Quintessence of Honey

The Quintessence of Honey is produced in a very similar manner to and herbal Spagyric. A Spagyric is when you separate the principles of any given subject - Sulfur, Mercury, & salt - and then recombine them. As many know, the sulfur of any material is its oil, the Mercury is its spirit or a strong water, and the salt is an alkaline salt like substance which is considered the purified body of the material in use. A completed Quintessence of Honey is the Oil of Honey, the Spirit of Honey, and the Body of Honey recombined and cohobated.

Oil of Honey
When Kymia arts produces its oil of Honey it actually produce two separate oils, in two separate manners. The first oil is created by taking honey and simmering it with a large amount of hand collected spring water. As the water simmers down, a scum will rise to the top. This scum is scrapped off and the water is allowed to simmer down until it all appears to be gone. The honey left in the pot is then placed into a glass vessel and digested at body temperature in an incubation chamber. After a few days, any remaining water in the honey will rise to the top. A few weeks later, with consistent digestion, an Oil will be found to be floating on top of this thin water layer. The oil is collected and set aside. The honey that remains is then used in our second extraction of the Oil of Honey.

The second method we employ for the extraction of the Sulfur of Honey (oil) is done through straight distillation of the honey used in the initial extraction. Honey is place in a large flask, so that it only fills 1/4 of the flask. The honey is then gently distilled to remove any associated water. First a sweet water comes over with a gentle heat. The heat is then increased and a strong acidic water begins to distill over (alkahest of honey). After this strong water distills over the honey begins to swell in the flask and releases a white phlegm that distills over. When all 3 of these separate liquids are drawn off, the honey will begin to reach dryness. The heat is increased and a dry-distillation commences. As the honey breaks down with high levels of heat, it smokes and fumes. These fumes are captured and condensed so that a red oil drips down into the receiving flask. This I now our second extraction of the Oil of Honey

Spirit of Honey
To produce the Spirit of Honey, raw honey is dissolved into wild harvested spring water, yeast is added, and the honey is allowed to ferment. About 4 weeks later when the fermentation process comes to an end, this crude mead is filtered into a distillation flask and gently distilled - The Spirit of Honey is captured in the receiving flask. the Spirit is rectified several times through subsequent distillations to produce a cleaner and more potent Spirit. This spirit is placed in a bottle, sealed tightly to keep it from evaporating or from absorbing atmospheric moisture, and set aside next to our Oil of Honey.

Salt of Honey
Using the sweet water that was obtained from our distillation of the Oil of Honey, Both the flask used for the dry-distillation of honey, and the fermentation vessel used to create the Spirit of Honey are washed out to remove any dregs remaining from these two processes. This wash water is filtered into an open, wide mouth glass dish, and then set over a gentle heat for evaporation. Upon evaporating, a white salt like substance remains - this is the salt or body of Honey. This Salt is dissolved in spring water, filtered, and allowed to evaporate again to purify the salts to brilliant whiteness. The final product is the purified body of honey. It is set aside with the other two principles of honey - Oil & Spirit - so that they all may be cohobated and the Quintessence of Honey can be finalized.

Cohobation
Now that all three of the principles of honey have been procured, the next step is recombining them. The Oil, Spirit, and Salt are all added to a flask and sealed with a glass stopper. The flask is placed into the incubation chamber and allowed to circulate for one lunar Cycle. During the following month the 3 principles will comingle, blend together, and dissolve into one another so that all that remains is the red tincture of the Quintessence of Honey.

The Quintessence of Honey is a profound medicine that can only be produced through the art of Alchemy. Information on its history and uses can be found in the animal section of Kymia arts (or by clicking on this link - Quintessence of Honey). The Quintessence itself is made available to the public in our store section