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The story behind Hikiän
Bilberry Honey – Twice as Good for You!
If you haven’t heard of bilberry honey before, you are in for a real treat as you discover all that is good about it, not just from the point of view of flavour, but also its exceptional health benefits.
Before we go on, we feel we should also make it clear that bilberries are similar to but are not the same as blueberries. While both may be called a “superfood”, bilberries have additional health benefits beyond those of blueberries, as we have pointed out in our article on the differencebetween the two.
Where our bilberry honey is concerned, both the source of the nectar for the bees, and the bilberries themselves that we freeze dry and add as a powder all come from a totally unspoilt natural environment deep within Finnish woodland. For your added reassurance we are independently certified as producing honey that is free from any pesticides or herbicides, as well as being GMO (all sourced from the same location), while our honey also has an impressively low HMF value of 3.3.
The Relevance of HMF values in honey
HMF stands for Hydroxymethylfurfural, but please don’t switch off as this is not complex science! HMF is produced as a breakdown of fructose, a naturally forming sugar found in honey. The higher the HMF reading, the more the natural sugars have begun to break down, resulting in poor quality honey. According to research carried out by Perkin Elmer“Good quality honey has a lower amount of HMF”. Of the two honeys they tested, the levels ranged from 16.9 to 63.6. Our honey has been tested and the HMF reading was 3.3, which underlines its exceptional quality.
A short season but a long life for bilberry honey
One of the greatest challenges we face here at Hikiänwith regard to our honey is the short season during which it is produced. Bilberry, Lingonberry, Heather and willow are only in flower for a maximum two months every year because of our short summer, so we are extremely limited in the window of opportunity we have to harvest honey. So how could we provide a year-round supply of this exquisite honey when we can’t add any preservatives?
A natural solution to a natural problem for bilberry honey
While many food manufacturers look to either heat or chemical solutions for food preservation, we adopted a more natural approach through some clever science. After all, we know that heating honey reduces its quality by greatly increasing its HMF value.
Here at Hikiän we looked to what can affect the longer-term quality of honey, and that is sunlight. By presenting our honey in violet glass jars, we are able to block out the full spectrum of light, save for violet, which causes no harm. We also think that violet is a great colour for a glass jar, especially if it contains bilberry honey!
Our bilberry honey has only one “additive” – powdered bilberry
The health benefits of honey are well documented, and with its high levels of antioxidants, considerable research is being carried out on the benefits of honey in the fields of cancer and cardiovascular disease. To further enhance the natural benefits of honey, we have also chosen to add freeze-dried bilberry powder.
Why?
Because the Nordic bilberry, which is found in the woodlands of Finland, not only contains high levels of vitamin C and vitamin E but also, of great importance, anthocyanin. Bilberries are classed as a “superfood”’, food that is recognised as having clear and proven health benefits, and anthocyanin has been proven to be beneficial in reducing instances of cardiovascular disease, while further research is being carried out to confirm strong beliefs that it can also be beneficial, health-wise, in certain instances of cancer, neurological disease, diabetes, bacterial infections and fibrocystic disease.
While we are keen to promote the health benefits of our Finnish bilberry honey, we don’t want you to lose sight of the main reason we think you should buy some though, and that is because it is absolutely delicious!
Where can I buy high quality organic propolis and honey?
You can buy high quality organic propolis and honey at our Hikiän online store.
Our products have organic certification, multiple organic awards and we do world wide delivery.
Hikiän online store is located at store.hikian.com.
About Hikiän
Wild nature, millions of flowers and a clean Scandinavian environment creates the perfect combination to produce delicious honey.
It is important for us at Hikiän that we are able to offer honey which is unheated and untreated directly from the bee hives.
To guarantee the premium quality we have chosen to use our bee hives in the best places from the countryside in Finland.
Please watch this short video about us:
