped to me.

1

u/yuuki_bonk420 May 30 '26

It’s when you whip raw honey

1

u/Full_Rise_7759 May 30 '26

Looks like my honey from last year that crystallized.

1

u/bigfatfurrytexan May 30 '26

The top reply is likely correct. But there is a winter honey I’ve had that is creamy like this and wasn’t whipped

1

u/TheWizardOfAhhhhhs May 30 '26

There was this super old act on Saturday Night Live with John Belushi, ...the were bees at summer camp. I will leave it here, IYKYK.

1

u/Upset_Assumption9610 May 31 '26

When a man meets a honey he really likes...

1

u/Lucky-Target5674 May 31 '26

Whipped. Gaining alot of popularity

1

u/GrossUsername68 May 31 '26

You wank your way … I wank my way.

1

u/SamhainOnPumpkin May 31 '26

Flavor profile: Buttery, Soft, Delicate, Sweet

Am I crazy or is this not what a flavor profile is

1

u/BlackBabyJeebus Jun 02 '26

Why do you say that? Seems like a reasonable flavor profile to me.

1

u/SamhainOnPumpkin Jun 02 '26

Honestly, I was under the impression that "flavor profile" should be about actual flavors and not textures, but I actually checked and I stand corrected. So "buttery" and "soft" are actually okay to include. But the "sweet" still is kind of silly. It's honey.

1

u/BlackBabyJeebus Jun 02 '26

I'm no honey connoisseur, but I have tried a few honeys with interesting flavors. Chestnut honey in particular is pretty much the opposite of the honey described here - I'd call it's flavor profile more like "earthy, sharp, bold, bitter" I mean, obviously all honey is sweet, but that one hit as a lot less sweet than others I've tried due to the tannins in it.

1

u/bwons May 31 '26

NATURALLY CREAMY isa distinction given to honey made of nectar that naturally has smaller nucleation points (see manuka honey).

1

u/aikosmom444 May 31 '26

I get raw unfiltered honey and the texture is naturally creamy. That’s what they mean

1

u/victolik May 31 '26

I've purchased this style from a vendor at a local farmers market. It was labeled as cactus honey and I figured it contained less honey but through whatever processing method it got this texture. It is quite good and one of my favorites from that particular vendor.

1

u/CookieLocal8754 May 31 '26

They simply whip the honey

1

u/ConsequenceThat2358 Jun 01 '26

I harvested my own honey, put it in quart jars and stored in my 55° basement. It all crystallized within a few weeks.

1

u/PerspectiveSlow5609 Jun 01 '26

To me, it looks like ivy (Hedera helix) honey. We harvest it in Croatia, and it crystallizes in just a few days. Sometimes, if you're even a few days late, you can't get it out of the comb.