5 Surprising Benefits of Adding Honey in Coffee

What are the benefits of adding honey in coffee? Let us create some buzz and find out! ? As you know coffee is one of the most popular choices of drink worldwide. So much so that more than 400 billion cups of it are consumed each year (yes, you read that correctly).

You can have coffee cake, coffee chocolate treats, and even alcoholic beverages infused with an energizing dose of caffeine.

Honey has been used for thousands of years due to its healing and anti-inflammatory properties. Thousand of years ago, it was used in Ayurvedic medicine to rebalance the body, while the Egyptians used it to treat wounds.

Nowadays, people are using honey to sweeten up their morning cup of coffee. We know that coffee has many health benefits and honey itself has its benefits. However, but does honey offer any additional benefits to coffee? If so what are they? 

With so many people swapping out their sweeteners for honey, we’ve decided to do a little investigating. Is honey worth swapping out your sugar cubes for? Let’s take a closer look at some of the health benefits below. 

The Benefits

Benefit #1: Nutrients

When compared to sugar, honey actually has a higher calorific value. However, depending on the type of the nectar used to make it, honey can in fact have a much bigger nutritional level than standard sugar does.

If you opt for honey, you’ll be getting the added benefit of vitamin A, riboflavin, vitamin C, vitamin B6. Honey also contains trace minerals that are essential to the human body including calcium, iron, phosphorus, and zinc.

Very rarely does something so healthy for us taste so good! 

Benefit #2 Antioxidants

If you didn’t know already, antioxidants are substances that help to protect your cells against dreaded free radicals, which are unstable atoms that can damage cells, cause us to age more quickly, and even cause illness.

Antioxidants fight free radicals on a molecular level, so it certainly wouldn’t hurt to stir a spoonful into your coffee each morning. Coffee is high in antioxidants, too, so you’ll be giving yourself a healthy burst of antioxidative protection before your day even begins.

Benefit #3 Holistic Illness Remedy

Honey contains pollen, which means that it will help you to fend off symptoms of the common cold, or even to fight seasonal allergies like a sore throat or stuffy nose.

With a spoonful of honey mixed into your coffee a day, you’ll find yourself experiencing a lot less congestion – it seems that the bees care about our planet and our health! 

Honey is also a longstanding remedy for a sore throat! According to studies, it can help to relieve coughs much more effectively than over-the-counter medicines that contain dextromethorphan (DM), which is a cough suppressant found in most sore throat medicines. 

Benefit #4 Improved Blood Circulation

Both honey and coffee can improve the circulation of the blood, which in turn will help to maintain the healthy functioning of the heart. They do this by regulating blood sugar by lowering insulin resistance.

This means that there will be a smaller amount of glucose in the bloodstream, which lowers the chance of higher cholesterol, and the chance of developing heart disease. 

Benefit #5 Energising

Honey is what is known as a ‘simple’ carbohydrate, which is a kind of carbohydrate that is broken down quickly by the body and instantly used as energy.

Though simple carbohydrates are commonly found in candy and sugary drinks, honey has a low GI, so it will be slowly digested which will cause a smaller and slower rise in blood sugar. 

This contrasts greatly to simple carbohydrates that are high in GI, as they are quickly digested which causes a rapid rise and fall of the blood sugar levels, which can be dangerous.

Honey won’t do this and will get you revived and alert without a crash. Instead, it will slowly release energy throughout the day, which makes it great for stirring into your morning cup of coffee! 

Summary: Are there any Benefits of Adding Honey In Coffee?

To put it simply, adding honey to piping hot coffee is a recipe for disaster. This is because if it gets heated past a certain point, honey can lose most of its properties, which means that you won’t be getting any of the health benefits.

After brewing, you’ll want to wait until your coffee gets to around 104F, and the perfect way to judge the temperature is to see if you can hold the mug without it being too hot. 

Types of Honey:

There are different types of honey that each come from different sources of nectar. Each one tastes slightly different  Let’s take a look:

• Chestnut: This honey comes straight from chestnut trees and is a very popular choice in Italy. Out of all the honey types, this is the most bitter, so it’s ideal for anyone who doesn’t like their coffee to be overly sweet. 
• Acacia –Acacia honey is the most popular kind of honey, and for good reason! It’s super sweet and perfect for your coffee. 
• Fireweed – Fireweed honey is another popular choice, and a hit in the United States.  It has a smooth texture along and a sweet taste that makes it an ideal choice for stirring into your coffee. 
• Alfalfa – Alfalfa honey promotes the growth of healthy intestinal bacterias, all the while sweetening up coffee or even toast. Though it’s not as sweet as Acacia or Fireweed, it’s still pretty delicious!
• Avocado – Taken from the pollen collected from avocado flowers, Avocado honey has a very sweet flavor not to be confused with the popular breakfast food! 
• Blue Gum – Blue Gum honey has a very thick texture, so you might want to spread across your toast, too. 
• Buckwheat – If you have a sweet tooth, Buckwheat honey might be the one for you. It has a very rich and sweet taste that might be too strong for some. It’s also pretty expensive and is often used to brew beer. 

In addition to this, honey can be pasteurized or unpasteurized. Where possible, we recommend going for unpasteurized honey (otherwise known as raw honey) instead of regular honey because it comes directly from the hive.

Due to this, raw honey contains more nutrients than regular honey and also contains no processed sugars or preservatives.