Following up somewhat on this thread - http://curezone.com/forums/m.asp?f=626&i=8798

While in the local momNpop health food store recently, I decided to try yet a different brand of 'raw honey'. This makes the third one I've tried the past 12 months, and by Job I believe three has been the charm!

The first one I tried several months ago was "really raw honey", the bottle lable claimed "raw, unrefined, pure honey" and this brand was distinguishable both in color - a creamy whitish gray, and soft but not liquid texture - the top layer of which (came in a a wide-mouthed jar) had a sort of soft film/crust about 1/2 inch thick that was made up of various bee and honeycomb parts, beaks, claws, etc ;). The honey below this film was slighly darker in color and softer in texture. I'd asked MH about this and he replied about how more experienced honey eaters handle this. I'm not yet very experienced but can claim that when I put some of this honey in hot water, along with some of the crust/film, most of it melted but it left a small amount of very sticky gooey stuff that stuck to my metal strainer and I have yet to be able to clean it away.....kinda like cured concrete. Anyway, this RRH honey was soft in the jar, both the top film and the main honey below, and it had a much mellower taste to it than what had previously been my experience.

The second one I tried last month was from 'Tree of Life', it came in a fairly standard curved and oval-shaped narrow mouthed jar, had the distinct commercial honey color - amber, had the distinct commercial honey taste - somewhat strong compared to above and # 3 below, yet the bottle claims "pure, raw & unfiltered usda A grade honey". This brand comes in a couple different flavors, I tried the Alfalfa. Interesting, the back of the bottle label also says the following: "all pure honey may granulate, some in a week or so, some not for several years. To liquify, place the bottle in very hot water (but not boiling)" . This "granulated" effect sounds like it might be what MH referred to in the previous thread (posted above) and is another way of saying "hard honey".

The third one I tried just today, from "Y.S. organic bee farms 100% certified organic honey, special premium u.s. grade A". The jar is wide-mouthed, the color is whitish gray especially on the very top layer, and the texture is hard - not rock hard, I've found I can carve spoon-sized chunks if I press hard with a spoon. The back label also says "to soften, place bottle in hot water to get spreadable softeness", and it also has the statement "full health benefits as a functional food, unheated, TRUE RAW STATE unprocessed, purest, richest, healthiest, safest and harvested with extreme care". I made a cup of tea a bit ago and opened this bottle to give it my first try. Given the way the honey is hard and needs to be carved out of the jar with a spoon (I did not want to take the time to heat the entire bottle in water), I could not resist shoving the first large spoon full into my mouth. What a difference in taste compared to regular honey. This stuff hardly has any taste at all, except a very mellow and quite pleasing to the pallet sweetness that literally melted in my mouth. As I type here, am having a hard time staying away from the bottle, I've already gone back for a few more spoonfulls to eat !

I had previously never imagined there can be so many varieties and variables with something seemingly so simple as honey, but this is turning into a fun adventure. I'm still not sure if #3 is the holy grail of honey as MH previously described, but it sure is fun experimenting. As a final note, none of these brands are cheap, all three cost between $11.00 to $16.00 for a two pound jar, the cost goes down fairly well when buying in larger jars. A two pound jar often lasts me about 1 to 2 weeks, but at the current rate, the 2 pound jar of #3 I just opened within the hour may not make it through the night!