Like all natural products, Manuka Honey is also sensitive to heat. When the temperature is high this can cause honey to become runnier. Likewise cold spells in the Winter months can cause Manuka honey to harden.
Both are completely natural reactions to temperature and easy to address:
- If your honey is too runny for you, then you may place it in the fridge to allow it to cool and become more solid in consistency.
- If your honey has become hard due to coldness, you may place the sealed jar in a bowl of warm water to allow it to soften over a period of an hour. If you need this change to happen more quickly then warming the honey, for example on top of a radiator, will see it return to its normal state faster. Stirring the honey once warmed will also help return it to its usual consistency.
When Manuka honey changes state it is possible that some crystallisation will also occur (dry, white granules) on the top of the honey. Please be reassured this is also a normal occurrence, which will return to a normal state once warmed.
Thanks to being a natural product sealed in an airtight temper proof pot, Manuka honey cannot “go off” like perishable foods.
All Manuka Doctor honey is carefully stored our UK warehouse before shipping to you, but when deliveries are made in colder weather it is possible that honey may arrive harder than normal, depending on how long it has been in transit.
MGO as a natural compound is affected by extreme heat, but only over a very long period of time, for example, spending years in a shop window in direct sunlight. The MGO content of Manuka honey will not be affected when warmed for a short time, which is why adding Manuka Honey to hot drinks is not problematic.
Please be reassured that harder consistency is a normal occurrence in the Winter months for all honey and spreads – from Manuka to Nutella - and products will return to their normal consistency once warmed.
