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I have a honey dipper I thought would be worth making use of. It does great at not dripping honey as I take it out of the jar. However getting the honey out of the dipper is another matter. I've tried holding it at various angles and gently shaking it. How do I get the honey to drip where I want it to?

I imagine it would work well if stirring the honey into a drink. However I am trying to get it on my oatmeal, and it's a pain to clean after stirring it in the oats.

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    I found that the best place for honey dippers is the garbage bin, for the same reasons you mention. Use a spoon, which you can lick clean afterwards!
    – Juancho
    Feb 26, 2013 at 22:59
  • Or, use a spoon pre-heated in hot water - the honey will just slide off whole. Jan 26, 2015 at 17:05

7 Answers 7

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Apparently there is an orientation to the thing. (I can't confirm because I never use mine and I don't feel like honey right now.)

While moving in and out of the jar, hold it with the stick up and down. Honey will kind of "sit on the shelves" of the dripper and fall off very slowly if at all. Move it over to your oatmeal and then turn it 90 degrees so the stick is parallel to the floor/counter/table. Now apparently honey will flow out of the slots and onto your oatmeal.

If this works, it could actually be good for getting a thin drizzle which is hard to do with a spoon.

Try it and let me know?

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    The important bit is that you let the honey drip off it ... you don't use it to touch the item to be sweatened. They also work well for more viscous liquids like molasses and stroop.
    – Joe
    Mar 8, 2013 at 13:04
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Traditional honey dippers are quite large and made of hard wood; these can be used to drizzle honey on things. They're designed to stay in the honey pot. You need a honey dipper that just fits diagonally in your honey pot. You return it to your pot after use, you do not wash it.

The small ones most often seen in modern shops are designed to take honey from a jar to your cup of tea. So it is "washed" in your hot tea. It is quite useless for anything else.

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  • Are you saying that the large ones are also useful for more than putting honey in tea?
    – Cascabel
    Feb 27, 2013 at 6:26
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    @Jefromi Yes, but they "live" in the honey pot. They are a waste of time if you are going to wash them each time
    – TFD
    Feb 27, 2013 at 8:02
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    Honey has strong antiseptic qualitites, which is why the dippers can be kept in the honey. That said, the dipper should not be actually put in the tea--it should never touch anything but honey and air. Tea goes bad easily at room temperature, and could cause pathogens to grow in/on the wooden dipper. Feb 27, 2013 at 16:06
  • @OmniaFaciat Tea goes bad? You let the dipper dry and put it away. What grows on a dry piece of wood?
    – TFD
    Feb 27, 2013 at 19:10
  • @TFD The fact that it needs to be a big one is a good answer to the question, so I went ahead and edited it into your answer. (That's more important than the bonus information about washing.)
    – Cascabel
    Feb 28, 2013 at 1:49
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Honey dippers are to be kept in the honey, of course. Pull it out of the honey, hold it at a slightly tilted angle and twirl it to catch the honey that is dripping from it. Hold it over the cup, bowl or whatever sideways (parallel) and let the honey drip into or onto your cup or bowl. You do not use it to stir with, nor do you wash it. Honey is viscous and does not accept shaking as an accelerator of getting it off the dipper; it has to drip--hence the name. As someone else says, it lives in the honey jar or honey pot. It will live there happily for years and never be burdened with anything at all and is always available when needed. They do come in assorted styles, so pick one you like and use it to your heart's content. I had a wooden one literally for probably 20 years, always kept in the honey jar. The only problem that I encountered was that the honey had solidified pretty well and someone had tried to literally dislodge it from the honey by pulling on it and it and the head finally separated from the stem, rather than softening the honey first. Now I am shopping for a new one.

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    DianaB is correct. As the maker and user of honey dippers, I suggest they not be washed unless absolutely necessary. If you do wash them, coat them with either soft bee's wax or mineral oil or a mixture of both, then either return them to the honey pot or put in a small plastic bag until needed again..
    – user33039
    Jan 25, 2015 at 21:50
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I would say warming it up would be a good place to start, that'll help the honey flow more freely off the dipper (though now that the honey moves more freely, it might drip more as you take it out of the jar).

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I have a small plastic-tipped honey dipper that came with my Cruset honey pot. I do use the dipper to stir my tea but I do not put it back in the honey pot until it is cleaned. I find this a quick, easy way to prepare my tea and, in fact, would love to have a couple more of these dippers.

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The key is storing your honey dipper right in the honey jar. If the honey dipper is a separate item you keep taking out of the honey jar, washing off, and putting in the drawer, then you waste too much honey. A great solution is the 'Jarware' Honey Dipper Mason Jar Lid at Mason Jar Merchant. The honey dipper is integrated right into the mason jar lid, and the honey dipper stays in the jar, so you you only use what you want, and put the dipper back in the jar. That way you don't waste any honey cleaning your liquid gold off the end of the dipper. You can find the honey dipper mason jar lid here: https://masonjarmerchant.com/products/jarware-honey-dipper-mason-jar-lid-regular-mouth

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I do not store my dipper in the pot. I just run a very hot tap while the honey slowly drips over my oatmeal then simply run it under the tap to clean. (My dipper has a silicone end on a beech wood stick). So far the outside of my jar of honey is drip free.

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