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Is it possible to buy Honey from the UK at a sensible price?

30 replies

Freddiefoxster · 18/10/2022 22:36

Honey varies in price hugely, I like to buy a general purpose Honey for toast and drinks and I would prefer to buy British. When I look at the country of origin all of the lower priced ones say they are from more that one EU county or China.
Does anyone know any from Supermarkets that are from UK Bees that is sensibly priced?

OP posts:
applepineapple · 18/10/2022 22:36

Why don't you look for a local honey seller near you? Craft or artisan fair etc?

NotMeNoNo · 18/10/2022 22:47

Waitrose?
You might find a local beekeeper on Facebook, one near us sells their honey for £5 a jar.

EmmaGrundyForPM · 18/10/2022 22:49

I buy honey from a local bee keeper for £5 per jar. Have a look at Farmers Markets etc

Beekeeper1 · 18/10/2022 22:56

Very few British honey producers are able to produce enough to satisfy supermarket demand and, therefore, sell through farm shops, local butchers, farmers' markets, craft fairs, food festivals etc instead and a premium, purely British honey is likely to be in the £5/lb price range.
Beekeeping and honey production is a costly and very time consuming occupation (the jars, lids and labels alone cost the producer about 75p/unit), a cheap honey will inevitably be a blend of imported foreign honey from unknown sources - and as for Chinese honey, well, best avoided at all costs - say no more

Pashazade · 18/10/2022 23:04

If you're anywhere near Brighton there is a honey shop in the Open Market on London Rd, don't know if they have an online presence. But they do stock lots of local honeys.

CushionsandThrows · 18/10/2022 23:07

M&S sometimes have British honey. They recently put beehives on a number of farms and introduced a lot of bees into the environment as part of a conservation programme. I think they were quite heavily criticised for it not being a well-thought-out plan. The honey is certainly upwards of £5 a jar, I think. The one I tried was lovely. Our local butcher sometimes has local honey but it sells out very quickly.

DotBall · 18/10/2022 23:16

Much honey on the shelves of UK supermarkets is from foreign bees fed on sugar syrup rather than natural forage. It is absolute shit, is unnaturally super-sweet, tastes nothing like real honey and is a crying shame for the bees. Check the jars and nearly all of it is either non-EU honey (Chinese) or a blend of EU and non-EU. What most of it ISN’T is British.

Tesco Finest English set honey or Littleover Apiaries is the nearest you’ll get to a half decent basic supermarket honey without going to Waitrose or M&S. I only buy honey from local producers or farmers markets now, although Lidl had 2lb jars of genuine Polish honey in again recently and this isn’t bad either.

There are loads of great British small batch local makers. My current favourite is Llangattock Honey, especially their set honey.

TowerblocksAndSunflowers · 18/10/2022 23:20

I always buy a couple of jars of honey when we find a farm shop or farmers market when we go away on holiday, especially if it's reasonably priced. Welsh, Cornish, Devon, Dorset etc. I like to try all the different textures and flavours.

JamMakingWannaBe · 18/10/2022 23:22

Try the shop at your local National Trust property.

RampantIvy · 18/10/2022 23:27

Loads of farm shops, markets and food festivals sell locally produced honey.

silentpool · 18/10/2022 23:34

It won't be the cheapest option but I've bought from here and it was lovely.

www.stickeys.co.uk/shop/

mumofninetofive · 18/10/2022 23:39

Freddiefoxster · 18/10/2022 22:36

Honey varies in price hugely, I like to buy a general purpose Honey for toast and drinks and I would prefer to buy British. When I look at the country of origin all of the lower priced ones say they are from more that one EU county or China.
Does anyone know any from Supermarkets that are from UK Bees that is sensibly priced?

A very limited amount of honey in the UK comes from UK bee's 🐝. Because the native UK honey bee is the black bee, and it produces alot less honey than imported bee's.

Essentially most bee keepers keep non native bee's that are not designed to cope in our country, so it's essentially battery farming bee's. They use them to produce honey until they all die off then replace them. There a cash 🐮.

Ask your local bee keeper of they use native black bee's. I recon I know the answer!

Didiplanthis · 18/10/2022 23:41

Find a local producer. You'd be surprised how many there are around. We currently have 46 jars of honey from our 1 hive 😁... we probably had another 2 over the kitchen floor as the kids helped with extraction..... I dont actually like this years honey as its almost all from blackberry flowers and is really light and sweet. I much prefer darker tree pollen honey but the Bees didn't take orders !!

Didiplanthis · 18/10/2022 23:42

Our Bees came from a swarm collection.. we didn't ask their ancestry !

mumofninetofive · 18/10/2022 23:45

Well ignorance is bliss then if you have no care about the source of your stock or biodiversity in this country 🙄.

PickAChew · 18/10/2022 23:45

I just buy local honey but it ain't cheap.

Most of the supermarket stuff might as well be off brand golden syrup

NotRealyAnOtter · 18/10/2022 23:45

It's about £6 or £7 a jar around here. But worth the price as it tastes so different to supermarket honey.

froufroulala · 18/10/2022 23:46

Try your local allotment, most keep bees for obvious reasons.

SiobhanSharpe · 18/10/2022 23:50

My late uncle, a beekeeper, used to sell his honey to Fortnum and Mason in the 60s.
I think it was labelled Epping Forest Honey. He and his beekeeping mates got together and were able to supply a reasonable amount to F&M.

Didiplanthis · 18/10/2022 23:51

mumofninetofive · 18/10/2022 23:45

Well ignorance is bliss then if you have no care about the source of your stock or biodiversity in this country 🙄.

Would you like us to kill off the swarm ? And wipe out more Bees that are providing a useful function ? I wouldn't 'buy in' foreign Bees no, but I don't think offering a home to a natural local swarm makes me personally responsible for the countries biodiversity issues ! I think you might need to look at larger scale bee keepers with more than one hive, buying in Bees for that really...

SiobhanSharpe · 18/10/2022 23:52

I buy honey from street markets in France and Spain whenever I see it.
It varies hugely in colour, viscosity and taste. I love the really dark chestnut stuff, it's very strongly flavoured.

Wetblanket78 · 18/10/2022 23:58

Maybe have a look at local independent shops. There's a shop about 10 miles from me that is based on reducing packaging that sell locally produced honey.

We used to have it a lot but had to cut it out. It's a trigger for my daughters siezures. I do miss ot though.

caroleanboneparte · 19/10/2022 08:30

https://www.houseofbruar.com/blossom-honey-12oz-ns/]]

House of brier has a big selection of honey.

gogohmm · 19/10/2022 08:35

I currently have greek honey (Lidl) but it's easy to buy British honey from farm shops, markets etc

mdh2020 · 19/10/2022 08:45

We met some beekeepers on holiday and they told us the reason that imported honey is cheaper is that it is almost always adulterated.

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