Look at the color first. Observing the color of honey with naked eyes, the honey with light color, bright, transparent and moderate viscosity has high quality. The color is dark brown or dark red, with dull luster and cloudy honey color. The single flower honey of different plants has different colors. Such as milk vetch, wild osmanthus, acacia and other honey varieties are light and transparent; Beijing honey, citrus and litchi are all light amber. Honey seeds such as eucalyptus, tallow, buckwheat and rape are darker in color. But the color will become lighter after crystallization. Generally speaking, honey mixed with foreign matter has abnormal color and poor luster. For example, honey mixed with sucrose has poor transparency and opacity. When honey is mixed with starch or corn flour, it is cloudy, usually cloudy or lumpy.
Second, pure honey has a unique fragrance, for example, the nectar of Sophora japonica should have the fragrance of Sophora japonica, and the nectar of jujube has the fragrance of jujube. Mixed honey should also have a pure and delicious taste. Fake honey flowers have a faint fragrance, and honey mixed with sugar has a taste of sugar.
Third, taste the taste. Have some honey and taste it in your mouth. It is fresh, delicate, sweet, moistens the throat and has a light aftertaste. This is high quality honey. For example, if the mouth is soft and moist, the taste is sweet and greasy, the throat is spicy and the aftertaste is heavy, this is inferior honey or adulterated honey. Honey tastes like honey and sugar tastes like sugar. Pure honey tastes sweet and slightly sour, with a soft and delicate taste and a long and light aftertaste. But fake honey has a faint honey taste and a short aftertaste. For example, honey mixed with sugar has a short aftertaste and a strong syrup flavor. Honey mixed with urea tastes sweet and salty. Honey is mixed with thickener, which has a sticky mouth and tongue feeling and a pungent smell.
Fourth, try to feel. Take a little honey, put it on a clean and dry palm and rub it with your fingers. Generally speaking, pure honey crystals or solidified crystals are sticky and delicate, and there will be no rough feeling after being twisted with your fingers. If the grain is rough and the twisted hand feels rough, there is the possibility of adulteration.
Fifthly, when honey is stored at low temperature or for a long time, the glucose contained in honey will first precipitate into the bottom of the container, and then the fructose contained in honey will crystallize out. At a lower temperature, the honey in the whole container is usually solidified, like lard, but this does not affect eating.
In addition, some simple methods can be used to test the authenticity of honey. For example, honey and cold boiled water are mixed and stirred evenly according to the ratio of 14, and then alcohol is gradually added. If white flocs appear, honey and maltose are mixed together; Put a small amount of honey into a cup, add a proper amount of water, boil, cool, add 2 drops of iodine and shake well. If it appears blue or green, it means that the starch is mixed together. Drop honey on white paper or toilet paper. If honey seeps out gradually, it will be mixed with sucrose and water.
Now there are often some vendors selling bulk honey on the street, filled with all kinds of packaged or unfilled honey, walking around the community, entering the yard, entering the park, and some of them are delivered to the door. They also use various banners such as "bee farm", "pure honey" and "self-produced and self-sold" to defraud consumers' trust. In the current situation that fake and shoddy honey is common, consumers are advised not to buy it and not to spend the money on buying sugar water.