I love honey. So you can imagine my shock when I'm told it's the third most adulterated food in the world. More than half sourced from Asia, particularly China, have portions replaced with cane sugar, corn syrup, or other sugar-derived additives. For the samples from Australia, close to one in five are frauds according to a Scientific Reports study just last year. Meaning even those hipster boutique brands may not necessarily be keeping to the 100 percent purity they claim.
True liquid gold
Dissatisfied with the honey market situation, Common Man Coffee Roasters and Forty Hands' Harry Grover sought to shine a light on the product in its most genuine form. "It's such a valuable product, so difficult to make with a lot at stake, but also so easy to fake, jack up the profits, and fill it with crap," he says, while doling out the Jarrah and Redgum Honeys.
We mouth a spoonful of the liquid gold with yoghurt and granola and it is good. The sweetness is tinged with a pleasant medicinal flavour that gives distinct character. Probably because they're extracted from 300-year old Jarrah and Redgum forests in Margaret River and Pemberton. It should be enough to ensure a certified 100 percent pure honey, but no, The Rare Honey Company takes it a step further by sourcing from native wilderness far away from human activity, pesticides or pollution.
A superfood that rivals Manuka Honey
We're all familiar with one of New Zealand's top exports, but in terms of anti-oxidant levels and health benefits, TRHC's honeys are well on par. Achieving the highest TA rating (mansplaining break: Total Activity—anti-bacterial killing scale; the higher the TA rating, the greater the strength of the honey), it's a natural medicine that fights infection, wards off colds, and even aids insomnia.
TRHC carries Creamed Karri, Coastal Wildflower and higher potency editions of Jarrah and Redeem, but if you eat it super raw like I do, scoop into the Uncut Honeycomb. The perfectly neat edges unique to the range are possible only because honeycomb ‘cassettes’ are placed directly into the hives to allow the bees to build the honeycomb inside the packaging. So it comes straight from the bees to you, where the only sticky human hands touching it are yours.
The Bees Knees
This. This was how I was convinced. When I went home and tried to recreate the prohibition era cocktail with some gin, lemon juice, and Jarrah honey, it surprised me once again by how tasty it was. I then used cheap, supermarket honey found at home (for cooking, don't judge me) with the same recipe, and the difference was vast, to say the least. So now you know.
Of course there's gonna be a Pooh gif.
The Rare Honey Company is available online, or for appointments at TRHC Honey Bar, Tan Boon Liat Building #10-01, Singapore 169074.
