Our favorite part of selling raw and unfiltered honey at a local farmers market is the ability to meet and educate people about this amazing substance. Over the years, we’ve had a lot of requests and been asked a lot of questions. The most common request we hear is “I just want regular honey” We love this request because we have the opportunity to teach someone things about honey that they never knew before.

Educating a customer about the different varieties of honey

The fact is that there is no one true “regular” honey. The official definition from the FDA for honey is a “thick, sweet, syrupy substance that bees make as food from the nectar of flowers and store in honeycombs.” What makes it true that there is not one “regular” honey comes from the part of this definition about “from the nectar of flowers.” Now we all know that there is not just one type of flower so that just gives you an idea of how many different varieties of honey there are.

In fact there are over 300 varieties of honey that have been identified in the United States alone, each originating from a different floral source. Furthermore, honey from one floral source (e.g. Orange Blossom) will differ slightly depending on factor such as the weather and season of when the bees collect the nectar from the flower to make honey. Two of the main classifications of honey is Polyfloral (from the nectar of many different types of flowers, like our Wildflower) or Monofloral (from the nectar of one primary type of flower, like our Orange Blossom or Manuka Honey).

Orange Blossom is an example of a Monofloral honey

The last classification is a blended honey and is what’s most commonly found on a store shelf and is only labeled as honey. Blended honey is a mixture of many different types of honey from various sources. Companies create blended honey because it is makes a more efficient and consistent product. The loose definition from the FDA above has also given companies a loophole to add other sweet substances such as corn syrup or refined sugar which has now led to an epidemic of Fake Honey.

We sell pure, raw, unfiltered, and unblended honey that has been named after the flower nectar source that the bees were collecting at the time to make this honey. Each honey variety has a distinct and unique flavor profile that we preserve by not blending it with any other honey. Additionally, we have a collection of infused honey that is made by taking one of our pure honey varieties and preparing it with an all-natural ingredient such as cinnamon, ginger, vanilla, and more.