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Subject: Re: Honey
From: apetail
Posted: Sat Oct 8. 2011, 21:45 UTC
Followup to: "Honey"  by VilVodka  (Mon Oct 3. 2011, 17:38 UTC)
> Hello, new here. First time asking a bartending question oline in my 
> 11 years experience.
> 
> I learned a new drink recipe from a television show recently. It's 
> called a Gold Rush and the recipe called for honey (not honey liquer) 
> in an cold drink. Interesting that the honey poured easily on the TV 
> show but not from the honey bottle at work or at home. Also, the 
> honey keeps its consitency and doesn't mix well, no matter how hard 
> or long I shake. I end up getting lumps that don't end up in the 
> actual pour. I tried heating the honey, but when I pour hot honey in 
> the mixer of ice, lemon juice, and boubon, the honey crystalizes 
> (imagine a chewed up piece of candy floating in your cocktail).
> 
> If there any methods or honey substitutes that I can try?
> 
> Thank you

Reasons to use honey are it's lingering rich herbal flavour and sweet 
sensation (slightly different sugar profile). You can not easily replace it 
because any other sweetener would not adequately substitute the concept of 
adding honey in place of sugar.

For it's mixing behaviour, you may regard honey basicly as a very thick sugar 
syrup. The high viscosity/thickness are reasons why it pours and dissolves 
badly.

You could try to turn the honey into a syrup* by mixing it with water before 
starting your cocktail session (just like you would make simple syrup). Be 
careful with high heat as it can change the honey taste by converting the 
sugars and flavours. 

Alternatively you could ignore the fact that honey pours and dissolves badly. 
Add a spoon of honey to your shaker and just make sure to learn the proper 
amount of honey to be added and the proper amount of shaking duration in order 
to obtain the desired result. You can also sample the taste or smell of the 
drink during shaking to see if the right amount of honey has dissolved.
To prevent small bits of honey in your drink get them out by using a fine 
strainer in conjunction with the strainer part of the shaker.

The crystallisation of honey is a difficult thing as with many other foods 
like for instance ice cream and chocolate. The basic idea is that you can have 
different types of crystals (with differing strength and melting point) from 
the same substance. During the production of foods the formation (or 
non-formation as in clear honey) of the types of crystals is controlled very 
precise to obtain desired product properties. When you start heating ans/or 
cooling you risk the chance of destroying this nice composition. In your case: 
your mixing of hot honey with a cold substance is what gets the 
crystallisation going. For some types of honey it is actually a desired 
property. If the crystallisation happens homogeneously you get very fine small 
crystals resulting in a creamy texture (creamed honey). 


*What makes honey so biologically stable is it's low water content and high 
sugar content. The syrup would have a shorter shelf live.

-- 
"Question everything..."


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