When purchasing honey, consumers can pay attention to the honey content; the higher the content, the better. Among the added substances, sweeteners, thickeners, and preservatives must not be included. However, many people don't know how to choose, so do you know any tips for selecting good honey?
How to Choose Good Honey
1. Check for Stringiness
After buying honey and bringing it home, drop a single drop. Good honey will form a long string, and after breaking, the top end will quickly snap back. If it's fake or low-quality honey, it will not snap back quickly.
2. Taste It
Pure honey has a mellow, rich, and fragrant sweet taste with a long aftertaste, and it is prone to crystallization. Impure honey has a simple, one-dimensional sweetness, no fragrance, and a taste of sugar water. Its crystals dissolve instantly in the mouth, have a slightly astringent taste, are slightly sticky, and dissolve quickly in water. Fake honey has a bitter and astringent taste, and its crystallized chunks are like chewing on granulated sugar.
3. Look at the Color
Real honey does not look very clear and appears in colors like white, light yellow, or amber, with lighter shades being preferable. Fake honey has a bright and vivid color, usually in light or deep yellow. High-quality honey has a fine texture and a lustrous color, while poor-quality honey is often turbid and lacks luster.
4. Smell It
Impure honey may smell like fruit candy or artificial flavorings. Honey adulterated with spices will have an abnormal aroma. Pure honey has a natural fragrance with a light floral scent. Fake honey often has a pungent, unpleasant odor or a smell of fruit candy.
Honey's Benefits
1. Honey for Hair Loss: Take 1 tablespoon of propolis on an empty stomach daily for one month. The effect is especially good when taken during spring and autumn.
2. Honey for Bronchitis: Place a piece of propolis in your mouth and chew it continuously, or slowly let 1 tablespoon of chestnut honey melt in your mouth. Taking it once in the morning and once at night yields better results.
3. Honey for Boils and Malignant Sores: Mix raw honey with last year's scallion to make a paste. First, prick the boil and apply the paste. After walking the distance of five *li* (about 2.5 km), the boil will expel its core. Then, wash it off with hot vinegar water. ("Ji Ji Xian Fang")
4. Honey for Stomach Ulcers: Take 100 grams of honey every morning. During this period, attention should be paid to your diet to avoid excessive calorie intake.
5. Honey for Harmonizing Nutrient Qi, Moistening Organs, Clearing the Triple Burner, and Regulating the Spleen and Stomach. ("Bencao Gangmu")
6. Honey for Yangming Disease, with spontaneous sweating. If sweating is induced and urination is normal, this indicates an internal exhaustion of body fluids. Although the stool is hard, it should not be purged. The patient must have a natural desire to defecate: Take seven *ge* (about 700ml) of honey. In a copper vessel, simmer it over a low flame until it coagulates into a maltose-like consistency. Stir constantly to prevent it from burning. When it is ready to be formed into a pill, use your hands to roll it into a sharp-headed suppository, as thick as a finger and about two inches long. Make it quickly while it is warm; it will harden when cooled. Insert it into the anus and hold it firmly with your hand. Remove it when there is an urge to defecate. ("Shang Han Lun")
7. Honey primarily treats pathogenic qi in the chest and abdomen, various convulsions and epilepsy, pacifies the five organs for their various deficiencies, replenishes qi and the middle burner, relieves pain and counteracts toxins, and harmonizes all medicinal substances. ("Shennong Ben Cao Jing")
8. Honey for Male Genital Sores: Fry licorice powder in honey and apply it. ("Zhou Hou Fang")
9. Honey for Ascariasis, with drooling, heart pain, and intermittent attacks that are not stopped by toxic medicines: Take two liang of licorice, one liang of powder, and four liang of honey. The three ingredients are decocted with three sheng of water. First, boil the licorice until two sheng of liquid remain, then remove the dregs. Add the powder and honey, stir to mix, and decoct until it becomes a thin porridge. Take one sheng warm. Stop once cured. ("Jin Gui Yao Lue" - Licorice Powder and Honey Decoction)
10. Honey for Menopause: Honey can "lock" calcium in the bones. Add white sugar to the beverage you drink in the morning, and also take 1 tablespoon of honey daily.
11. Honey for Cystitis: During the period of doctor-prescribed treatment, taking 1 tablespoon of honey before dinner can have a supplementary therapeutic effect. If necessary, the duration of intake can be extended after recovery to consolidate the effect.
12. Honey for Urticaria and Ringworm: Take one jin of sand honey, one jin of glutinous rice, five liang of yeast, and five sheng of boiled water. Put them all in a jar and seal for seven days to make wine. Alternatively, using honey in the wine is also effective. ("Bencao Gangmu" - Honey Wine)
13. Honey for Eye Inflammation: Boil 0.1 liters of water, let it cool, then add a full tablespoon of honey. Use it to rinse the inflamed eyes 3-4 times a day.
14. Honey for Constipation: Take 1 tablespoon of pollen daily before dinner for at least one consecutive month, or take 2 tablespoons of honey before lunch daily.
15. Honey for Anemia: Honey can stimulate the growth of hemoglobin, which plays an extremely important role in the growth of red blood cells. Of course, in addition to honey, royal jelly is also quite effective. Take 1 tablespoon of royal jelly on an empty stomach every morning for a course of three weeks.
16. Honey for Stomach and Duodenal Ulcers: One liang and eight qian of honey, three qian of raw licorice, and two qian of dried tangerine peel. Use an appropriate amount of water. First, decoct the licorice and tangerine peel, then remove the dregs and mix in the honey. Take in three divided doses daily. ("Modern Practical Chinese Medicine")
17. Honey for Muscle Weakness: Take 1 tablespoon of pollen every morning for one month. For the following 6 months, it can be taken later in the day. During the period, if you feel heavy physical or mental stress, you should increase the dosage to 3 tablespoons of pollen per day.
18. Honey for Scalds: Apply it to stop the pain. Still, pound fresh leek and mix it with the honey. ("Bencao Yan Yi")
19. Honey to Counteract Aconite Poisoning: Take one to four tablespoons of white honey with warm water. ("Commonly Used Chinese Herbs in Shanghai")
20. Honey for Cough: One jin of white honey and two jin of ginger (for its juice). First, weigh the copper pot. Then add the honey and weigh again to know the amount. Next, add the ginger juice and simmer over a low heat until the ginger juice is completely evaporated, leaving only the original weight of the honey. Take one pill the size of a jujube in the morning, holding it in the mouth until it dissolves. Take three times a day. Avoid all other foods.