Honey

A thick, sugar-rich food that bees make by gathering floral nectar, breaking it down with enzymes and evaporating its water before storing it in the comb.

Sealed honey essentially never spoils. Its water content is low (~17%) and bound to sugar, its pH of 3–4.5 is acidic, and bee enzymes add hydrogen peroxide. Microbes can't survive, so millennia-old honey is found unspoiled in Egyptian tombs.

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The English word "bear" was originally a euphemism meaning "the brown one." Ancient people feared or revered the bear so much that they avoided its true name, and the substitute became permanent. The Russian медведь similarly derives from a euphemism meaning "honey eater."

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