How to Test for 100% Pure Honey 2012 Postings
2012 Postings
Hi! That was informative, if a little depressive. My mother used to test the purity of honey by dipping a little wick in it and burning it. If it burned, it was pure. I guess, the wax from the comb might have something to do with it.
Usha Lalwani, India
28 Dec 2012
Here's one - take a drop of honey and put it in your eyes. With practice, you can tell how much pure honey is in there by the way it burns your eyes. The purest honey will burn intensely for a second and then form a hard resin which can be easily removed, leaving your eyes cool and relaxed.
T. S., Pakistan
18 Dec 2012
I'm sorry to tell you all that there is nothing we can do to make sure the authenticity of honey unless we take it to the lab. All of the method described here is unfortunately can not be justified....
1. Lighter test - simply because the absence of water, some dense adulterated honey will also burn, and the time varies of pure varieties of honey to get burned.
2. Chunk of honey in a glass of water - dense adulterated honey also does not dissolve very easily.
3. Hexagonal shape - almost convince me until... my brother tested this method using a dense soy ketchup, it also got the same hexagonal shape... looks like it's also about the viscosity, when the water run above the honey / ketchup, some of it got dissolved and some not, resulting in those heagonal forms, what a letdown....
4. Many other method like pure honey can not be absorbed by paper, clothes, etc is also about viscosity, tried this test on a piece of paper also using soy ketchup, the paper also did not absorb it...
For now the only way I can tell (eventhough not 100% sure) is by smelling and tasting it, or to buy from trusted sellers (better if you buy it directly from the bee farm). Pure honey have a strong aroma and taste, while INFERIOR adulterated honey doesn't, I emphasize this because a high grade adulterated honey which contains high concentration of pure honey also likely have strong aroma and taste. So don't waste your time conducting useless experiments, just buy from trusted sellers.
David Chen, Taiwan
17 Dec 2012
Hi, the best way to test honey is to rub some on some paper and burn around the honey, real honey will not burn but if mixed with sugar will burn. See for yourself.
Mohammed Ishtiaq, United Kingdoms
18 Dec 2012
I just wanted to add that some farms hire bee keep companies to supply their farms with bees for pollination. These hives are fed sugar water because they are transported and detained for long periods of time in transit, from one farm to the next. The honey that is collected from these hives is then sold as real honey, even tho alot of it didn't start as nectar, as real honey should!
Misty Lee, United States
11 Dec 2012
I have tested, pure honey will be absorbed in your both hands if you rub it in between your hands.
Shamsie Syed Nazar, India
6 Dec 2012
An another easy way is to test the purity of honey is by dipping the match stick itself into the honey and than light it. If it is adulterated it will not light the match stick. Secondly try and put room temperature honey onto a newspaper it it adulterated it will become wet or else pure honey will never blot... There are more methods too but if it passes a test of three or four can land to at a position to decide its purity.
Welesley Philip Vaz, India
1 Dec 2012
Dog never eats honey. If you squeeze honey on bread and give it to a dog, he never eats it.
Adnan Maqsood, Pakistan
25 Nov 2012
Ruth: Adnan, it's interesting that many people believe this works as a pure honey test, but I know many beekeepers have also given honey to their dogs which love to eat honey.
I doubt if it is possible to buy pure honey in the UK shops. The best bet is to call on a local bee keeper and check that he does not add plain sugar to their diet.
Angiolo Chiesa, United Kingdom
22 Nov 2012
In southern of Thailand, there are several blankets of parawood covering the whole land. The sesame black colour wild honey with bitter taste collected in the sweetest month of May is the rare forest honey today. We used to drop real honey on the lotus leaf. Real honey sticks on the leaf like a gum on the floor.
Lovelush, Thailand
20 Nov 2012
Pls Ruth believe in Adam's submission cos this is AFRICA for you, the evil of the world 'money' has taken over people's thought therefore the beekeepers are not really trusted. How then would you know the pure one when you can't go to the bush yourself? I believe the long sweetness will not be there if the diluted substance is not sugar.
Mariam Aidoo, Ghana
16 Nov 2012
Ruth: Mariam, if there are absolutely no beepkeepers or any honey suppliers you can trust, I guess you have keep your own bees.
Pure honey when refrigerated doesn't get hard or frozen.
Yrrehs, The Philippines
13 Nov 2012
Put honey in a saucer and keep in the freezer overnight. If it still indents with finger pressure it is pure, if it becomes stone hard, it is adulterated.
Sard Ahmed, Australia
7 Nov 2012
In a glass of water put a drop or two of honey. Pure honey will go down while fake will float.
Clement Aremu, Nigeria
20 Oct 2012
Just buy honey from festivals & farmers markets. Those people own their own bees.
Allaiyah Weyn, United States
13 Oct 2012
Pour honey over raw egg and it will slowly cook the egg. It works with pure honey.
Jeffrey, Malaysia
7 Oct 2012
I think the more you thought you're beginning to discover the right way to test for pure honey, the more confused you get. I just started using honey and, that's cos i bought straight from a bee farmer. That way am sure what am taking.
Alfred Onyekwe, Nigeria
4 Oct 2012
Hi, I used to take honey for the past 3 years and I share my experience here. I have the habit of taking honey with hot water regularly. Whenever I put honey in normal warm water I won't smell any burnt smell from that, but when I mix honey in very hot boiling water , I feel the burnt smell when I drink. I believe we use sugar in hot drinks which will not have the burnt smell how hot the drink is. So if I get a burnt smell after mixing in hot water, then I believe it is pure honey. Also it gives me real relief of breathing after I drink. Adulterated honey won't. Thanks.
Gokul, India
30 Sep 2012
If you stick a match into honey and then strike it, it will definitely light in case where the honey is pure.
Yahya Poormohammad, Iran
29 Sep 2012
Just a short note, honey that has been treated will not candy in the cold weather here in Australia, best honey is redwood or bluegum honey which is sold around the world. Also, treated honey you can sqeeze it out of a plastic bottle, pure honey will not.
Morris Barber, Australia
18 Sep 2012
The simplest honey purity test in the shop is to notice slow motion of pear shaped form in the middle of the jar while you are making upside down movements of the jar.
Sasho Shterjov, Macedonia
15 Sep 2012
"Pure honey doesnot freeze in a refrigerator but diluted one does. "
If anything, wouldn't it be the opposite? Adding more diverse particles to a mixture lowers the freezing point (ie: adding salt to water). Maybe there is a way to use freezing or boiling point properties, in a refrigerator/freezer, to test the purity? Take a small sample of it and put it in the refrigerator/freezer and purposely, slightly, adulterate another small sample with some sugar and see if they freeze at different times (or at all)? Put them close to each other as different areas in the refrigerator may have different temperatures. I imagine various pure honey varieties would have different freezing points as well, even if unprocessed, so this might not work so well.
Anonymous Coward, United States
11 Sep 2012
I read the fire test to assess whether honey is pure. The test is not reliable. Simply a science principle of heat convection.
When I was a child, I have cooked very tiny qauntity of rice in a vessel made from paper during play. The flame was directed at the bottom. Till water was available in the vessel, the paper did not burn. Once rice cooked i.e. water was consumed, the paper starting burning.
You can yourself experience this by putting little water to boil. When the water evaporates, the paper starts to burn.
SS Hejib, India
29 Aug 2012
My dad and I used to farm with bees and at a forum at the University of Pretoria we were taught by Mr Schnettler that if a bottle of honey is turned upside down and it makes a clear bubble without a "tail" of small bubbles the honey is supposed to be pure.
Theuns Van Wyk, South Africa
24 July 2012
On a tour to Taiwan, the seller demonstrated put a spoon of honey on a plate with water, and swirl the plate such that after some time, you can see honeycomb shape formed by honey. I was told that only pure honey will form the comb pattern.
Patrick Tan, Singapore
23 July 2012
Ruth: Yes Patrick, I've heard about this purity test before and have tried forming the honeycomb pattern with pure honey myself. Incredibly beautiful pattern, but I still haven't got a clue what makes it a test for purity as this may not be a phenomenon exclusive to honey. More in: Hexagonal Honeycomb Pattern
The best I've tried is, SHAKE the bottle of HONEY vigorously for 30s...if it does not produce FROTHY bubbles like beer, well...it's adulterated or processed....try :)
Imelda Revil, The Philippines
18 July 2012
I was born and raised beside a forest in Tanzania. When we were young we would go honey gathering and eat lots of it. Today my siblings and I can tell fake honey by tasting.
Gidagaw Katesh, Tanzania
3 July 2012
My mom used to test honey by putting small drop on her finger nail. The real honey would keep its form like a little golden bead.
Nora Freeman, United States
1 July 2012
Pure honey doesnot freeze in a refrigerator but diluted one does.
Inyang Akpan, Nigeria
22 Jun 2012
The best method to test purity of honey is, take a match stick, wipe with honey and then lit. If it can lit, its pure honey, else impure.
Baruti Mohamed, Tanzania
19 Jun 2012
There are different way to test honey purity/quality some are non scientific and some are scientific eg HMF test, ph test etc but as we now that honey is made up of nector so flower of different plant as different sorts of nector some have more sweet some are less some are more acidic some are less. similary honey which is purliy harvested from one flora have its own moisture level eg : Accasia honey's moisture level could varry from 12 % - 18% (Purity range) on the other hand Aseel Sider( Most expensive honey) from 12-15% etc buy examining the moisture level we can assume the status of honey weather it is pure or not.
Hammad, Pakistan
16 Jun 2012
Another method I learned from my old mum is that you can pick up (in wholesome fashion) a drop of good honey from a smooth surface (e.g. table top), while an adulterated honey cannot be picked up in whole fashion, but tends to smear and stick to the surface.
Misbahu Katsina, Nigeria
14 Jun 2012
I would just like to say that ants love honey. I know it is 100% pure and raw (unless my bees are scamming me). I have not been able to make my honey or sugar water burn. I could be doing something wrong. Honey is more likely to crystallize than impure or heated honey, but, as mentioned, different types of honey crystallize at different rates. If by any chance if anybody has a refractometer, honey will be at 18% moisture, or at least, extremely close to 18%. Honey bees will cap over the honey with wax when it has been dried down to 18% moisture. Beekeepers will not (or, maybe, should not) remove honey before then as this could cause fermentation of the honey. Honey will not ferment at 18% moisture. However, checking moisture content isn't applicable to everyone either. And I am not sure if sugar water could be dried down to 18% moisture or not. I know I can purchase a cheap refractometer for under $80 in my beekeeping catalog. Just thought I would share some information that I know of since I have some hives of my own. Hope it helps.
Caleb, United States
11 Jun 2012
Ruth: Hi Caleb, I have the same experience as you. I do see ants being attracted to honey which I am certain that it's 100% pure. It's interesting to read about the different beliefs about pure honey and ants. Recently, someone confidently shared with me his way of judging honey purity: "pure honey will only attract big, wild black ants, whereas adulterated honey containing added sugar solution attracts small tiny ants." Overtime, I noticed that most people seemed to possess a very strong conviction about the reliability of their own method and I'm beginning to suspect if there could be some truth in each of those methods and beliefs specific to certain place, certain surrounding and environment, with certain kind of honey flow.
We just came back from a highland resort with some honey that we've bought. My bro-in-law did this test to see if it is pure honey.
Put about less than 1/2 teaspoon of honey into the center of a bowl (about 1/4 teaspoon is good enough). Pour in some water submerging the honey (about 8~10mm level). Stir the water by moving the the bowl in a circular motion.
The honey will starts to form honeycomb pattern and is considered pure honey. (It actually form honeycomb pattern which really surprise me for its the 1st time I saw this). He tried this on some honey which was imported from New Zealand and those that we just bought from the highland resort and both produced the same result. I'm not sure if adulterate honey will produce the same result.
Jesson Tan, Malaysia
9 Jun 2012
Real honey does not freeze. Put it in a plastic bottle and put in the freezer. Real honey will stay soft, of course little bit harder than before.
Carlos Cedeno, Venezuela
1 June 2012
Using a tool such as a refractometer I think would be the only way to be 100% certain. I checked around for pricing and found you can get them for as low at $15.00. You just need to know what value to look for. I think I am going to buy one for the purpose of checking the honey I buy.
Winona Nassey, United States
22 May 2012
Pure natural honey can be ascertained by, putting it (the honey) in the refrigrator,natural honey can never freeze, while the adultrated one does.
Daniel Aliagha, Nigeria
16 May 2012
Is it possible to identify sugar adulterated honey using refractometer?
Leake Gebreegziabher, Ethiopia
16 May 2012
Ruth: Leake, you will need an expert in using refractometer to comment on this.
Hi, everyone. I would suggest that the best way to buy real honey and be sure of what you are buying is to buy your honey from a real beekeeper and not from a supermarket and then you can ask the beekeeper if they ever feed sugar to their hives and also more importantly do they ever use antibiotic in their hives as many do.
I never feed my hives sugar or use antibiotics. Some honeys collected in clean combs are so clear they are classed as "water white" such as white box or caleys iron bark so just because a honey is clear is not a reason to suspect it is adulterated either.The best way to buy real, organically produced seasonal varieties of honey is to buy from a beekeeper you can trust.
Stu the beeman, Australia
10 May 2012
In Algeria we test the honey by taking a very small amout (pea size) put it on a small size of news paper then put the fire on the border of the news paper, if the honey burns with the bit of news paper that means the honey is adulterated, amazing when you see it's pure honey, it never burns. Tried it and it worked.
Linda Meri, Algeria
9 May 2012
As a professional chef, I used to use FIREWEED HONEY in all of my dishes until..........
When I lived in Seattle FIREWEED HONEY was readily available in any market. Now elsewhere, it is not so I went online to order some where to my surprise I learned some valuable information.
FIREWEED HONEY is considered by many to be the finest honey available to which I agree. The surprise is.......not ALL FIREWEED HONEY is created equally......creatyed being the key word!
The legitmate FIREWEED HONEY in it's pure form is created by bees from the fireweed flower, this being the real McCoy! However, during my online research, I discovered there's a "RECIPE" for concocting FIREWEED HONEY.........amazing, and it's allowed to possess the PURE FIREWEED HONEY label!!!
BEWARE CONSUMER.......where in a society we are taught to be moral, have character, integrity, and all the rest of the social acceptances unles.......and once again the key word.....UNLESS your CORPORATE AMERICA........where there are no rules and no social order!!!
Iam Anonymous, United States
7 May 2012
I live in Michigan (United States) and would like to see clear, honest labels on things we buy. For honey, if it says "pure honey" it should be pure honey - no corn syrup - no added anything. If they've added anything - ANYTHING - to the honey, it needs to be printed on the ingredient list. We try to be educated consumers, but if we don't have all of the information, it's really impossible. Thank you for this post.
Denise Zdunczyk, United States
5 May 2012
The most practical method of identifying pure honey is using your tongue, the 'principal organ of taste' naturally built-in human beings. Before that, you need to standardize your tongue by tasting several times (at least 100 times or more)confirmed, pure and wild honey collected from nature. By following this process ultimately, your tongue will be the finest, electro- organic probe in your natural detection system of your body. I live in Bangladesh, and while I was in my teens, I have gathered this method by collecting wild honey from the big combs of Apis Dorsata living in the high-rise trees in the forests.
Mohammad Abdullah, Bangladesh
2 May 2012
What about putting a small drop of honey on a bond paper and observing how large the translucent perimeter goes. Honey is said to contain wax substance that retains the translucency on the paper, while if adulterated with water the perimeter spreads faster and at some time the circumference becomes smaller because the water had dried up.
Eduard, Philippines
28 Apr 2012
Hi honey consumers, there is a strong believe in the market that some honey are been produced by melting foams into a state of a complete honey or added to honey. I don't know if this is true and if yes how can I detect it. Thank you.
Adam Yussif, Ghana
25 Apr 2012
Ruth: No Adam, I haven't heard of that, but that sounds terrible!
Hello and hi, I don't know whether this method is true or not. But, old folks usually told us that pure honey will not be reachable by ants if it is 100 percent pure..the reason is the ants cannot stand the heat from the honey. Just sharing info from me. Sorry if there's any mistake.:)
Miza Basri, Malaysia
4 Apr 2012
Add half spoon honey and then half spoon vinegar, mix them up with a needle you will find pure honey will not mix but impure honey mixes like water.
Abdul Wajid Khan, Pakistan
28 Mar 2012
Want to know, if it is made from sugar syrup or not?
It's simple:
1. You need to get a white paper , matches (or else to burn).
2. Place a small amount sugar on one side of the paper, and testing honey on another.
3. Set fire and smell the difference. If color of honey becomes dark (to black or so) and smells like sugar - be 100% sure, that bees were fed by sugar syrup (for more and simpler hony production).
Alex, Russia
21 Mar 2012
I live in Taiwan and and they like to drink something called "honey tea", which is actually just honey mixed with water.
I was told by a beekeeper here that one way to test if the honey is pure is to make some honey tea and put it in a bottle. If you shake the mixture for a bit a white foam (bubbles) will form on top of the drink. If the honey is pure the foam will last for a while but if it is adulterated the foam will disappear quite quickly.
Give it a try and let me know what you think.
Ryan, Taiwan
21 Mar 2012
Ruth: Interesting, I'm hearing this for the first time.
You can test pure honey by taste and smell only but for that u arrange honey directly from honey comb, once you taste the original honey, you can easily differentiate between pure and not pure honey.
Syed Asif Suleman, United Arab Emirates
13 Mar 2012
A certain Mr Indra DUTTA posted this here:
http://qna.rediff.com/questions-and-answers/how-can-we-identify-the-pure-honey/1380957/answers
I quote verbatim:
"The purity of honey can be easily detected using different methods. One such test is the aniline chloride test. Here aniline chloride is first prepared and then used for testing. Three parts of aniline and one part of concentrated hydrochloric acid gives us aniline chloride.
A small ceramic vessel is taken and a small quantity of honey is placed in it. About 5-7 drops of aniline chloride is added to it and stirred well. If the honey is adulterated a crimson red colour appears.
In another method honey is taken in a test tube and equal quantity of water is added to it and stirred well. About 100 millilitres of this solution is taken and 5 ml of ether is added to it. This mixture is kept aside for some time in order to get a fine solution after stirring. The ether layer settling on the top is transferred to another small flat bottom vessel. The ether gets vapourised in a short while and to this resorcinol is added. This gives a red colour. This indicates that the honey has an adulterant. "
Neither Hydrochloric acid, nor Aniline are exactly "common household chemicals", nonetheless, what are your thoughts Ruth?
Amit, India
11 Mar 2012
Ruth: There are many honey purity tests that can be done from the laboratory using various chemicals and solutions to test for teh absence or presence of a certain compoent. And institutes for testing honey do use them to authenticate honey products. However, these tests are beyond the ordinary consumer and the verdict so far is there exists no reliable honey purity tests from home.
We used to buy honey by the gallon every year from a farm $8.00 and $12.00. It used to crystalize making me wonder. My husband assured me it was real and natural. I can smell pleasant flower in real honey. This makes me think it is real. But standard form for quick honey making for bee keepers is having sugar syrup next to the hives.
Sue Ram, United States
25 Feb 2012
I heard on the radio (probably BBC radio 4) here in England that scientists in the USA tested honey for it's pollen content. The right pollen content would indicate honey was pure. Too much pollen would indicate adulteration and too little pollen may indicate adulteration. I'm BSc (hon) qualified. There may a standard testing procedure used by the United Kingdom government in government laboratories. The procedure would be in one of these laboratories.
R Farr, United Kingdom
24 Feb 2012
This is respect to checking of purity of honey we do in our village few drops of honey is poured on paper if it does not spread or blot into the paper we decide it is pure honey.
Tubgere Shankar, India
23 Feb 2012
I learned some ways from some bee keepers in Turkey to test the real honey. Firstly, real honey does not burn but if you try the fake one you would see that it burns due to containing sugar. Secondly, if you let a pen touch the honey and try to write, you can see that you can write on a paper however fake honey would prevent the pen to write due to artificial sugar.
Recep Keskin, Turkey
22 Feb 2012
I have been trying to find information with no success. I have been a lover of honey all my life. Having it crystallize is no big deal, warm it and stir it and it is all good.
However, I always noted that good honey took a long time to crystallize. My husband brought honey from WI which he loves but this stuff is crystallizing in less than 6 months and when I warm it to uncrystallize, then I get a layer of water (for lack of a better word) and not honey AND the crystallized layer at the bottom that never changed... what gives?
Gratefully yours,
Kyra Richter
Kyra Richter, United States
20 Feb 2012
Ruth: Crystallisation of honey is a natural phenomenon. Over time, honey inevitably undergoes crystallization, with some floral varietals crystallizing faster than others. It's a natural process that does not affect honey quality. To regain the original state of the honey, just place the bottle over warm water (about 40 degree Celsius): Honey Storage Tips
I recently bought honey that was still in a bucket with the honey-combs. To prove its purity the guy put a spoonful of honey on a hundred rupee note that he asked me to give, then he lit a lighter under the note and the honey was heating, but the money didn't burn; he said that's proof that it's pure honey...
Abhi Wana, India
17 Feb 2012
I always eat honey with cinnanom twice a day. To test the pure honey: just put some on small piece of paper and burn it, if it has black smoke it means you are burning sugar not honey.
Gais Chalak, United States
13 Feb 2012
Honey if adulterated can be frozen in the freezer. Pure honey never freezes and this seems to be a good test. Pl give your views.
Raghunath Menon, India
13 Feb 2012
Ruth: Raghunath, different honey varietals from different places can vary in viscosity, water content. A runny honey can be 100% unadulterated.
I know of two ways to tell if it's pure honey or not.
1) hold the bottle upside down and watch it go from one drop to two drops.
2) Pure honey poured unto the ground, the ground will not absorb it.
Del Ellis, United States
12 Feb 2012
Ruth: Del, Reza, the bubble test could tell us something about the water content of the honey, but purity could also mean the presence of additives such as sweeteners like malt, corn syrup, etc. And this makes testing for honey purity complicated.
Hi dear honey consumers! Pour honey into a glass jar. The more the bubbles in the honey, the purer it is.
Reza Shahmoradi, Iran
10 Feb 2012
You can also test for pure honey by droping a little quantity of it on sand, if it scatters it self it's not pure, but if hold itself together it's pure.
Ferdinand Gilbert, Nigeria
5 Feb 2012
I read through your piece and I am delighted to see that you have treated all the grey areas regarding authenticity of a pure honey. May I ask if shelf life of honey can be used to determine whether it is unadultrated or not? May be we can explore this area.
James Onimisi, Nigeria
4 Feb 2012
Ruth: James, I don't see how shelf life can tell us whether a bottle of honey has been adulterated. Fermentation can happen with diluted honey, but I believe it can also be avoided with additives.
Here in our society we are blessed to have a steady flow of bee tennants. They stay for a few months build their hives on the terraces of others & when it's time to move them the society calls in the hive removal team. We get to watch them remove the honey from the hive & they sell it to us for 1/4th the price of that in stores. The honey tastes wonderful & is so good for your health that we have now stopped using all other forms of sugar. I think if you can see them remove it that is the only sure way of knowing if it is really pure honey. Oh n by the way there is no way of these hive removers to feed the bees sugar as the hives are usually higher than the 10th floor. Lol!
Crystal Shah, India
3 Feb 2012
I'm new to raw honey. I got sick of the honey I was finding in stores full of sugar (I no longer buy sugar) and called "natural" and decided to give raw honey a try. I live in Wisconsin, U.S. and there are bee farmers across the state. So I finally found raw honey (A little pricey but worth it if it's organic) They say it is only slightly warmed and strained only and you will find bits of beeswax and pollen.
My response to how to tell if it's raw honey or processed--I don't have a clue really, but wouldn't it be very nice and right if you could for once trust people to do the right thing even if it means they lose the prize?
If it's not organic why not just say so? How do people sleep at night with all the lies they manufacture to cheat people?
Vanessa, United States
2 Feb 2012
If you put a live fly in the honey, it will come out easily as honey doesn't get stuck on its wings while adulterated honey will bind the wings together.
Prashans Darbari, India
23 Jan 2012
Here is a very simple method. In our native land we are blessed with honey. Because of our tropical weather bees can produce more honey. To try if it's pure or not we simply taste the honey. Pure honey lasts 30 minutes or more, sometimes to the extent that it makes your lips dry and also your throat that you really need to drink water.
Bees for Sale, Philippines
13 Jan 2012
Hi,
My guess is the only real way to know if something was added would be to have traceability back to the hive you could actually check. A certified organic honey gives this potential but is seldom actually delivered on, even then as you say food fraud is everywhere so it would need some pretty open transparency to go with it.
We make Raw Organic Honey in Africa on one of our projects, its beautiful and very very different to most processed items. So maybe if you really want pure honey you need to get some bees!!
Good luck with all.
Greg Sturmer, South Africa
11 Jan 2012
The method of testing pure honey, as posted on 31 Dec 2011, using housefly does not work. As a kid in the early 50s I played this trick many times. Catch a lively housefly without injuring it. Carefully drown it in a jar of water until it sinks to the bottom. Leave it 'dead' for 3 days. Pour out the water and place the housefly on a piece of newspaper under the sun in any position. When its wings dry out it will kick its legs and turn over albeit a little unsteady. In a little while it will fly away. Houseflies and some other pests don't drown or die easy. Won myself many marbles with just this trick. Go on, catch a housefly and see for yourself.
Ronnie, Singapore
10 Jan 2012
Ruth: Ronnie, nice childhood memories! Thanks!
I'm curious, do certain types of honey have particular ph ranges? I know in the U.S. many health food stores have ph test strips (usually for testing saliva or urine). Perhaps a simple honey and water solution could be tested?
Lisa, United States
9 Jan 2012
Ruth: The pH of honey varies depending on the floral varietals. Most honey sold in the market is blended (no distinct varietal), unless a honey is tested beforehand, we won't know the pH to be expected when it is diluted with other liquids.
From my experience, if you have a drop or two of pure honey on your tongue, the sweetness terminates under 20 minutes, after you lick it. But this is not so with adulterated honey,especially if adulterated with refined sugar.Your tongue continues to taste sweet after several hours.
Frank Akpan, Nigeria
4 Jan 2012
A variation of the flame test is to dip the active tip of the match-stick itself to the honey for about 5-7 seconds. It is pure honey if flame is produced after normal lighting up of the said match-stick.
Pitz Bonilla, The Philippines
1 Jan 2012
For most recent posts, go to: Postings on Pure Honey Test Methods