Coffees, Teas & Aromatics
Wildflower Honey
Wildflower (multifloral) honey is a natural invert-type sweetener made mostly of fructose and glucose (~82% sugars, ~17% water). In gelato it acts as a high-PAC sugar and aromatic, boosting softness and scoopability while adding floral flavor.
Balancing parameters
Per 100 g of product, verified against independent food-science sources (listed below).
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Total Solids | 82.9% |
| Water | 17.1% |
| Sugars | 81.5% |
| Fat | 0% |
| MSNF | 0% |
| Protein | 0.3% |
| POD (sweetening power) | 91 |
| PAC (anti-freezing power) | 142 |
Typical use: 3-8% of the total mix, usually replacing 10-25% of the sucrose.
Balance wildflower honey in a real recipe
Free balancer · no signup wall · watch PAC, POD and Total Solids update live as you add it.
Open the balancerHow to use it in gelato
Honey is used as a partial sucrose replacement and flavor note. Because its fructose and glucose are monosaccharides, it raises the anti-freezing power (PAC about 142 against sucrose 100) considerably more than an equal weight of sugar, so a little softens the gelato and lowers the serving temperature. Its sweetening power is about the same as sugar, POD near 91, because the extra sweetness of fructose is offset by glucose and by the honey's own water, so a swap changes hardness much more than it changes sweetness. Keep additions modest: too much honey overwhelms with floral aroma and can make the gelato gummy or too soft to hold shape. Use it in honey, ricotta, nut and spice flavors, or wherever a warm aromatic sweetness is wanted.
Origin & background
Honey is one of humanity's oldest sweeteners: cave paintings at the Cuevas de la Araña in Valencia, Spain (c. 8,000 BCE) depict honey harvesting. Wildflower honey is 'multifloral', gathered by bees from mixed blossoms rather than a single crop, so its flavor and exact fructose-to-glucose ratio shift with region and season. Its average composition was standardized by J.W. White's USDA surveys of U.S. honeys.
Frequently asked questions
Sources
- USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy, 'Honey' (FDC ID 169640): https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/169640/nutrients — water 17.1 g, total sugars ~82 g, fructose ~40.9 g, glucose ~35.7 g, sucrose ~0.9 g, maltose ~1.4 g, protein 0.3 g, fat 0 g per 100 g.
- National Honey Board / J.W. White, USDA 'Honey Composition and Properties' (Agriculture Handbook 335): https://honey.com/newsroom/presskit/honey-nutrition and https://sites.evergreen.edu/terroir-spring/wp-content/uploads/sites/186/2016/03/Honey-Composition-and-Properties.pdf — average blossom honey: 17.1% water, 38.2% fructose, 31.0% glucose, 7.2% maltose, 1.5% sucrose, 4.2% higher sugars.
- USDA Technical Bulletin 1261 (White et al.) sugar ranges: fructose 27.3-44.3 g, glucose 22.0-40.8 g per 100 g — via FoodStruct honey profile: https://foodstruct.com/food/honey
- icecreamcalc.com changelog, version 0.23 of 13/11/2020: 'Updated Honey in the database ... The new values are PAC=140, POD=92 and Water=17%', replacing the 130/190 pair recorded in version 0.16, an independent redoing of the same composition calculation: https://icecreamcalc.com/history/
- Dairy Science and Food Technology, 'Ice cream hardness': the freezing point depression factor is the molecular weight of sucrose divided by that of the solute, which puts fructose and glucose at 190 and maltose at 100 on a dry basis: https://www.dairyscience.info/cheese-dairy/ice-cream/228-ice-cream-hardness.html