10 Best Honey in India 2021 - Buying Guide Reviewed By Nutritionist

We recommend these ten healthy honey brands available online for you to purchase. Whether it be polyfloral, monofloral, organic, or raw pure honey, we have covered them all, so take a look at the list and you can also check our buying guide, which will tell you tricks to choose the best honey. 

Ruchi Wadhwa is a certified Nutritionist with a keen interest in Ayurvedic sciences. She has a wholesome, holistic, and sustainable approach to nutrition. You can reach out to her on Facebook, Instagram, or quora.

Honey has been used by humans for thousands of years for its several health benefits. This antioxidant-rich superfood protects our body from damage due to free radicals, keeping our organs healthy and our skin younger looking. Honey is also helpful for keeping our skin looking younger when applied directly to the skin too. It helps in fading dark spots and dark patches on the skin.

Honey is antifungal and antibacterial; the hydrogen peroxide naturally present in it kills fungus and bacteria when applied on the skin and also when taken by mouth. This also helps in wound healing, as honey kills the bacteria and also aids in tissue regeneration.

This superfood also nourishes the bacteria present in our gut that helps in the process of food digestion. When the digestion process takes place smoothly, it reflects on our overall health too.

Nowadays, we are used to flipping the package to check the ingredients list of any product we buy. Well, you may have to do that while purchasing honey too, because there are certain factors to consider before we buy this nutrient-rich food. Let's go through them one by one.

Naturally, honey has an indefinite shelf life even if we store it in a jar directly after extracting it from the honeycombs, where honeybees store them. But if we leave the honey in the open, allowing moisture, bacteria, and fungus inside, it could get spoiled.

The honey that we get from stores goes through various processes that reduce the moisture content further and removes bee pollen, dead bees, and wax from it, which makes it even clearer looking and pleasing to customers. But the processes, which include heating, also destroy nutrients and filtration removes bee pollen, which is a known anti-oxidant.

Pasteurization is a process of rapidly heating and cooling to destroy microorganisms in a food material. But this process also destroys proteins and other nutrients in it. The heating process also makes the honey flow easier, making the filtration process easier, which, by the way, removes bee pollen known for having over 250 types of nutrients.

Check the packaging to find out if the honey you are buying is unprocessed, unfiltered, and unpasteurized so that the product has all the vitamins and minerals nature intended it to have.

Depending on the region and the flowers the honeybees feed, honey can have different tastes and nutritious value. For example, if a region predominantly has one type of flower, then the honey will have the taste, aroma, and nutritious value of that particular flower alone.

Honey bees don't have any bias toward the flowers they visit to collect nectar; all types of flowers will be visited. Most of the honey that we buy from shops is made this way unless mentioned otherwise. This is called polyfloral honey, and they don't have any unique aroma or taste to them that makes them stand apart.

But in some areas, the majority of the plants and trees present are of one type. The honey bees present in this area will only feed on those flowers, producing monofloral honey. Depending on the characteristics of the nectar, monofloral honey will have a different color, consistency, aroma, and taste compared to polyfloral honey.

For example, acacia honey is lighter in color and has a flower-like aroma. Because of the high fructose content, acacia honey crystallizes much slower than regular honey. Another example is orange blossom honey made when honeybees visit orange trees only. This honey has a tangy and fruity flavor and is also rich in minerals like selenium, boron, and zinc.

You will also come "raw" honey while shopping. This is basically the honey that hasn't gone through any processes except for filtration through a mesh that separates dead bees, bee wings, and other impurities.

Usually, wild honey is collected from the beehives present in the forest, which is made by the bees feeding on the nectar of wildflowers. But large-scale honey farming by companies typically involves artificial beehives, which are manmade structures that function as beehives, to which honeybees are introduced. 

There is one problem with artificial beehives - they can be fed with sugar syrup instead of allowing them to collect nectar naturally from flowers. When you buy products that say "wild honey", you can be sure that it is free from any sort of human intervention or adulteration.

There is also a higher chance of the presence of bee pollen in wild honey, which is rich in fatty acids, micronutrients, and enzymes that act as an anti-inflammatory and immune system booster.

It all depends on the flowering plants and trees present in a particular region. For example, Himalayan honey is naturally harvested from the tress of the sub-Himalayan valley. The flowers found exclusively in this area give the honey a distinct taste and specific antifungal and antimicrobial properties of the plants.

Acacia honey is another example of region-specific honey. In the areas where the flowers of the black locust plants are present predominantly will make the honeybees feed on their nectar, producing honey that has a floral aroma and a delicate flavor. If the honey that you buy from the stores doesn't mention anything about the region, it won't have any distinct taste that makes it stand out from regular honey.

Region-specific honey may not necessarily be monofloral honey. Honeybees may travel up to five miles in search of nectar. If the region also has other flowering plants, the honey they produce may not have the taste, aroma, and consistency you are looking for. So, whether you are buying online or sourcing directly from a farmer, make sure to do your research.

There is a misconception that organic honey means honey collected from natural beehives. Not necessarily. Suppose the honeybees visit a garden that has been sprayed with pesticides, the resulting honey will also be contaminated, and cannot be called organic honey.

But even if a beekeeper is harvesting honey from artificial hives, and if the flowers the honeybees collect nectar from have not been sprayed with any chemicals, it can be called organic honey. As long as the honey doesn't go through filtration and heating processes before bottling, you will get a product with all the essential vitamins and minerals intact.

So, check if the package says organic honey, and if it also says unfiltered, unprocessed, and unpasteurized, you can be assured that the honey you have in hand is exactly how it is when it was extracted from the beehive.

Honey usually comes in jars. If you have a spatula that you can use to spread honey on bread loaves or other foods, a wide-mouthed jar will be more convenient for you. If exposure to air and moisture is your concern, you can go for a jar with a smaller opening.

Nowadays, honey also comes in bottles with nozzles. You can squeeze the bottle or hold it upside down, and the honey will ooze through; no mess and no extra crockery needed.  Since honey doesn't flow very easily, you may have to keep the jar upside down overnight for whatever is on the bottom to flow towards the opening.

Here is our buying guide for the best almond oils, olive oils, and oats in India. You may choose to add it to your food or apply it to your skin to keep it healthy and younger-looking. We have also included a list of our recommendations for each one of them.

We always do considerable research before buying any food product. The same we did for honey too. We know that adulteration is possible while manufacturing honey, so it is always better to buy organic and raw forest honey that hasn't gone through any process that destroys the nutrients naturally present in them.

Author - Arun F Xaviour