Redditor Ok_Journalist120 presents us with a mystery. His father keeps bees in Florida, and one honey harvest was green! How did that happen?
The most common reason for odd colored honey is sweet industrial waste that the bees feed on. You might remember the 2012 story in which French bees produced green and blue honey. It was discovered that the bees had been feeding on uncovered candy waste from a nearby Mars plant that was making M&Ms. Then there was the 2015 case of Arthur Mondella, whose marijuana growing operation came to light after bees started producing red honey by eating illegally discarded syrup from his maraschino cherry factory.
Redditor Steadyandquick found all kinds of examples of green honey. Honey can be green if the bees have been consuming the nectar of yellow star thistle, which flourishes in California.
An expensive honey from Borneo is green due to chlorophyll in the exotic flowers found on the island of Banggi. Another study on the same type of claim for green honey from the Palawan forest of the Philippines found no hives, hinting that this type of honey is faked.
Beekeepers in Greece found their honey green in 2016. They believed it was because of kiwi plants, but kiwi plants do not produce nectar, which is what honey is made from. An investigation found that the bees had been feeding on the juice of mature kiwi fruits that were unharvested after a hailstorm damaged the crops. What bees make can't officially be called honey unless it is made from flower nectar. While the "fruit juice honey" was delicious, it was not good for the bees, and they didn't survive the next winter.
As for the honey pictured here, Ok_Journalist120 has been eating it a little at a time for a year now, and hasn't suffered any ill effects. But there's no definite answer yet for this particular case of green honey.
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My dad was a master beekeeper and president of SEMBA (south eastern Michigan Beekeeper Association for a number of years. He loved his bees almost to an obsession. There are so many ways for honey to be tampered with. The worst honey on the market comes from China and India because of contamination and questionable additives. In the US the fda allows honey to be cut up to 50% with corn syrup and it doesn't have to be put on the label. The words "natural" and "real" on honey labels mean nothing. Actual real honey will crystalize when the temperature gets cold enough and real honey will never go bad. Many jars of honey in grocery stores will never crystalize because they may be cut with corn syrup or they were heated too high and the nutrients in the honey were killed off and it won't turn to sugar. Your best chance of getting honest to goodness, untampered honey is to buy from your local beekeepers.Also: honey is a natural antidote to bee stings. It takes the pain away immediately - I know this first hand. It is also useful for burns on your hand/arm.
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