[pepoke]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/394053_honey30.asp

Honey laundering: A sticky trail of intrigue and crime
Country of origin no guarantee on cheap imports

It seems to me that if you have some of this 'watered down' honey the expiration date may be sooner than never... Yet more crap coming from China...

Can anyone comment about the lifespan of this altered honey? I suspect it wouldn't be much more than a couple of years. I know the last bottle of honey I purchased I was surprised to see that it actually had an expiration date...

 

[TacomaJPP]

I saw some of that cheap Honey crap from China go bad in about 7 or 8 months.

 

[BJJ_Grappler]

How would you know if it's Chinese honey?

 

[TacomaJPP]

The bees eyes were slanted. No, sorry, that was wrong:

Seriously, mine says "Marketed by: blah blah blah in the USA"

Which is crap. If it were made in the USA, it would say so instead of using the dodgy term of "marketed" by. Just a guess.

 

[pepoke]

My honey is Safeway brand 'clover honey' and it indicates the expiration date is Feb 2010. First time I have purchased that brand (cheapest) and also the first time I have ever seen an expiration date for honey.

Note: I am not trying to claim that Safeway brand honey is from China. Just adding my details.

I have no idea how you could tell, unless your taste buds are finely tuned. I suspect if you are lucky enough to have heightened senses of taste you could figure it out quickly.

 

[mongoose]

I buy it from a local,
along w his fresh veggies,
that way ya know its american, git used ta buyin locally,
will be nice ta be a regular customer when store shelves start emptyin.

 

[Sapper6]

An educated guess would tell me that Tacoma is right. "Made in the U.S.A." has several counterfeits. "Marketed" by, for, whatever is a workaround for a lot of goods made in other countries. I ran into a lot of this trying to buy "Made in the U.S.A." Christmas presents.

I know if you buy your honey in a specialty shop you normally get way more information than you need, but its easiest to tell for certain that it's made in the U.S.A. Some of them go into excrusiating detail. A lot of them have tags like, "This product is the life's work of two heterosexual honey bees from Sheboygan who like slow dancing, the color blue, and watching reruns of the Golden Girls on their nights off." Its ridiculous. However, its nice to know that your honey is not "blended" or from China. And in addition, perhaps you can get honey jarred in glass vice plastic.

 

[Werwolverine]

Me loves me Honey in a glass jar with no labels.

 

[Sapper6]

Me loves me Honey in a glass jar with no labels.

Funny. That's how my Grandfather used to like his liquor.

 

[jbowen9]

In my opinion buy your honey local because for a couple of reasons one it helps your farmer out that works hard for that honey he is selling you. The second reason is that local honey has been known to help people with their allergy's. Third if the honey is pure which more that likely it is from your local person,honey will last along time because when it turns to crystals in the bottom of the jar you just heat the jar and honey up in boiling water and it will go back to honey. Water in honey will make it go sour in a short order so becareful where you buy your honey.

 

[overlordsshadow]

I buy from local aswell, although they do a bit of exporting themselves. 10 lbs bucket of honey mmmmmmmmmmm.

 

[TacomaJPP]

I buy it from a local,
along w his fresh veggies,
that way ya know its american, git used ta buyin locally,
will be nice ta be a regular customer when store shelves start emptyin.

Thanks! That reminds me...I have an old school mate that is into honey making. I need to hook up with him and get and some mountain grown honey!

Beekeeping is one really neat craft. I was amazed at how complex the world of bees really is. I'm sure there are some great youtube videos out there about beekeeping. Anyone who isn't familiar with beekeeping should "youtube" some videos and watch.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=beekeeping&search_type=&aq=0&oq=bee+kee

One note on beekeeping is that I read in an old school book on beekeeping (early 1900's) was to use a water spritzer rather than a smoker. The smoker agitates the bees more than water does. I have no idea if this is true, but if anyone else has had experience with it, I would be interested to know what you think.

 

[Mad Dog]

I buy local as well, but I think the expiration date is something mandated by the FDA, and we all know how reliable they are. I've never seen honey go bad in my personal experience, and I think dates have to be put on all food nowadays because of Fedzilla. What better way to make people throw good stuff out and buy more of the same, it's the American way after all.

 

[bowman]

I did a double-take at Walmart the other day when I saw they were selling sugar-free honey.

In small print it said "imitation honey" but the label did make me stop and pick up the bottle out of curiousity.

 

[SurvivalJug]

Funny. That's how my Grandfather used to like his liquor.

Some of us might still do that, :cough: :cough: not this guy though... :

 

[SurvivalJug]

Does this imported honey taste any different from normal honey?

 

[msc]

I always get local honey. Heck, I even feed the bees (their hives are in my fields). The hives aren't mine, but I find the craft of bee-keeping fascinating.

 

[Brimasmom]

Don't forget an added benefit of buying local honey: you keep the local bee population alive and well in a world that doesn't yet know why bees are disappearing.

 

[Missouri Alan]

Here are a couple of links to information on honey

http://www.honey.com/
http://www.beesource.com/pov/usda/beekpUSA82.htm

I could not find the page that discusses it, but if your honey is imported or blended it must be labled as such.

 

[Theguy]

I did a double-take at Walmart the other day when I saw they were selling sugar-free honey.

same here when I noticed it. it just ain't right.