It’s time to think beyond the bear bottle.
Because honey comes in way more forms than just plastic squirt bottles. My favorite? Honey in the comb, pure and simple.
And yes, the comb is totally safe to eat. People have been keeping bees — and eating the honeycomb — for several thousand years.
When bees gather nectar from flowers, it is stored in a honey sac inside their bodies. During storage, the bee’s saliva mixes with the nectar, which is made mostly from sugar. Enzymes in the saliva convert those sugars into honey.
The honeycomb comes into play when the bee gets back to the hive. The comb — a network of hexagonal cylinders — is made from the waxy secretions of worker bees. As these cylinders are filled with honey, they’re capped with yet another layer of wax.
Honey processors typically gather these wax combs, crush them and run them through a centrifuge to extract the liquid honey. But increasingly, you can find tubs of unbroken honeycomb at grocers and farmers’ markets. The easiest way to extract it from the tub usually is a fork or spoon.

Honeycomb can go places honey can’t. While drizzling honey over a salad seems odd, topping a salad with crumbled goat cheese and hunks of honeycomb is simply heavenly.
Honeycomb also has a different texture than liquid honey. The wax gives the honey a pleasant body, transforming it from something merely absorbed by the other ingredients into something that stands on its own.
Like liquid honey, honeycomb can be stored at room temperature. If you have a choice at the market, opt for darker colored honeycomb (and liquid honeys), which tend to have deeper flavors.