Creamed vs Raw Honey

We often get asked… 'What is the difference between creamed honey and raw honey? Is one better for you than the other?’

Raw honey is packaged straight after extraction in its liquid form and over time it forms granulated crystals and the texture will become grainy. Raw honey will harden and can sometimes be a challenge to get out of the jar but you can easily reverse the granulation process. We recommend placing your jar in a warm place, such as the window sill or simply place it in a pot of water and gently heat.

Creamed honey goes through further processing to speed up and control the natural granulation process of honey… but don’t worry no cream is added!

Already creamed honey, known as seeding/ starter honey, is added and then the honey is stirred periodically over a period of a few days. This means that as the natural crystals form they are much smaller and finer (because they are broken up by the stirring) so the texture of the honey will stay smooth and creamy. Creamed honey is very common in NZ, its your traditional breakfast table honey.

Raw honey is often perceived as a more natural product due to the fact that some methods of creaming honey use excess heat - the method we use does not. If the processing of creamed honey is done precisely none of the honey’s properties and health benefits are lost and it is the same product with just different textures.

The team who processes our honey does a top quality job using an award winning proven method similar to our traditional way so we know that our honey, no matter the texture, is as pure as you can get!

You can learn more about creamed honey and how we traditionally made it by visiting our blog post ‘From the Hive, to the Jar’.