Purity of honey

With the amount of fake and impure honey sold widely everywhere, its hard to tell whether it is pure or not. Here are some simple tests to distinguish whether your honey really is pure.

The dissolving test:
Get a glass of water. This and a tablespoon of honey are all you need for the first test.
Empty the honey into the water. If the honey is impure, it will dissolve in the water- the most common additive to honey is syrup of jaggery, which dissolves. If it is pure, the honey will stick together and sink as a solid lump to the bottom of the glass. This test can also be completed by mixing equal parts honey and methylated spirits (denatured alcohol). Pure honey will settle to the bottom. Impure honey is more likely to remain dissolved and make the solution milky.

The flame test:
Get a lighter and a candle with a cotton wick. This test is better if you don't have as much honey to spare. Dip the cotton wick of the candle into a bit of the honey, and shake off the excess.
Attempt to light the wick. If it burns, then it is completely pure honey. If it refuses to burn, then the presence of water is not allowing the wick to burn. (If there is only a very small amount of honey on the wick, though, it might still burn. It will produce a crackling sound, and it would be best to blow out the wick and try it again this time using more honey.)

The spiral test:
When poured very slowly honey will flow as a spiral in a clockwise direction. This is because the honey molecule is non-symmetrical with a right-hand bias which causes the stream of honey to spin. Fascinating huh.

The absorption test:
Pour a few drops of honey on blotting paper and observe whether or not it is absorbed. If it's absorbed, the honey's not pure. If you don't have blotting paper, pour a little bit of honey on a white cloth, then wash the cloth. If there is any stain left by the honey, it is probably not pure.
Pure honey does not stain paper or cloth.

Happy testing...