Any Suggestions Where to Buy Honey?

Any ideas where to buy honey, or rather, where to buy honey that is of high quality?

I love to try different brands of honey that are available here (Singapore) in the supermarkets, pharmaceutical shops and honey specialty shops, and get my hands on local honey whenever I can while abroad. At any one time, I can have more than 10 bottles of honey stored in my kitchen. The best is of course to be able to buy fresh raw honey directly from credible bee farms. Here, Australian and New Zealand honey e.g Waitemata Honey is more common and its quality, relatively easy to trust. New Zealand’s Active Manuka Honey is a big hit with my family, but I always “warn” others before they buy – it’s costly and for some people, it tastes like medicine (it’s actually known as Medihoney in some pharmacies!). It takes an acquired taste to love it. I am fond of exploring the unique honey varieties from the States, but unfortunately, they are almost non-existent in the small shops here. Honey from China is not unappealing to me, but I must say after so many fraud cases related to foods from China, I am pretty wary of it.

Many visitors from different countries ask where to buy honey that's raw or of good quality. I find it hard to make a recommendation as different countries produce different different floral varieties of honey and taste preferences can be very subjective; some like honey strong, others like it mild. Moreover, many types of honey sold here are not available in other parts of the world. Experience tells that honey is aplenty everywhere, but good quality honey can be rare. In my search on where to buy honey that's raw, I have found this -- Really Raw Honey from the States.

Really Raw Honey sold in Amazon has a striking, memorable name which would not be forgotten easily. It has no fancy bottle label, just almost too plain blue and red text against all white background. I like the glass bottle, a much better storage way for honey if you are not going to finish all of it quickly. It says on the bottle that it’s “pesticide free, totally unheated and unstrained” and “still contains pollen , propolis, honeycomb and live enzymes”. (Notice this, in manufacturers' terms, creamed honey, which is formed by allowing the honey to crystallize at a controlled temperature of about 55 degrees Celsius, is not considered as processed and heated. Personally, I think this can be controversial, but shall not get into a debate here... )

What’s very unusual and surprising about this honey is it has what the packaging describes as “capping”- “crunchy bits of honeycomb, pollen and propolis speckle the top” (see the picture I took). Basically what you see when you open up the cap is a thin layer of wild-looking dark brown and amber particles (which their marketer nicely calls it “Crown Jewels”, and I suppose it's a tactic to make the honey appear as more "raw" to us, the consumers.). And below the brown crust, it's perfectly flake-free, yellow creamed honey (I notice from the bottles I have bought, about 10 so far, the honey colour in some bottles is darker than others).

When you take away the plastic cover and sniff the honey, you can immediately recognise the sweet fragrance from the flowers. As it's in cream form, it's less messy than liquid honey but to mix it well with water quickly, some warm water (not hot!) does help. And the taste? Delightfully pleasant, sweet, and a very subtle tinge of lemon taste. I am impressed. The floral aroma is so good (intense but definitely not overpowering) that I almost feel like I have real wild flowers in the mouth. Despite all the good things mentioned about the dark brown specks, I am still not keen to eat it. Perhaps at the back of my mind, I am still picturing bits of bees' legs, wings, body parts and other impurities...My younger daughter also frowns upon the brown bits whenever I mix the honey with water, complaining it's "dirt"! Filtering away the particles before giving it to her to drink is necessary. And this reinforces my belief why most commercial honey is processed and filtered for its sparkling clean appearance -- so that it would be perceived by consumers as "good quality honey". Nevertheless I am so glad that all the particles you can find in the honey are on the utmost top layer, which can actually be first removed and mixed with water. Then you can do a quick filter to remove the particles before drinking the honey water. The rest of the honey in the jar is clean and needs no draining.

The price? For sure, it’s not the cheapest honey around, but one of the tastiest honey I have ever known. And on its bottle the label, it's interesting that the supplier has abandoned superiority claims and instead presented a factual-sounding line on the bottle "it's no secret, unprocessed honey, straight from the hive has been used worldwide for millennia to improve digestion, soothe sore throats, coughs, promote healing of burns, wounds, rashes, prevent tooth decay, and provide energy." Quite smart, I thought. Check it out: Really Raw Honey 1 Pound - Pesticide Free, Totally Unheated Honey

End of "Where to Buy Honey, Any Ideas?" Back to "How to Test for Pure Honey".