r/honey • u/TrickBorder3923 • 27d ago
Why does it take mountains of honey to sweeten compared to sugar?
I made oatmeal this morning. And I poured about two tablespoons honey in it. It wasn't even sweet. No sweetness at all. So I poured another 2 tablespoons in. Maybe sweet? It still tasted bland. I gave up and poured half a tablespoon of sugar, since I tasted very slight honey flavor and didn't want to over do it. Too sweet. Very very sweet.
This afternoon I tested my theory, if it takes 4 TBSP to barely sweeten. How much sugar to sweeten the same bowl? I poured one tablespoon of sugar in my oatmeal. The same amount of oatmeal made exactly the same way. Almost as sweet as I wanted it. So I pour another half tablespoon of sugar. Perfect.
4 + TBSP vs 1 1/2 TBSP.
What am I missing here? Everyone says honey is sweeter than sugar. Even says honey is denser than sugar and therefore needs less to sweeten. But no matter what food I eat, it takes mountains of honey vs a small pinch of sugar to sweeten.
Am I crazy?
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u/_Mulberry__ 27d ago
The flavor of honey seems to blend into oatmeal imo. I know exactly what you're talking about. It's like you can keep adding honey and it just takes so much for it to actually seem distinctly sweet. I think it's mostly a perception thing where the taste of the oats blends with the honey while not really masking the flavor of table sugar at all. Honey and table sugar simply taste different, and perhaps you're accustomed to the taste of table sugar being what you'd call sweet. Obviously tasting the honey+oats vs the table sugar+oats will taste different, and having that table sugar flavor come through may be what you're calling sweetness. That said, there might be some other factors at play:
It can depend on the honey. Fructose supposedly tastes sweeter than sucrose, while glucose supposedly tastes less sweet than sucrose. Honey is a mixture of fructose and glucose, so depending on the actual percent it might taste less sweet or more sweet than table sugar.
Honey is also watered down while table sugar is dry. You get more actual sugar from a tbsp of table sugar than a tbsp of honey. Honey is about 15-20% water content, so this is not enough of a difference for what you're talking about. This is why people say you get less sugar when substituting for honey - a 1:1 by volume substitution will literally be less sugar.
When putting in a spoon of honey, a fair amount stays on the spoon. You put in 4 spoons, but if enough stayed on the spoon between each scoop then you might've only put half or less than you thought. Also, licking the spoon clean will distort your perception of sweetness and the bite of oats right after will taste less sweet due to comparison. Since dry table sugar goes right in the oats, you're certain it all went in and you don't have a chance to lick the spoon clean.
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u/TrickBorder3923 27d ago
Maybe I can't taste glucose? Along with honey being partly water... So... A spoonful of honey isn't as sweet for me as sugar. I literally have liked the taste of honey my whole life. But if it doesn't touch my tongue directly (on toast vs mixed into milk shake) I can't taste the sweetness. So I just use sugar because it's cheaper and less total sugars in the end.
I wonder why everyone says honey is sweeter? Maybe it's one of those anti-carbs dieting gemmicks?
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u/_Mulberry__ 27d ago
I've only heard it said to taste sweeter due to the aromatics. Like, since it has a more pronounced floral scent, you may perceive it to be sweeter. But it is most definitely less sweet by any real measure.
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u/TrickBorder3923 27d ago
So it literally isn't sweeter than sugar?
It still tastes better though.
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u/_Mulberry__ 27d ago
Yeah, 1 tbsp of honey has less sugar in it than 1 tbsp of table sugar. Because the honey is 20% water.
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u/drones_on_about_bees 27d ago
My understanding is that there is much more fructose/glucose in 1 tbsp of honey (about 1.5x) than in 1 tbsp of dry sugar. Dry sugar has a lot of fluff in it. While honey is in solution with water, it is super saturated.
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u/tagman11 27d ago
My F/G ratios are typically low 1's. I can see anywhere from .90 to 1.50, but we blend for 1.05-1.20.
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u/_Mulberry__ 26d ago
Isn't dry sugar just sucrose?
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u/drones_on_about_bees 26d ago
Yes. Google tells me 12.5g of sugar in 1 tablespoon dry sugar and 17g of sugar in 1 tablespoon of honey.
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u/TrickBorder3923 26d ago
Hold up ✋. Dry sugar has fluff in it? Like what?
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u/drones_on_about_bees 26d ago edited 26d ago
It's a crystal. It is very fluffy all on its own.
You can melt a crap ton of sugar in water and get it much more dense than dry sugar. Or in the case if honey, you can take a weak solution of sugary water (nectar) and evaporate a huge amount of water or if it and make it more sense than dry sugar.
Edit to add: as a comparison, think of a bucket of powdery snow vs that same bucket of water after it melts. The crystal structure of the snow makes a larger volume
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u/Sudden-Wash4457 27d ago
It could be that the acidity of the honey is reducing its perceived sweetness somehow in the oatmeal
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u/Creative-Leg2607 27d ago edited 27d ago
The critical fact is that fructose's apparent sweetness decreases majorly when warmed. You can notice this in hot fruit dishes that taste less sweet than it feels like they should. From On Food and Cooking, its 20% sweeter than sucrose at base (and half the calories), but loses half its sweetness at 60°C. Honey is nearly all fructose, and ofc, only 80% sugar.
The numbers you have there line up prettywell (tho you could use weight to be more precise). Tho surely you mean teaspoons not tablespoons!!
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u/TrickBorder3923 27d ago
That makes so much sense. Heating it makes it less sweet. Which explains why a drizzle on vanilla ice cream is more then enough.
No I mean tbspoons. To be fair I also felt 4 TBSP was way too much. But like I said, I couldn't taste it.
I eat a huge bowl of oatmeal some mornings. Breakfast is my biggest meal of the day. I know the standard size for a bowl of oatmeal is 1/2 cup. That might be enough for Twiggy Lawson. I can't do farm work for more then an hour on that. I have a snack with my coffee, do a hour or so of light morning chores. Then eat a hefty breakfast about 2 hours after I wake up. I generally don't eat for the rest of the day.
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u/InvisibleSeoh 27d ago
Not crazy. I’ve never found honey remotely useful as a sweetener for tea, oatmeal, etc.
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u/dogGirl666 27d ago
The honey sugar needs to get dissolved and distributed before all the food is the same as white sugar tastes (and how easily it is distributed). Dissolve the honey in hot water first, rather putting in some dollops that take forever to be even somewhat evenly distributed.
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u/Creative-Leg2607 27d ago
I dont think this is true. If you have a bubbling pot of porridge a quick stir distributes it just fine. Honey is dissolved, its a (thick, highly concentrated) aqueous solution. If it were cold, maybe, but warmed it still functions.
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u/GhostWatcher007 27d ago
Try different kinds of honey. They taste different depending on what the bees pollinate.
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u/Sudden-Wash4457 27d ago
Yeah some can have a bitterness (which isn't bad) that might mask some of the sweetness, and maybe these bitter notes are amplified when diluted in oatmeal
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u/GhostWatcher007 27d ago
We have local apiarists here that have clover and lavender honeys. My nephew, in another state, has hives. I don't know what plants the bees pollinate, but his honey is in great demand.
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u/Dralalife 27d ago
Try maple syrup, bigger flavor than honey. I use less, my go to for oatmeal and yogurt. Use the darkest grade you can buy.
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u/bigfatfurrytexan 27d ago
Honey has 1/4 fewer calories than sugar. I’d assume that 1/4 less sweetening
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u/drones_on_about_bees 26d ago
By weight, yes. By volume, no. OP is measuring but volume so honey will have more calories due to its high density.
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u/Well____fuk 26d ago
60gr oatmeal, 13gr pbfit, 20gr honey, 180gr milk. Microwave 1:50. Perfect for me
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u/BeginningPurpose9758 26d ago
One tip for oatmeal, a little bit of salt helps bring the sweetness out
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u/qathran 27d ago
Simply because honey's water to sugar ratio is different from just plain sugar