A lot of folks remark, “Wow, your honey tastes soooooo gooooood!”  I’m not kidding with the extra o’s.  In fact, when modified for authentic phonetic effect it is probably more like, “Wow, yer huhnee tastes sooooooo gooooouuuuuuhhhhd!”

Well, here is the science behind our magic.  We let the bees do all of the work and try not to mess with their natural artistry.  We have a genuine connection with our hives and see our enterprise more as a partnership.  Bees are good for humans and humans are good for bees…please do not send me any comments along the lines of Seinfeld’s failed Bee Movie.

Big manufacturers have a different take on things.  Their products are not nearly as personal to them.  They are focused on making as much money as possible (hopefully ethically).  This mindset, while great because we are big fans of laissez-fare capitalism, drives big manufacturers to do things that change the look, feel, and most importantly the taste of their honey brands.

Big honey producers (not to be confused with “blenders”) in the US use micro-filtration methods, which not only change the taste of honey, but it also removes some of the medicinal benefits of one of nature’s best anti-bacterial ointments.  Micro-filters remove virtually all pollen and dust (which can help folks fight local allergies when the honey is bought locally).  Micro-filters can remove particles all the way down to 0.1 micron.  This is primarily done for aesthetics.  Micro-filtered honey is clearer and will take longer to crystallize, which gives the honey a longer shelf life at the expense of flavor and health benefits.

Many honey companies in the United States are actually “blenders”.  These companies buy the cheapest honey they can find, blend it, and sell it.  This results in a lot of foreign honey on our grocery store shelves.  Foreign honey producers (where the blenders get a lot of their honey) often add water to their honey.  The purpose of water addition is to make honey ultra-filtration possible which removes particles all the way down to .001 microns.  The primary intent of ultra-filtration is to hide the country of origin (honey smuggling also colloquially known as “honey laundering” is BIG business) but this process can also hide adulterations with corn syrup and other sweeteners.  After the ultra-filtration the honey is then dehydrated to remove the excess water.  It is difficult to prove that honey which has been ultra-filtered has not made a roundabout trip into the United States via a blending process in a second-party nation (trans-shipping).  For example, there are significant tariffs to import honey into the United States from China due to concerns about product safety as well as product dumping; however, it is perfectly legal to import honey from Thailand tariff-free, which has no import restrictions against Chinese honey.  It has been speculated that as much as 30% of honey off the grocery store shelves has actually been smuggled from China through a second nation and blended into the honey in a second nation.  In order to hide the illicit smuggling, ultra-filtration has removed virtually everything (pollen, dust, and even mineral content) besides the honey, has definitely added water at some point, and has potentially added other things (e.g rice syrup or fructose syrup).  This blended “honey” ends up tasting similar to diluted beer – the taste is just not there when compared to more artisanal products – like Beelieve!

Don’t get us wrong.  Filtration has its place.  Wax, hive particles, and bee body parts can wind up in your honey without filtration.  We filter to 200 microns through a tri-filtering process.  Pollen ranges in diameter from about 10 microns up to about 200 microns depending on the plant species.  This ensures that Beelieve honey still maintains virtually all the pollen that our bees intended it to have with none of the extraction byproducts (wax).

Our honey is local to West Houston, Katy, and Willow Springs, Texas.  The early Spring West Houston honey tends to have a pecan aroma due to the early pecan pollen influence in our Nottingham neighborhood.  Our Willow Springs honey comes from the heartland of wildflower country and you can taste and smell it!  Katy honey comes straight off the Katy Prairie and is located in the Remington Trails neighborhood next to one of Katy Prairie Conservancies bird sanctuaries ensuring flavor from Texas natives.