Journal · 4 min
Why honey crystallizes (and why that's good news)
That cloudy jar isn't spoiled. It's chemistry — and often a sign you bought the real thing.
Honey is a supersaturated solution of two sugars, glucose and fructose. Glucose is the restless one: given time, it pulls itself out of solution and forms crystals. How fast depends on the ratio of the two sugars, and that ratio depends on the flowers.
Lehua honey from Hawaii sets within days into something like white butter. Tupelo, with its unusually high fructose, can stay liquid for years. Neither is better — they're just different flowers.
Grocery-store honey rarely crystallizes because it's been heated and micro-filtered, which removes the pollen and tiny particles that crystals form around. A jar that sets is usually a jar that was left alone.
To re-liquefy, stand the jar in warm (not hot) water. Or don't. Creamed honey on toast is one of life's quieter pleasures.
