The well-known tragic legend tells of the ancient picts-medovars, who knew how to prepare heather drink, that the Scottish king was ready to learn at any cost the secret of making this drug. Having not reached his goal, he had to exterminate all the medovars to the last.
This sad story shows how valued heather honey and what wonderful drinks it was possible to cook from it.
This kind of honey is used in our time, not only in its pure form. Some Scottish liqueurs have heather honey..
Table of contents
The taste and color of heather honey
Heather honey is very fragrant. It tastes a little bitter, tart. The finish is pretty strong. Fresh pumped honey has a dark yellow color.. After crystallization - brown-red.
The process of sugar is very slow. In fact, as such, crystallization does not occur. Honey turns into a jelly-like masswhich, after thorough mixing, again becomes liquid, viscous.
In the honey itself there is a lot of air in the form of small bubbles. Thanks to them, this variety shines in the sun.
Ingredients: vitamins and minerals
Heather honey is the richest of all varieties of protein (up to 1.9%) and mineral salts. The composition of this honey, there are about three hundred minerals and trace elements, including boron, manganese, copper, iron, zinc, fluorine, iodine, chromium, potassium and others.
The increased water content in it (20-23%) is also a distinguishing feature of this variety. It contains vitamin C, vitamins of group B, vitamin K and E, and others.
Calorie honey. 100 g of the product contains about 320 kilocalories.
Beneficial features
Heather honey is known as a diuretic and astringent.
With regular use it improves appetite.. It is used as a sedative, therefore it is recommended to use it at night before going to bed. In the morning it is useful to take one tablespoon on an empty stomach, with a glass of water.
Used in cosmetology as a body scrub and face masks.
Like any other kind of honey, it helps with colds, to deal with overwork, surprises with its antiseptic and antibacterial properties.
Honey is useful to use with physical and mental stress. is he normalizes intestinal microfloraa, has a beneficial effect on the entire digestive system of the body.
Because of the tart, bitter taste, in cooking it is used in small quantities.
You may be interested in the composition and properties of other varieties of honey:
- Useful properties and contraindications cotton honey
- Benefit and harm honey honey
- Useful properties and contraindications dyagilovogo honey
- Useful properties and contraindications sweet clover honey
Contraindications and harm
Heather honey is very high in calories. Therefore, it is impossible to overeat it, and, in general, you will not be able to eat it a lot because of its specific taste. If someone is allergic to bee products, it is better to refuse to use it.
Patients with diabetes before use should consult a doctor. Do not give to children up to three years.
About honey plant
Honey for this variety is wild heather bushes, 2/3 of which are in Scotland. From the heather family there are more than five hundred species distributed throughout the world.
Blooms in July. They are not afraid of adverse weather conditions. Therefore, the plant itself is a good honey plant. But nekaprostoynost still depends on humidity and other climatic conditions.
Marsh heather gives off more nectarthan mountain just because of the high soil moisture. If there is a lot of rain during the year, the mountain heather is not inferior in this indicator, and even surpasses.
In Britain there is a special day of the year - August 12th, which is called the "glorious twelfth". Traditionally, on this date, beekeepers bring apiaries to this honey plant.
Heather medoproduktivnost ranges from 200 to 300kg from 1 hectare.
Storage conditions
This type of honey is practically sugarless.. After it is aged, it acquires a jelly-like consistency. It is better to store heather honey at a positive temperature from 4 to 18 degrees. Air humidity It is preferable to maintain around 60%, otherwise the honey absorbs excess moisture.
In this state, the beneficial properties of honey will last for a long time. Above 40 with a plus sign and below 35 with a minus sign, they are lost. Store in a dark place.
Type of room does not matter. This may be a balcony, basement. The main thing is that there is no need to store honey in the refrigerator, or heat it, and also avoid long periods of exposure to honey in direct sunlight.
What are the main diseases treats?
Heather honey with success used to treat diseases such as:
- rheumatism;
- urinary system;
- asthma and bronchitis;
- polyarthritis;
- low acidity;
- mucosal inflammation;
- neurosis;
- insomnia;
- headaches.
Besides he helps the liver and cardiovascular system, heals wounds and helps to normalize the metabolism in the body.
Heather honey is classified as low grade because of the specific bitter taste and the unsuitability of leaving it for the winter for bees. Despite this, this variety has a reputation for healing and is common in Europe and America.
Heather honey is good for the liver, good for removing alcoholic toxins. Our ancestors used it to heal wounds.
poisonous?