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Some time after you open a jar of honey, often a few weeks and occasionally just a few days, you notice it isn't pouring the way it used to. It turns cloudy, then thick, then solid enough to stand a spoon in. This is the question we're asked about more than any other, so here's the complete answer. Crystallised honey hasn't gone off Start with the reassuring part. Solid honey is not spoiled honey. It's the same honey, with the same flavour, arranged differently. You can eat it as it is, spread it like butter, or turn it back into liquid in a few minutes. It's so normal, in fact, that some honey is sold crystallised on purpose. Set honey and creamed honey are simply honey whose crystallisation has been controlled to produce a fine, smooth texture. What's happening inside the jar Honey is mostly sugar with very little water, usually less than 20%. That's far more sugar than water can normally keep dissolved at room temperature. Chemists call this a supersaturated solution, and supersaturated solutions don't stay settled for long. Given time, some of the sugar comes out of solution and forms crystals. The sugar responsible is glucose. Honey's two main sugars are fructose and glucose, and glucose is considerably less soluble in water than fructose is. So glucose is the one that drops out first. Each new crystal gives the next one something to grow on, and gradually the process spreads through the whole jar. Fructose stays dissolved. That's why a crystallised jar sometimes has a thin runny layer on top or around the edges. It's the part of the honey that hasn't set. Why some honeys set in weeks and others stay runny for months Every honey crystallises in the end. How quickly depends mainly on three things. The balance of sugars. A honey with plenty of fructose relative to glucose has less glucose available to crystallise, so it stays liquid for longer. Acacia honey is the classic example: it's naturally high in fructose and can remain pourable for many months. At the opposite end, honey from oilseed rape is high in glucose and can set within weeks, sometimes days. Tiny particles. Pollen grains, specks of wax and even small air bubbles all give glucose crystals a place to start forming. Honey that has been heavily filtered has fewer of these starting points. Honey that hasn't tends to crystallise sooner. Temperature. This is the one you can control, so it gets a section of its own. The temperature that matters most Honey crystallises fastest between about 11°C and 16°C. That's a very common temperature for a cool larder, a cupboard on an outside wall, or a kitchen in winter, and it's why so many people notice their honey setting once the weather turns. To slow crystallisation down, keep your honey somewhere steady and reasonably warm. We recommend 20 to 22°C, which in most homes simply means an ordinary kitchen cupboard, away from the back door and out of direct sunlight. There are two places worth avoiding: The fridge. There's no food safety reason to keep honey cold. Chilled honey is stiff and difficult to spoon, and keeping it there gains you nothing. Beside the oven or on a sunny windowsill. Warmth won't make honey unsafe, but sustained heat slowly darkens it, dulls its flavour and raises its level of HMF, a compound laboratories measure to tell how much a honey has been heated or aged. How to make crystallised honey runny again All you need is a bowl of warm water and a little patience. Loosen the lid of the jar. Stand the jar in a bowl or pan of warm water, at around 40°C. That's comfortably warm to the touch, like a bath, rather than hot. Leave it for 10 to 20 minutes, stirring now and then once the honey begins to soften. Top up the water if it cools. Dry the jar, tighten the lid and return it to the cupboard. And a few things not to do: Don't use the microwave. Microwaves heat unevenly, so some of the honey ends up far hotter than you intended. Don't use boiling water or put the jar on the hob. Honey's natural enzymes, including diastase and invertase, break down with heat. So do its more delicate aromas, such as the herbal notes in linden honey, which are usually the first thing to go. Warmed honey will crystallise again in time. You can repeat the process whenever you need to. Just keep it gentle each time. The one jar you shouldn't warm If you have a jar of our Organic Blossom Honey with Honeycomb, leave it out of the warm water. Beeswax softens at fairly low temperatures, and a warm bath will slump the comb. If the liquid honey around the comb sets, cut through it with a knife instead. Set honey alongside a piece of comb is very good on hot toast. There's more on serving it in our honeycomb guide. White streaks and frosting Now and again a jar develops white streaks, patches or a lacy pattern on the inside of the glass, usually near the top. This is known as frosting. It happens when tiny pockets of air become trapped as the honey crystallises, or when the honey shrinks very slightly and pulls away from the glass. Frosting is purely cosmetic and makes no difference to the honey at all. Does crystallisation prove honey is real? You'll see this claim a lot online. It isn't quite right. Crystallisation is normal for genuine honey and nothing to worry about. But it isn't a purity test. Some real honeys, acacia in particular, stay liquid for a very long time. And honey that has been mixed with syrup can still crystallise, depending on what's gone into it. Whether a honey is genuine can only be settled in a laboratory, which is why every batch of our honey is tested four different ways. We explain those tests in our article on honey labels and honey fraud. Can honey go off? Sealed honey is remarkably stable. Its low water content and natural acidity make it a very poor home for the microbes that spoil most foods. When honey is diluted, an enzyme it contains called glucose oxidase also produces small amounts of hydrogen peroxide. The thing that can go wrong is moisture. Honey draws water in from the air around it. Leave a jar open in a steamy kitchen, or keep dipping a wet spoon into it, and the top layer can take on enough water to begin fermenting. You'd notice a sour or slightly boozy smell, and possibly some foam on the surface. Keep the lid on and use a clean, dry spoon, and it won't happen. Storing honey: the short version Keep it at 20 to 22°C if you can. Avoid the 11 to 16°C range, which sets honey fastest. Lid on, a dry spoon, and out of direct sunlight. If it sets, use warm water at around 40°C. Never boiling water, never the microwave. Leave the honeycomb jar out of the water altogether. If you'd like a honey that stays runny for as long as possible, choose Organic Acacia Honey. For how it compares with the rest of the range, see our guide to choosing a honey.

There are two kinds of people when it comes to food between meals. Snackers want one thing, at one time. A biscuit with a cup of tea. A bag of crisps at four o'clock. Grazers are different. A handful of nuts on the way past the cupboard. A couple of apricots with a coffee. A spoonful of something straight from the jar. Grazers rarely sit down to a snack, but they're rarely without something to pick at either. A big bag of one thing gets dull for a grazer within days. What they want is variety, and everything within reach. That's the idea behind this hamper. What's inside Six full-size packs, running from sweet to savoury. RAWGORILLA Raw Organic Pecan Butter, 200g Organic pecans, stone-ground at low temperature, and nothing else. It's mellow and slightly toffee-like, softer and sweeter-tasting than most nut butters, and low in carbohydrate at 4.3 g per 100 g. It's the one item in the hamper you eat with a spoon. Spread it on toast, stir it into porridge, or put it in a small bowl in the middle of a board for dipping apricots and mango. Good to know. There are no stabilisers, so the oil separates naturally. Give it a stir before using. For more on what to look for in a nut butter, see how to choose the best nut butter. Deluxe Mixed Nuts Cashews, almonds, brazils, hazelnuts, walnuts and peanuts, in exactly equal parts: one sixth each. That's less common than you might think. Many mixed nut blends lean heavily on peanuts, which are the cheapest to buy, and go lightly on the expensive nuts. This mix doesn't. The nuts are raw and unsalted, with 18 g of protein per 100 g. Organic Dried Mango Slices Chewy, sweet slices of organic mango from Burkina Faso, with no added sugar. The most instantly likeable thing in the box. Goji Berries, 250g Sun-dried goji berries, also known as wolfberries, from Ningxia in northern China, the region most famous for growing them. They taste sweet and slightly sour, a bit like a raisin with a tangy edge, and they're chewy rather than soft. Natural Whole Apricots, 250g Turkish apricots, hand-pitted and slowly dried in the sun. You'll notice they're brown rather than bright orange. That's because they haven't been treated with sulphur dioxide, which is what keeps most dried apricots that vivid colour. Without it, apricots darken naturally as they dry, and the flavour changes too: deeper, richer and closer to caramel than the bright, sharp sweetness of a sulphured apricot. Organic Omega Seed Mix, 250g Pumpkin, sunflower, linseed and sesame seeds. The one you scatter over everything else: yoghurt, salads, porridge, soup, or into bread dough. Why a grazing hamper works Variety is the point. Six different textures and flavours means there's always something different to reach for. Nothing gets boring. It builds a board in two minutes. Tip the nuts, apricots, mango and goji berries into small bowls, put the pecan butter in the middle, and you have a grazing board with no cooking and no shopping. It keeps. Everything is a store-cupboard item with a long shelf life. It doesn't need eating in a week, which suits a grazer perfectly. Nothing in it is a mystery. Nuts, seeds, fruit and ground pecans. The longest ingredient list in the whole hamper is the mixed nuts, and every ingredient on it is a nut. How to build a grazing board from the hamper Pick a board or a large plate. Wood looks best, but anything flat will do. Place the pecan butter first. Spoon it into a small bowl and put it slightly off-centre. Everything else goes around it. Add the big items. Arrange the apricots and mango slices in loose piles, fanned out rather than stacked. Fill the gaps with nuts. Tip small handfuls of mixed nuts into the spaces between the fruit. Finish with colour. Scatter the goji berries across the board for flecks of red, and sprinkle a pinch of seed mix over the nuts. Add what you have. Cheese, oatcakes, grapes, sliced apple or a few squares of dark chocolate all fit in. The fruit and nut butter together are the best part. Try an apricot dipped in pecan butter. More ways to use everything Pecan butter: on toast or pancakes, stirred through porridge, or with sliced apple Mixed nuts: by the handful, roasted with a little salt and rosemary, or chopped over salads Mango: straight from the bag, or chopped into flapjacks and muffins Goji berries: over a smoothie bowl or granola, or steeped in hot water with fresh ginger Apricots: chopped into a tagine, a stew or a bowl of porridge Seed mix: over yoghurt, soups and salads, or kneaded into bread dough Or combine the mixed nuts, mango and goji berries into your own trail mix for walks and long drives. Who it's for Grazers. Obviously. Anyone who works from home and picks at food throughout the day, or keeps a bowl of something on the desk. Vegans. All six items are suitable for vegan and vegetarian diets. People who like to host. It makes an instant grazing board for friends who drop by. Walkers, cyclists and anyone on the move. Nuts, seeds and dried fruit travel well. Someone trying to eat fewer ultra-processed snacks. Every item is a whole food, with nothing added. Who it isn't for Anyone with a nut allergy. This hamper contains a lot of nuts: pecans in the nut butter, and peanuts, hazelnuts, cashews, brazils, almonds and walnuts in the mixed nuts. The seed mix contains sesame. Everything is packed in an environment that also handles mustard, celery, soya and gluten. Someone looking for a fully organic hamper. Three of the six items are certified organic: the pecan butter, the mango and the seed mix. The mixed nuts, goji berries and apricots aren't. If organic matters most, the Organic Snack Hamper is certified all the way through. Here's what's in it. Chocolate lovers. There's no chocolate in this one. For help matching a hamper to the person, see how to choose a food hamper someone will actually eat. Storing everything Keep everything in a cool, dry place away from sunlight. The pouches reseal, so close them after opening or move the contents into airtight containers. Stir the pecan butter before use and finish it within three months of opening. Full allergy information Contains pecans, peanuts, hazelnuts, cashews, brazil nuts, almonds, walnuts and sesame. All items are vegan and vegetarian, GMO-free and have no added sugar. Full ingredients for every item are listed on the product page. Always read the label on each product when it arrives. Shop the Healthy Grazing Hamper