Hi, I came across this forum post the other day and thought I might be able to help answer some questions. I work for Honey Pacifica as their website developer, live down the street from them, and yes it’s one of the most delicious jobs I’ve ever had.
“Different plant nectars (flowers) apparently produce different honeys of different thicknesses. Usually honey makers and sellers strive for consistency within a particular variety.”Each hive can have vastly different thickness of honeys, even if they are going to the same flowers. As we extract and bottle the honey there can be differences in the thickness of the honey from jar to jar. There are so many variables involved it can be tough to get the exact thickness every time. Even the taste of a honey can change from year to year. Like any crop some years are better than others based on rainfall, sunlight, the bees, the soil and other factors. If you prefer thick honey, it’s best to note that on your order.
“One thing to watch out for is whether they use a centrifuge or not.”As you can see from our video that was posted a page back, we do indeed use a centrifuge to spin the honey out of the comb. The centrifuge itself doesn’t create heat, but some beekeepers heat the centrifuge to make the honey thin and speed up the extraction process. We do not heat any of our honey in the extractor. I’ll take a measurement of the honey coming out of the extractor next time it’s running.
“Honey can be certified raw and still be heated...there are quite a few conversations and peoples experiences here that point to that”Indeed this is a problem; you need to trust the beekeeper you are getting your honey from. Make sure your definition of raw matches the beekeepers definition. We view raw as unheated, unprocessed and unfiltered.
“The Honey gets hot during shipping”
Depending on where you live this could happen during the summer. If you’re really worried about the summer heat, stock up in the winter with a 60 lb. pail. Honey never spoils so you can always have it on hand throughout the year. Also buying in bulk will get you the best price.
"The most bizarre thing about the whole process is that most beekeepers and honey sellers discard the best parts of the honey hive--the cappings and stray bee grubs/larvae and when the honey gets really good (fermented) most of them say it has "gone bad" and throw it out."Our customers asked us for this a few years ago so we have Cold Packed Chunky Honey with cappings, royal jelly and propolis mixed in. This is about as raw as it gets.
“Why would comb honey be heated? That's just more work.”Seems silly to me, this would add a lot of time to simply cutting it up. I agree with the thoughts on foreign honeycomb and they might have to do this due to import/export laws.
“Some of them (beekeepers) didn't even seem to be aware that raw honey is FAR superior to heated honey and that anyone who bothers to take one taste of raw honey instantly knows this.”We still have a fairly large market that love our honey but can’t taste the difference or afford the additional price of the Cold Packed honey. While this is slowly changing we continue to have both Regular Raw and Cold Packed. Our Regular Raw is gradually heated over 2-3 days in a box with light bulbs to allow for ease of bottling, while preserving the quality of honey. Yes both types of honey take a lot of time to bottle but we take pride in only offering the best tasting raw honey around.
If you have any more questions or comments I’d be happy to answer them. Thanks for reading through this all if you made it this far.
Best,
Tim Footdale
Honey Pacifica
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