Does your jar of honey look like this?
Please don’t throw it away! It is still good. Real honey doesn’t go bad! What you have is crystallized honey. There’s something about crystallized honey that tends to make some people nervous. However, crystallized honey is completely normal. Natural crystallization is a sign that the honey you’re enjoying hasn’t been altered by being diluted, over heated, extensively filtered or by addition of other liquid sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup. My honey is raw and natural so it will definitely crystallize with time.
Why it happens
Honey is a supersaturated solution of fructose and glucose. When the glucose molecules separate from the water, they begin to form crystals, which grow and build on each other. The crystals can also build on any natural particles that are found in honey, such as pollen, and wax. Cooler temperatures will make crystallization happen faster, which is why you don’t want to store your honey in the refrigerator. Honey crystallizes differently depending on the composition of the nectar the bees were collecting when they made it and the rate at which the crystals form. If you are very lucky, you may end up with a product similar to creamed honey, in which crystallization is controlled to produce very small crystals and a very smooth texture. However, most often natural crystals are larger and the crystallized honey will have a sandy, or gritty texture.
What to do about it
You can use your honey in its crystallized form. This is actually my favorite way to eat it! It is an incredible spread, and the crystals add crunch. Or spread it on something warm, or stir it into warm tea or coffee and it will melt right back into liquid honey. However, if you want to get your honey in liquid form it is easy do. Your instinct might tell you to add water. Not only is that unlikely to work, but diluted honey is at risk to ferment, so unless you want to make mead, that isn’t the solution! Instead you can re-liquefy honey by warming it. It doesn’t take much heat, as it goes back into solution at around 104o F. When I need to re-liquify crystallized honey (to get it into bottles, or to re-liquify crystallized bottles for market) I put it in my honey warmer, which warms it to between 106-108 degrees F, around the temperature of a nice hot shower. I know you don’t have a honey warmer at home, but you can use hot water to accomplish the same thing. As long as your honey is in a glass container the fastest option it to heat a pan of water until it is steaming nicely but not yet boiling, take it off the heat, set the honey bottle into the water and let it warm slowly as the water cools. You want to use just enough water that it will come to the about same height as the honey in the jar when the jar is in the pan. Too much and the jar may tip, too little and the honey in the top of the jar won’t melt as well. Occasionally shaking the jar will speed the process up a bit. If it is in plastic bottles, that water is probably too hot, but warming it in a pan of the hottest tap water you can get and refreshing the water periodically to keep it hot should work, but it will likely take a fair amount of time and shaking. Finally, if you have a rice cooker with a “warm” setting or an instant pot with a yogurt setting that is large enough to hold the whole bottle of honey, those should work more or less like my honey warmer, although I have not tried either. I would be a bit cautious about doing this with plastic bottles. But for sure, please don’t microwave it. You will definitely overheat it.