The present invention relates to a gelatinized honey food composition. More particularly, the present invention relates to a honey product having a modified texture resembling a clear jelly but with a full, naturally rich flavor.
Natural honey is the sweet, aromatic, viscous syrup produced by the honeybee from the nectar of flowers. A combined evaporation and sucrose inversion is brought about by the addition of bee enzymes and physical manipulation of the nectar in the hive. As the ripened nectar reaches a solids content of from about 80 percent to about 82 percent, the cells of the comb in which it is deposited are sealed over with beeswax and the honey thus preserved is stored for maintenance of the colony during the winter.
The color and flavor of honey is closely related to the flower from which it originates. About 25 floral types of honey are commercially important. These range in color from nearly water-white (sweet clover) to dark amber (aster-goldenrod) and in flavor from very mild (fireweed, clovers) to pronounced (buckwheat, tulip poplar).
Honey is generally considered to be a highly concentrated solution of simple sugars having the following physical characteristics: high viscosity, stickiness, great sweetness, high density, hygroscopicity and relative immunity from spoilage. Table I provides an average gross composition of United States honey (wt %).