Honey Crystallization Kinetics (2D)

Jar Conditions

Storage temperature 14°C

Glucose content 34%

Water-bath temperature Off

Simulation speed 5×

Live Readout

Crystallized

Texture

Liquid

Jar status

Sealed, ambient

Quality (HMF)

100%

How it works

Honey is a supersaturated glucose solution. Nucleation-and-growth rate follows a Gaussian temperature response peaking near 14 °C (fast enough molecular mobility, still strongly supersaturated) and a glucose-content term that scales the driving supersaturation:

rate(T)  = exp(−((T−13)/9)²)
rate(Gl) = clamp((Gl−24)/22, 0.05, 1.4)
dX/dt    = k · rate(T) · rate(Gl) · seedMult · (1 − X)
seedMult = 2.6 if seeded else 1

X is the crystallized fraction (0–1). Seeding with existing nuclei raises the effective rate constant and packs many small crystals instead of a few large ones — the mechanism behind commercial "creamed" honey. Raising the water-bath slider above storage temperature reverses X toward 0; push the bath past 40 °C and an irreversible HMF (hydroxymethylfurfural) quality-damage term accumulates — a real marker of heat-damaged honey that never resets except by clearing the jar:

if bath > 40°C: dHMF/dt = (bath − 40) · 0.055

Jar cross-section — crystal front growing from the base upward as X increases; colour shifts amber → creamy with crystallization, then browns with HMF damage.
Kinetics graph — crystallized fraction X plotted against elapsed simulated time, the classic nucleation-and-growth S-curve.
Rate-vs-temperature curve — the Gaussian rate model with a marker showing where the current storage temperature sits on it.

Honey / crystal front Crystallized fraction X(t) Water bath (when active)