this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2024
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Honey (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (12 children)

Wait, is it really just nectar with less water content then? Could we make honey ourselves without all the bees by just collecting a bunch of nectar and evaporating off some of the water?

[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I think having thousands of insects collect that nectar is more efficient than trying to do it by hand. But I'd be curious to taste if the bees impart any additional flavor. I know honey made by giving bees primarily sugar water doesn't taste like much, but there could be other stuff going on with the nectar inside the bee.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Have you ever tasted flower nectar?

I grow gladiolus sometimes, and they produce a lot of nectar, but there aren’t any pollinators for those flowers around me, so I remove the nectar myself with a syringe. There isn’t a lot in each flower, but it’s nice in a cup of tea.

It doesn’t really taste like honey, even dilute honey. It doesn’t taste like just sugar water, either, though. I’m sure each flowering plant produces a subtly different flavor, like fruit.

And indeed, honey apparently tastes different depending what the bees are feeding on. But I’d say it’s probably a mix of something bee-specific and the nectar itself.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Maybe it's similar to how tree sap tastes different after you've boiled it down to syrup?
Maple sap has a pleasant, very mildly sweet flavor whereas maple syrup is the greatest thing on earth.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Maybe, although the flavor of that probably does change somewhat due to being boiled, just like I imagine the bee concentration/dehydration process adds something.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

The math is interesting: it takes 40L of sap to produce 1L of syrup which means only 2.5% of the original sap remains after boiling it. I wonder if it caramelizes slightly from the boiling process.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

The bit about flowers creating different honey is VERY true, here in sweden it's popular to make honey specifically from heather and it's distinctly different from regular honey.

My dad favours clover honey.

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