The Amazing History of Honey

Honey and humans have exceptional relations! Even before we started domesticating animals, cooking, and farming. Humans first encountered honey 10,000 years back when first found in the wild bees’ nests—for some reason decided to taste the sweet spoils. And, soon, it has become the man’s first reliable source of sweetener.
When the fruits were the sweetest thing ever tasted by man, the honey seemed like sent directly from heaven. Almost in every culture, you can find the myth explaining the immortal sweetness of honey in the early centuries.
The oldest written reference of honey dates back to Egyptians in 5500 BCE. The texts referred to the honey abound in antiquity. However, honeybees are much older than human written records. Homo sapiens emerged around 50,000 years ago. Honey bees have been making honey for perhaps more than 40 million years.

The Honey Making Honeybees

The group of honeybees appears to have its center of origin in Southeast Asia. About 30 million years back, honeybees developed social behavior identical to modern honeybees in structure. “Apis Mellifera,” also known as the Western honeybee, is the most common domesticated honeybee species. Scientists found it traces back to Tropical Africa. Its species spread to Northern Europe, East, and Asia.
Native Americans never tasted honey until 1622; the first European colonists brought the sub-species “Apis Mellifera to the Americans. The crops dependent on honeybees for pollination were also imported since colonial times.
The wild bees species “Escaped Swarms” spread rapidly to the Great Plains before colonists. However, bees never crossed the Rocky Mountains. Bees were carried by ship to California in the early 1850s. Today honey is ubiquitous and found in almost every part of the world.
Cane sugar came into existence in the early 19th century in Southeast Asia. Soon it became commercially available, and affordable honey was the major sweetening agent for westerners. The west world used honey in tea, cakes, candies, and puddings.

Types of Honey

Honey has more than three hundred varieties of honey worldwide. These types are generally named after the plant, shrub, or flower they originate. Some of the most widely used honey are orange blossom, sage, and clover. Some rarest regional honey includes heather, raspberry, buckwheat, thyme, and spearmint.

Honey should be considered as a condiment like mustard. The honey can be varied according to the choice of taste and flavor you want in your dish. The most common types of honey are:

• Blueberry Honey: This type of honey is gathered from Maine and some parts of Northeast and Michigan. It is amber-hued and rich, and dense in texture. This honey has a fruity taste, and a delicate punch of blueberry hits afterward.

• White Sage Honey: This honey comes from the sage shrubs of California. It is translucent yellow in color. It tastes like clover, and afterward, you will get the elegant floral flavor.
• Saw Palmetto Honey: This type of honey is gathered from the saw palmetto tree in California. It is mild amber in color and has citrusy, herbal, and woody overtones.
• Buckwheat honey: The honey is gathered from upstairs of New York. This sweetener is dark brown and has a strong, malty, buckwheat flavor.

There is also a large range of mono-floral honey available, and you can par them with the food of your choice.

How to Know Purity of Honey?

Pure honey got a thick texture that will settle at the bottom of a cup or a glass. For further confirmation, you can have the vinegar test. Mix some drops of honey into vinegar water, and if the mixture starts to foam, then your honey is fake. You can even check the purity of honey by heat test. If you expose the honey to heat or flames, it will remain unburned if it is pure.

Last Few Words

India ranks at the eighth position as a honey-producing nation of the world. At the same time, India is the ninth-largest honey exporting nation. Some of the most famous honey in the continent is – Jamun, Honey, Eucalyptus Honey, Mustard Honey, Ajwain Honey, Litchi Honey, Sidr Honey, Clover Honey, and Sunflower Honey.

However, there are negligible organic honey producers in India. “Dorado Life” is one of the leading brands when it comes to organic honey. The company offers more than ten flavors of organic flavors. For honey lovers, “Dorado Life” is the door to the honey heaven.