About this site

NZ Honey is a reference guide to New Zealand’s honey varieties — what each one is, where it comes from, and how it behaves once it is in your cupboard.

Why it exists

Mānuka takes up nearly all the oxygen in writing about New Zealand honey, and it is a genuinely unusual product deserving of it. But it leaves everything else undescribed. Rewarewa, kāmahi, tāwari, rātā and beech honeydew are distinctive honeys that most people in New Zealand have never knowingly tasted, and there is very little written about them that is not attached to someone’s shop.

So this site covers the other honeys, and points at nz-manuka-honey.co.nz for mānuka rather than duplicating it.

What we publish

Botanical and geographic fact: which plant the nectar came from, where that plant grows, when it flowers, and the colour, flavour and crystallising behaviour of the honey that results. Alongside that, practical guides to the things that actually puzzle people — why a jar sets hard, what “raw” means on a New Zealand label, how to store honey, and how to buy direct from a beekeeper.

What we refuse to publish

• No health or wellness claims, at all.Honey is a food, health claims about food are regulated in New Zealand, and the rules cover advertising as well as labels. You will not find a word here about what any honey is “good for”.
• No invented businesses, people or reviews. We do not publish a producer directory. Certifications, hive counts and years trading are facts held by the business or by a certifying body, and we only point at what a producer states on its own site.
• No rankings and no “best honey” lists. We have not tasted these side by side under controlled conditions, so a ranking would be an opinion dressed as a finding.
• No production statistics we cannot source. Regional share and national output figures circulate widely in this category and almost none of them cite anything.

How we make money

Nothing, currently. Nothing is sold here, there is no advertising, and no producer pays for a mention. If that changes it will be stated on the page where it applies, before you act on it. See our editorial policy.

Corrections

Honey varies by season and site, and descriptions of flavour are generalisations rather than guarantees about a particular jar. If something here is wrong — especially a botanical or regional detail — we want to know and will correct it.