The honey aisle has a bit of a 'word salad' problem. With dozens of different honeys side-by-side, all with different colors, labels, claims, and sources, it can be tough to tell what you're buying.

Raw, pure, organic, unfiltered...what’s the difference? What's it all mean? Aren't they all just honey?

Well, no. Honey is never 'just honey'. Like wine, it changes color and taste depending on where and when it was harvested. Since we work directly with beekeepers to bottle all kinds of honeys from across the U.S. and beyond, we'll break a few common terms down for you. And help make sure you're getting a honey you love.

Raw Honey: Honey that hasn’t been heated or pasteurized, keeping enzymes and nutrients intact. Think more 'raw vegetable' than 'raw meat'. Honey doesn't need to be cooked or heated, because it's perfectly safe to eat, straight out of the hive. (It's also one of the only foods that doesn't spoil!) But many honey companies heat their honey north of 150º degrees to break it down, make it more transparent, and keep it liquid. While it might looks nice, this will damage the floral notes, antioxidants and pollen content of the honey — nothing sweet about that. Every bottle of Local Hive Honey, Hot Honey, and Organic Hive Honey is bottled raw, with no excessive heat.

Pure Honey: Honey with nothing added—but it could still be heated or filtered. Many honeys, especially those sourced from foreign countries, are misleading or falsely labeled "honey" when they're actually cut with sugar water or corn syrup. While the problem seems to be subsiding, the FDA has found that anywhere from 3–10% of honey imports contain adulterants.

All our honeys are sourced exclusively from beekeepers we know and trust, so we can vet their purity before we bottle them. Local Hive Honey is 100% U.S. honey, while Organic Hive Honey is sourced from certified Fair Trade and Organic beekeeper co-ops in Brazil, the world's best source of organic honey.

Organic Honey: Honey that comes from hives that forage only in certified organic areas. Because bees can travel up to 5 miles from the hive in search of nectar, a single hive can pollinate flowers in a 72 sq. mi. area. The USDA rarely, if ever, certifies U.S. honey as organic because it's all-but-impossible to find a large enough area in the U.S. where bees can thrive AND there's no hint of conventional agriculture.

We source Organic Hive Honey from beekeeper co-ops in the highlands of rural Brazil. The rich variety of wildflowers, tropical climate, and isolated communities are great for bees — and produce a great-tasting honey. Every shipment is certified Fair Trade and Organic by IBD, benefitting the beekeepers directly and ensuring that every drop is really organic. We even flew to Brazil to meet the beekeepers and visit their hives.

Unfiltered Honey: Honey with all the fine particles of pollen, propolis, and beeswax that add flavor and texture. While all honey is strained (usually through a cheesecloth or metal sieve) during extraction to remove chunks of beeswax or bees (RIP 🙏), unfiltered honey stays that way. Most mass-produced honeys are heated and ultra-filtered to remove even fine particles. This makes the honey look more transparent, but ruins the local floral notes, enzymes and antioxidants that make honey taste great. 

Every bottle of Local Hive Honey, Hot Honey, and Organic Hive Honey is bottled unfiltered, so you can taste the honey just the way the bees made it.

Do You Have to Choose?

Not with Organic Hive Honey. It’s all four: raw, pure, organic, and unfiltered. 

Local Hive Honey is raw, pure, and unfiltered. Though our 100% U.S. honey can’t be certified organic, it's still harvested with care by American beekeepers. Every Local Hive Honey from Washington to Florida has its own sweet taste.