Tag Archives: honey

Nature Nate’s 100% Pure Raw & Unfiltered Honey Review

Pretty Good

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I got this honey by mistake. I’d order a different one through Instacart, asked for yet another as a substitution, but ended up with this one all the same.

All in all, this taste like a pretty generic, uncomplex and yet very tasty honey. At 65°-70°F, it’s quite thin and flows very easily. It has a perfectly delicious, mild, not overly sweet, honey flavor. It seems like a sort of general purpose honey.

Despite its name, Nature Nate’s 100% Pure Raw & Unfiltered Honey is not really raw nor unfiltered. While the honey is not pasteurized, it is heated to some undisclosed temperature and studies have shown that heating for a short time will degrade the nutrients, enzymatic activity and water soluble vitamins in honey. So this honey is probably best left for uses that require heating it anyway – such as sweetening hot drinks or creating a syrup by mixing it with water and heating it.

Similarly, while this honey is “unfiltered,” it is strained. I’m guessing that what they mean is that the filter they use has holes too small for impurities to go through but too big for pollen.

My biggest concern with honey is adulteration. There is a big problem with adulterated honeys, and only one laboratory in the US has the capacity to test them. According to a lawsuit filed against Nature Nate’s in 2019, some of the samples of their honey were found to be adulterated with other syrups. That still means that other samples were fine, but it also means you can’t be assured you are getting what you paid for. The lawsuit, btw, was dismissed but on technical rather than substantive grounds.

In all, this is not a premium honey but it’s tasty enough and should serve most of your needs. If you are looking for a top grade raw honey, I’d probably hit the farmer’s market instead.

Note: the link to Instacart is a referral link, if you subscribed immediately after you click on it, I might get $10 credit and you would as well. Instacart refunded me the cost of this honey, as it wasn’t what I’d ordered.

Beware of Honey!

Honey.  Who doesn’t like honey? From Winnie the Pooh to  “natural foods” fans, honey has many fans.  But a new study shows that what you are getting labeled as “honey” at the supermarket may not honey at all.  Indeed, more than three fourth of all the honey sold at supermarkets and big box stores and all the honey sold at drugstores does not qualify as “honey’ under international standards.

For honey to be considered honey, it needs to have pollen in it.  The pollen allows experts to identify where the honey came from, everything from the region of the world it was harvested to the flowers the bees fed from.  But most of the honey in the market has had its pollen removed, through a process called “ultra filtration”.  The main reason for ultra filtering honey seems to be to hide its origin.  China is a huge producer of honey, but Chinese honey is kept out of the US market.  To get around that, Chinese companies sell their honey to American distributors through representatives in other countries.  By removing the pollen, they make sure the honey cannot be traced back to them.

The problem with Chinese honey is that some of it is adulterated with animal antibiotics (which can be harmful to some people), heavy metals and even other “extenders” such as corn syrup and  other sweeteners.  You think you are paying for honey – and honey is not cheap – and you are getting other stuff instead.

There is a way around this, however.  The honey sold at farmers markets, co-ops and, more importantly for me, Trader Joe’s is all honey full of pollen.  I know where I’ll be buying my honey from now on!