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How Do I Choose the Best Honey Powder?

Bryce Clinton
Bryce Clinton

To choose the best honey powder, first you have to decide what you want to use it for. Honey powder can be used in food, cooking, and as a beauty or bath supplement. It's available in different quantities and comes in different forms depending upon these uses.

The next step to choosing the best honey powder is to determine whether or not you want an organic product. Organic powdered honey is often purer and of higher quality, but because it lacks certain additives, it might also be more prone to spoiling or absorbing water, which can ruin its texture. When shopping for organic honey powder, thoroughly read any available online reviews.

Piece of a honeycomb.
Piece of a honeycomb.

When choosing powdered honey, carefully read product descriptions. Since there are different uses for different kinds, you'll want to make sure you're getting the right variety. Food-grade honey powder has a higher concentration of honey and is the purest form available. The closer this type of powder comes to being pure honey, the better, but other ingredients such as wheat starch, fructose, and granulated cane sugar are used to keep it stable and dry.

A honey bee.
A honey bee.

While food-grade powdered honey is usually about 70 percent honey, powdered honey also comes in cooking forms that are slightly less concentrated and often contain maltodextrin. There is food- or cooking-grade powdered honey that has been roller dried and spray dried, which are two methods used for drying honey and forming powders. Food-grade powdered honey can be used as a sugar substitute, added to beverages as a sweetener, or combined with other ingredients in baked goods.

Food-grade honey powder has the highest concentration of honey.
Food-grade honey powder has the highest concentration of honey.

The other main variety of honey powder, which is usually less concentrated than powdered honey for cooking, is the variety used as a beauty or bath supplement. This form is similar in texture to corn flour and is alleged to have natural antiseptic properties that make it great in soaps. Honey is known to attract dirt from pores and works as a deep cleanser and skin softener, and it is often added to creams, soaps, facial products, masks, and various tea and milk baths.

This beauty-aid type of honey powder may have more additives than other powdered honey, so read the ingredients carefully if that's a concern. Also remember that it can absorb moisture, so make sure to read reviews to see if anyone has experienced problems with a given brand. When honey powder hardens, it can always be re-powdered using a food processor.

Discussion Comments

turquoise

@ZipLine-- If you want to go all natural, you might as well use regular honey. Honey powder is a processed food, so you can't expect it to be as healthy as regular honey.

I use honey powder, not for the health benefits, but because of convenience and ease. I hate how messy and sticky honey is. It's very time consuming to get a spoonful out of the jar. I use honey powder much like regular sugar, to sweeten tea and coffee and also in recipes. I think it tastes better than sugar.

ddljohn

@ZipLine-- I'm not sure but I think most honey powders have sugar syrup in it. It's kind of hard to make powder from honey. Honey has to be dehydrated or air dried otherwise it will clump. So they have to add some other ingredients in there to keep it in powder form.

You might want to check organic stores to see if they have an all natural honey powder. I have personally never come across any.

ZipLine

Is there a honey powder made completely of honey?

I found a honey powder in my grocery store but it has sugar in it.

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    • Piece of a honeycomb.
      Piece of a honeycomb.
    • A honey bee.
      By: artist_as
      A honey bee.
    • Food-grade honey powder has the highest concentration of honey.
      By: Nitr
      Food-grade honey powder has the highest concentration of honey.