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King Tut鈥檚 Sweet Tooth

Among the treasures discovered during the famous 1922 archaeological excavation of King Tutankhamun鈥檚 tomb was a jar of honey. 聽Archaeologists tasted it (brave souls those archeologists), and to their amazement, found it to be as sweet as, well, honey. 聽Due to its low water content and acidic pH, this bee regurgitation is one of the few foods that does not spoil. 聽The sticky goo starts out as flower nectar, containing about 60% water. 聽Bees add enzymes that break down the complex carbohydrates to simple sugars and then store the nectar in honeycombs where the water content is reduced to about 18% through evaporation. 聽Sweet chemistry!

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