New Zealand Mānuka honey you can trust
We only sell authentic New Zealand Mānuka honey rated 300 MGO and above. We’re involved in every part of the process from bee to you, and have every batch independently tested. So you can be sure True Honey Co. Mānuka honey is the highest quality, and exactly what it says on the jar.
Hives to home
We take extra special care at every step of the journey from our hives to your home.
Eyes on the hives
We wouldn't have honey without our landowner partners and the abundant Mānuka bush growing on their land. Our long-term partnerships with landowners are built on transparent, ethical practices and based on trust and mutual benefit.
The royal treatment
The Queen bee is the heart of each hive, and our intrepid beekeepers go to great lengths to look after her, and her colony. A high beekeeper to hive ratio means we can check on the health of our bees regularly – and healthy hives make better honey!
Far flung spots
Our hives are placed in remote locations within dense manuka bush, unreachable by trucks and cars. Instead we use helicopters to place hives, as soon the Mānuka’s blooming enough to feed our hardworking bees.
Worker bees get to work
When she finds Mānuka blossoms, our industrious little honeybee extracts the nectar and takes it back to the hive in her honey sacs to transfer into the hive, to be stored in beeswax honey cells.
It’s all in the timing
Hive removal starts nearing to the end of the Mānuka flowering period (timing is dependent on the season). To avoid the honey being diluted by other nectar sources, we remove the hives just before the Mānuka stops flowering.
Weighing and measuring
Once the honey frames have been carefully harvested, they’re delivered to our honey extraction facility to fill 200L drums. The weight is recorded, each batch gets a unique ID and a sample’s taken to send to an independent laboratory for testing.
Honey needs time to mature
The honey is independently tested as soon as it is extracted, then further tracking tests are completed in the following months to help us keep track of the conversion of DHA into MGO and ensure the honey has reached its maximum MGO prior to being bottled.
Where the magic happens
Each precious batch of honey is minimally processed, packed and checked at our state-of-the-art facility in Dannevirke. It’s gently warmed, filtered and creamed to be smooth and velvety, and minimise it crystallising. Each jar is independently tested prior to being filled and labelled with its MGO/UMF™ rating.
Trust in every jar
Our eagle-eyed quality team inspect each jar, before popping it in our protective anti-tamper black box, ready for its destination. Around 9 months after the harvest, the honey has matured enough to share with honey lovers all over the world.
Science, truth and beauty
When it comes to the science behind Mānuka honey, we don’t have all the answers yet. But scientists are still discovering amazing things about our favourite food. We promise to always share the truth of what we know, and what we do, with you.
The Unique Mānuka Factor (UMF™) symbol measures unique signature compounds of authentic Mānuka honey, including Leptosperin, DHA and MGO. Every batch is independently analysed and certified for quality, purity and authenticity by the UMF™ Honey Association (Licence number: 2900) – which also randomly tests Mānuka honey to ensure carrying the UMF™ mark is true to what it says on the jar.
We use both trusted MGO and UMF™ grading systems. The higher those two numbers, the greater the Mānuka honey’s quality and purity. You know you’re getting the good stuff with The True Honey Co. because we only sell honey rated 300 MGO (UMF 11) and above.
The FernMark is your guarantee that our Mānuka honey is 100% NZ produced, harvested and bottled in New Zealand. (licence No.100086). AsureQuality independently audits every step of our supply chain from bee to you – ensuring each jar is safe and good to eat. Mānuka honey’s unique properties are well known, thanks partly to ground-breaking research by New Zealand scientist Dr Peter Molan MBE – who gave us his expert advice when we started. Learn more about the science.
Wild open spaces
This is Mānuka honey from somewhere far from anywhere. We place our hives in remote locations deep in New Zealand’s beautiful backcountry. To avoid damaging these precious native ecosystems, we even fly them in and out by helicopter.
It’s all about location
Our beeives are carefully placed in top secret spots around New Zealand, where the air’s clear and the Mānuka’s blooming. These pristine, remote locations are chosen for being surrounded by dense Mānuka bush and far from potential sources of pollution or contamination. This means that each batch of our Mānuka honey is the precious result of the unique terroir (soil, topography and climate) of the area where our honeybees are foraging. This can subtly influence the honey’s colour, viscosity and flavour.
Boxing clever
As easy on the planet as it is on the eye, our unique packaging is carefully designed to ensure your precious honey reaches you in tip top condition, with no need for polystyrene or bubble wrap. And every box is sealed at our packing facility with a tamper proof seal.
Learn more
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