All About Honeycomb
Summary:
- Honeycomb is the ORIGIN source of ALL honey; bottled honey is extracted out of Comb Honey.
- Comb Honey can be eaten any way you eat honey. You can spread it on crackers, cheese, and toast, or drop chunks in oatmeal and yogurt, etc.
- Store Comb Honey out of sunshine and in room temperature. For long term storage, you can freeze it.
- Do NOT refrigerate any honey products!!!
It all starts with hexagons
Unless you’re an avid honey consumer, you’ve probably only thought about how honey ends up in a jar on one or two occasions, if at all. When most people see honeycomb their first time they immediately ask, “Is that edible?” ALL honey originates from honeycomb, but the liquid gold is usually extracted through a simple process with specialized equipment, and then bottled up for sale.
Comb Honey is the bees own special way of “packaging” and storing honey within the bee hive, and if you’re lucky enough to get your hands on some, it’s quite a delicious and unique experience.
Bees structure their hive with beeswax shaped into thousands of hexagonal cells. Hexagons have been utilized throughout evolution because of their efficiency and strength (turns out bees are master engineers). When there is an excess nectar flow, bees will convert the nectar into honey, and deposit it into hexagon shaped cells (singular “holes” within the wax foundation). Once the cells are full, they will “cap” the honey cells with a wax layer. When honey is stored in a comb cell, it is referred to as “Honeycomb” or “Comb Honey”.
The beeswax that encapsulated the honey is made by the bees using 8 glands on their lower abdomen. In order to produce the wax, the honeybees must consume vast amounts of honey. It takes roughly 8 pounds of honey to produce 1 pound of wax! After production, the beeswax is chewed and reformed by younger bees. Producing honeycomb is very labor intensive, and a huge energy investment from the bees.
How to eat Honeycomb
When it comes to Comb Honey, your imagination is the limit! You can pair honeycomb with many of the same things you would with liquid honey. Here are some examples:
- Spread honeycomb over warm bread and toast, or butter it over pancakes, waffles, or banana bread.
- Add it to your charcuterie board. Comb Honey pairs amazingly with fruit, meat, bread, and cheese.
- Drop chunks of comb into your warm oatmeal, yogurt, or puddings.
- Eat it straight! Comb Honey is the most unique form of honey so enjoying it by itself is quite an experience.
Storage
Honeycomb, much like bottled honey, has an incredibly long shelf life. However, since most consumers purchase Comb Honey to enjoy the freshest and purest honey available, there are some precautions you should take. For starters, keep your comb out of direct sunlight. Sun and warmth will accelerate the discoloration of the beautiful fresh wax, along speeding up changes in honey taste. Room temperature is the best storage condition, along with keeping the comb away from any moisture.
For long term storage, (anything over a few months), freezing honeycomb is perfectly acceptable. This keeps the wax soft and malleable (once it defrosts of course), and prevents the honey within the cells from crystallizing. For more information on crystallization of honey, check out our article about the natural process here. NEVER store any honey in the refrigerator, but especially never place comb honey in the fridge! This will accelerate the crystallization process, and within a few days to weeks your soft, gooey honey will be replaced with crunchy granules!
In summation, Comb Honey is the freshest, and purest form of honey. Because of the labor intensive process in producing and packaging it, it’s a rare treat. However, any avid honey enjoyer MUST try Comb Honey at least once in their life, if only to know exactly what pure and unprocessed honey tastes like! Check with your local beekeeper for fresh Comb Honey, or purchase through our online store!
