Most commercial honey is heated during extraction and processing. Heat makes honey flow faster, kills yeast that could cause fermentation, and extends shelf life. It also destroys a significant portion of the enzymes, aromatic compounds, and pollen that give raw honey its flavour and nutritional character. We extract at under 35 degrees Celsius, which takes longer and requires more care, but produces a honey that tastes like the flower it came from.

How conventional honey extraction works

In large-scale operations, honey is typically heated to between 60 and 70 degrees Celsius during extraction and filtering. At these temperatures, honey flows easily through filters and fills jars quickly. The heat also kills any wild yeast present in the honey, which reduces the risk of fermentation in storage. The trade-off is that heat-sensitive compounds, including diastase and invertase enzymes, aromatic esters, and much of the pollen, are degraded or destroyed. The result is a stable, consistent product that tastes broadly sweet but not of much else.

What cold extraction involves

We extract in our small room in Matsumoto using a radial extractor that spins the frames to release the honey by centrifugal force. We keep the room temperature at around 28 to 30 degrees Celsius during extraction, which is warm enough for the honey to flow without additional heating. After extraction, the honey rests in settling tanks for 24 to 48 hours so air bubbles and wax particles rise to the surface naturally. We skim the surface and jar directly. No heating, no pressure filtration.

What stays in the honey as a result

Cold-extracted honey retains its natural pollen content, which is part of what gives each variety its distinct flavour and is also what allows honey to be traced back to its botanical source. The enzyme diastase, which is used as a marker of honey quality in European food standards, degrades rapidly above 40 degrees and is largely absent in heavily heated honey. Aromatic compounds responsible for the floral and fruity notes in blossom honeys are volatile and also heat-sensitive. Keeping the temperature low preserves all of these.

The practical difference in flavour

The easiest way to understand the difference is to taste cold-extracted and heat-processed honey side by side. Heat-processed honey tends to taste uniformly sweet with a faint caramel note from the Maillard reaction. Cold-extracted honey from a single floral source tastes of the flower. Our apple blossom honey has a distinct green-apple note and a clean finish. Our soba flower honey has an earthy, almost malty depth. These flavours are present in the nectar and survive cold extraction. They do not survive heating.

Does cold extraction affect shelf life?

Slightly. Because we do not heat the honey to kill wild yeast, there is a small risk of fermentation if the honey has a higher-than-usual water content. We test the water content of every batch with a refractometer before jarring. Honey with a water content below 18 percent is stable at room temperature. All our batches come in below 18 percent. Stored in a cool, dark cupboard with the lid on, our honey will keep for years without any change in safety or quality.

Every jar from Swift Blend Gate is cold-extracted and labelled with the harvest date. If you want to taste what that means, this season's range is available now.