The Pursuit of Real Mānuka: From Flower to Jar

The Mānuka tree is native to the New Zealand bush, and has fascinated us for centuries with its products’ healing powers and delicious sweetness. They hide away in New Zealand’s mountainous areas, so getting ourselves there – as well as millions of bees – is almost mission impossible! But we manage.

Many factors are involved in creating real Mānuka honey, such as the purity of the soil where the tree is, and the strength and health of said tree. Basically, there’s a lot of pressure on the tree.

To The Flower:

Just like the tree, the Mānuka flower is pretty shy. It only blooms for several weeks every year. That’s a pretty small window of opportunity to capture the natural goodness of Mānuka nectar. So, we must act fast.

There are two honey types, dependent on where the bees are allowed to go: multifloral and monofloral.

In a sense, multifloral honey is when the bees are ‘free-range’. They can travel to any flower that takes their fancy, returning home each night with a bounty of pollen.

Monofloral, on the other hand, is slightly more challenging. To craft monofloral honeys, our beekeepers must ensure that the bee only visits one specific type of flower. Our pure Mānuka honey is monofloral, meaning the bees go to Mānuka flowers, and Mānuka flowers only.

Our Happy Beekeepers:

It’s the beekeepers’ job to ensure that the bees are happy and healthy. It’s their duty to ensure that hive health is kept to a high standard.

They work around the clock during the summer, extracting honey with as little interference as possible. The honey is collected from the hives, and then transferred over to our honey frames, all ready for extraction. It is stored within drums, in which we take a sample from for independent testing.

Testing, Testing:

With all these variances, it’s only right that the honey be tested regularly to ensure top quality honey. This is when the UMF certifications come in.

Mānuka honey has unique compounds that make it naturally antibacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant. So, not only is it delicious but it also has superior healing powers! We make sure all these are tested too, so that you know you’re getting the best of the best.

Our honey gets tested in independent labs (so there’s no bias here). As we’re part of the UMF association, you can be assured that our honey is held to high standards.

Packing it All Up:

After we’re certain that our honey is up to scratch, it is processed, packed and stored at our own facilities in Auckland, New Zealand. Here, it waits patiently for happy customers to order it from our website.

Next thing you know, it’s delivered straight to your doorstep, for you to take on your own pursuit of pure happiness!