Make Honey Great Again, or How to Decrystallize Honey

I need honey for a blackberry-basil popsicle I am making. Unfortunately, I found my honey had crystallized. Off to the Internet I went to figure out how to change it back into liquid form.

1. A container big enough to hold your bottle of honey (I'm using a 4-cup glass measuring cup)
2. Hot water (I'm using my tap water)

Here are some things I found out about honey that you should know before undergoing your decrystallization. The biggest thing I learned is that the honey shouldn't be brought to a temperature of more than 110°F. If you do this, you will start destroying the beneficial enzymes in the honey. It's bad enough we Americans accept overprocessed (heat treated), adulterated (corn syrup added) honeys as the real thing; you don't want to get rid of any of the remaining beneficial elements. So, the most recommended, and probably most time consuming, way to decrystallize honey is to soak the bottle in warm water.

Run your tap water to get the water up to temperature.

Fill the container with the hot water.

Insert the honey bottle into the hot water. Make sure the lid is open to allow any pressure build-up to escape.

For me, this process took 90 minutes and 12 containers of water. To help things along, I shook the bottle between soakings to distribute the crystals as they came apart. Now, I didn't stand over it the entire time. While crystals were melting, I went off and did other things. That is why it took so long.

There are those who would suggest putting the honey in a pan of water heated on the stove; others recommend using a microwave. However, both those methods could lead to the honey exceeding 110°F and losing its enzymatic goodness. I'm happy with the results I achieved. It gave me time to write this Instructables. When I make the blackberry-basil popsicles, I'll create a link to that recipe from here.

ABOUT PLASTICS: There is an argument to be made that heating the plastic will allow it to leach into the honey. I concede the point. In the future, therefore, I will be pouring my honey into a glass Mason/Ball-style jar and using my vacuum sealer to seal it up. The glass will also insulate the honey from the environment, possibly preventing it from crystallizing in the first place. I'll update y'all on that down the road.