A number of people ask me whether I heat treat my honey. I always tell them truthfully, partly because I'm honest and partly because I'm proud of my product, and that I'm careful to not reduce it's quality by heating. I tell them that, I heat it to 35c, which is significantly cooler than what a beehive will experience in the summer, in order to be runny enough to pour, and that pasturised honey is heated more to 60c something which is what's associated with the lose of flavour and nutrition. Nonetheless, it seems whenever I say this, the customer becomes disinterested and I don't get a sale.
I'm a bit unsure what to do about it. How common is it for beekeepers to not heat treat honey? Seems largely impractical for me. They'd have to collect honey from the hive that is completely liquid, process, package and sell it quickly. Would they not be able to store honey then? Because honey that's stored will crystallise and need to be heated.
I believe customers ask this because they have learned heat treating reduces quality, but they havne't looked into it indepth enough to really understand. I'm starting to wonder if I should just tell them that I don't heat treat it, but not sure if that'd be misleading.
I get the same sort of questions about sugar feeding. People seem to think sugar feeding spells dooms for beehives and reduces quality of honey. I'm not sure how true that is, but sugar feeding is not something I do now anyway.