Verify SMTP server authentication via java api (Healthcheck including AUTH)

Goal

I want to implement a health check for an SMTP server. This healthcheck should include authentication so that I know not only know if the server is available but if I will be able to send emails using the given certificate.

I understand that this is possible using Telnet.

If possible I would like something a little more highlevel. At the moment I'm using javax.mail.Session, javax.mail.Transport, etc.

Questions

Is it possible to verify if an SMTP server will (likely) accept my request by authenticating using a certificate, without sending something like a testmail to the server using simple java API?

Also another question I have is if i should use a Session for a MimeMessage and then send these using the static Transport#send method. Or should can I use something where I get an instance. Main thing I would like to achieve is to retrieve the returncode from the server also in succesful cases.

I'm also okay with using a different library.

For reference some code of how I'm preparing the session and messages atm.

public class SmtpMailService {

    public Session prepareSession() {
        Properties properties = new Properties();
        properties.put("mail.smtp.host", host);
        properties.put("mail.smtp.port", port);
        return Session.getInstance(properties, null);
    }

    public List<MimeMessage> sendMessages(List<MimeMessage> messages) {
        Iterator<MimeMessage> m = messages.iterator();

        while (m.hasNext()) {
            MimeMessage currentMessage = m.next();
            try {
                Transport.send(currentMessage);
                m.remove();
            } catch (MessagingException e) {
                break;
            }
        }

        List<MimeMessage> mailsWithError = StreamUtils.asList(m);
        return mailsWithError;
    }
}

And how I then send the mails.

public class SmtpMailSenderService {
    private SmtpMailService mailerService;

    public List<SmtpEmailNotificationRecipient> sendNotificationMails(final List<SmtpEmailNotificationRecipient> recipients,
            final SmtpMailTemplate templateId, final Map<String, String> templateValues) {

        // templating stuff

        final Session smtpSession = mailerService.prepareSession();
        final List<MimeMessage> messages = mailerService.prepareMessages(smtpSession, recipients, email);

        final List<MimeMessage> unsentMessages = mailerService.sendMessages(messages);

        return collectRemainingRecipients(unsentMessages);
    }
}