Bee bread – protein source

Bee bread is a wonderful product of nature. Its composition is so rich that scientists fail to pinpoint its exact composition. For now, the not so short list of ingredients includes vitamins, minerals, amino acids and other beneficial nutrients in varying proportions. It’s probably for good reason that the bees keep their bread on the first floor of their hive, along with the mistress of the castle.

What is bee bread?

Even though it’s not actual bread, the fermentation process certainly gives it a sweet and sour after-taste like that of rye bread. All of this is the result of the bees’ special manufacturing technology. Really, bee bread is bee pollen preserved in honey. When bees return to the hive with their pollen bundles, they compress them into the honeycomb cells, pour them over with honey and then cover them with wax. Thus, pollen becomes a food reservoir preserved in honey, ready for future use. The fermentation process allows us to absorb the nutrients from bee bread much more effectively than from pollen.

When extracted from the honeycomb cells, bee bread must be dried before it can reach your home. If the bee bread is not dried properly, it can spoil. To preserve the best properties of bee bread, we dry it for two days in special driers that maintain a hive-like temperature. Bread that has been dried slowly remains supple, fragrant and easy to chew even for children. The benefits, properties and consumption of bee bread are described comprehensively in our blog post.

How to consume bee bread?

Even though bee bread is considered a ‘food product’, we definitely don’t recommend eating it instead of lunch. Better savour it as a dessert or snack, a teaspoon a day, and for the little ones — as many crumbs as they have years. Bee bread can be chewed, dissolved on the tongue or even made into a breakfast tea — we can’t imagine our mornings without it.

Learn how to make this breakfast tea here:Breakfast tea.

Storing bee bread

Even though bee bread does not tend to spoil, it is best to keep it in a cooler place. This way you’ll make sure that it retains its flavour and consistency.

Bee bread isn’t just a valuable fruit of our bees’ labour, it’s also very delicious! Have a taste and perhaps it will replace your usual not-so-healthy snacking habits and become part of your morning ritual.

Our scientific sources:

1. Mărgăoan R, Stranț M, Varadi A, et al. Bee Collected Pollen and Bee Bread: Bioactive Constituents and Health Benefits. Antioxidants (Basel). 2019;8(12):568. Published 2019 Nov 20. doi:10.3390/antiox8120568