Honey Forms

Honey comes in four basic forms: liquid, comb, chunk, and creamed.

1. Liquid Honey

Liquid honey is the most popular form in the United States. Beekeepers produce more harvestable liquid honey than comb honey. Production of both creamed and chunk honey requires liquid honey.

2. Comb Honey

Comb honey is honey still in the bees' wax combs. It comes in two forms: cut comb and section comb.

Cut Comb

Cut comb is traditionally made using standard frames in honey supers, but instead of removing honey from the comb, you cut the comb into blocks with a knife or cookie cutter and package the blocks individually.

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Section Comb

Unlike cut comb honey, section comb honey is created when bees work on individual wooden boxes or round plastic rings, building small sections of comb within these containers. The boxes or rings are simply pulled out at harvest time and packaged for sale. No cutting is necessary to produce section comb honey because the wooden boxes or plastic rings are sold as part of the product with the intact combs contained within.

3. Chunk Honey

Chunk honey consists of one or more pieces of comb honey immersed in liquid honey and packed in wide-mouth containers.

4. Creamed Honey

Creamed honey is a form of crystallized honey that spreads like butter. The crystallization process of creamed honey must be precisely controlled to yield extremely fine crystals and a smooth consistency.

While Americans tend to prefer liquid honey, many other cultures prefer creamed honey and spread it on their morning toast like butter or jamPennStateExtension+OLC-1006+2017+type@asset+block/S8_iStock_000014635611Large.jpg" alt="Creamed honey, a crystallized honey that spreads like butter." class="no-border" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; max-width: 100%; line-height: 1.4em; height: auto;">