Identifying the best organic raw honey need not be a stretch if you know where to look and what to look for. Also, if you want to locate the best product from an ever-expanding list, being privy to the technical details— including the water content, natural sugars, and pollen, is important.
Having said that, at Dash of Butter, we intend not to overwhelm you with sugary talks and thick assertions; pun intended.
Instead, we would like to list the best honey brands that you can possibly purchase.
My Top Choice (#1 Brand) The Couplet California Honey |
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2nd Best Choice Zach & Zoe Wildflower Raw Honey |
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Best Budget Honey Desert Creek Honey Raw Texas Honey |
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Organic raw honey is a naturally occurring sweetener. People have been using it for ages for different purposes. It has a lower GI value than sugar, meaning it does not increase your blood sugar level as fast. It is hence, considered healthier than sugar, however, it does contain more calories. Popular forms of honey are Alfafa, Clover, Buckwheat, Orange Blossom, Tulip Poplar, Sage, Wildflower, and Tupelo.
The quality of honey depends on which flowers contribute to the formation of nectar in it. This floral composition is a crucial factor as it ultimately decides the nutritional value of the product. “Pure, organic, and raw” honey can also come from bees fed regular sugar syrup. Honey can be mono or multi-floral.
But what brand of honey is the healthiest?
Here are the top 11 best honey brands
The brand which interferes the least with honey is the healthiest. However, different kinds of honey have different health benefits. The healthy brands only make sure to retain these nutrients. Your choice of honey should depend on the taste you are looking for and the flowers involved in the nectar formation.
To answer the question of what is the best kind of organic raw honey, we have listed the 11 best honey known to provide rich, delicious honey. The brand you choose depends on what you are searching for.
1. Brightland’s The couplet California Honey
Key features
- Raw unfiltered honey.
- Traditional beekeeping process.
- Gives you a daily dose of vitamins and antioxidants
- Thick consistency
With a clean citrus finish, Couplet’s honey is straight from the single-estate orange groves in the Central Valley. Made from wild Hawaiian sources like hibiscus, eucalyptus, coffee trees, papaya trees, passion flowers, and guava flowers, it tickles your taste buds with its fresh natural texture.
The velvety smooth quality of this honey is what makes it one of the best honey from other honey-making brands.
You can use Couplet’s honey and start your day with a pinch of floral aroma in your morning tea or breakfast cereal.
The soothing taste and texture can excite your taste buds with its pure natural consistency and creaminess. This jar of unprocessed honey from farms can make you feel energized and help you lose those extra fats from your body.
No more restraining yourself from sweets or feeling guilty about your sweet tooth. Get a jar of The Couplet’s natural honey and experience the joy of sweetness without harming your body. The thickness, consistency, and purity are what matter when you buy honey. You can also use it for skincare and harness its natural elements for your skin. Honey holds the capability to retain moisture from your skin and make it super healthy and glowing. Use this natural gift from God and enjoy its benefits.
2. Zach & Zoe Wildflower Pure Raw Unfiltered Honey
Key features
- Unheated and Unfiltered
- Indefinite shelf life
- Best addition to the daily food
- Organic Beekeeping process
- Contains more antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals
The 100% pure honey is available in the Normal, Beetroot, Matcha, Lavender, Ginger Root, and Raspberry variety and is extracted from the organically, healthiest raised bees.
This delicious honey is made from raw honeycombs and honeybees by local beekeepers for providing a natural taste to the product. The honey is gathered from the alfalfa flower and clover mixture from Utah, allowing it to be tasty and organic at the same time.
Users find it tasteful and like adding it to their daily recipes.
3. Ys Eco Bee Farms Honey
Key features
- It has cleansing properties responsible for curing acne.
- Crystallized honey is a great alternative for different spreads.
- Affordable.
- U.S Grade A.
This honey is unfiltered. Farmers at YS Eco Bee Farms ensure that no chemicals find their way inside the beehives. It claims to have preserved enzymes providing several health benefits. Honey has trace amounts of vitamins. This honey is served in its smooth, crystalline form, making it ideal for slices of bread and pastries. The brand keeps the extraction process as natural as possible. The brand also sells its products at very affordable prices. It is an organic, cheap, and healthy choice. Users have reported that it is effective against arthritis pain and acne. Add a healthy twist to your morning beverage by adding a teaspoon of this pure raw unfiltered honey to it.
4. Crockett Wildflower Honey
Key features
- Flavonoids and phenolic acid are found abundantly.
- Adds a delicious kick to your recipes.
- Sustainably sourced.
- 100% wild and raw.
Sonoran desert is a place with a versatile floral variety. The high quality of wildflower honey comes from plants such as Saw Palmetto, White Holly, Cactus, Mesquite, Cat Claw, Gal berry, and Palo Verde. Flowers contain a lot of essential substances. We often miss out on them because flowers are hardly ever eaten. Honey bees pool all these nutrients in one place.
Nectar from these different plants results in a unique flavor. They also contribute to several health benefits. For example, catclaw is used to treat inflammation and enhance immunity. You can buy this unpasteurized beauty in a 48-ounce container and transfer it to smaller containers for ease of handling. The rich flavor and nutritional value of this product make it worthy of purchase.
5. Go Raw Honey
Key features
- It undergoes natural crystallization.
- Free of sugar.
- Supports sustainable beekeeping.
- No addition of extra water.
This product contains pure honey bee nectar from clover plants. Beneficial against colds and inflammation, this sugar-free sweetener enhances the flavor of many beverages. The flavor of this honey is more complex than sugar.
The specialty of this honey lies in antioxidants and bioactive compounds. It has a mild taste and a light hue. Due to its organic nature, you may find sucrose collecting above honey crystals. Only stir it and enjoy it again! Buying Go Raw Honey also supports sustainable bee-keeping as it is sourced from family-run bee farms in the USA. Customers love the delicate flavor of this product.
6. Nature Nate’s 100% Pure Raw Unfiltered Honey
Key features
- Mechanical processing is reduced.
- It has a multi-floral flavor.
- A vast range of health benefits.
- Also available directly packaged in the beeswax comb.
- No artificial sweeteners
Nature Nate delivers unpasteurized pure raw unfiltered honey even though they heat it slightly. This raw and unfiltered honey comes from bee farms located in the U.S and Canada. The flowers of Canola, Clover, Wildflower, and Tallow give it a deep and balanced flavor. It is undoubtedly one of the best honey brands in the world. Interference caused for the sake of storage and packaging often causes the product to lose its natural goodness.
This brand slightly heats their product. Do not worry as they still preserve their natural nutrients. It is available in liquid form as well as the comb. Their organic variety comes from Brazil, but most of the honey is sourced in the U.S. Their product is gluten-free and Kosher certified. The 32oz squeeze bottle makes it easy to drizzle it onto different dishes without making a mess. It is also entirely unfiltered and unadulterated clover honey.
7. KIVA Manuka Honey
Key features
- The pollen is not separated.
- Ideal as a medicine, sweetener, and skincare product.
- Traceable back to hives.
- Certified 15+ UMF rating.
Kiva is a trusted and widespread name in the Manuka honey business. The blooming period of manuka flowers is short. It is another reason for the high costs associated with manuka honey. The UMF rating is a value you should look for when buying Manuka honey. It refers to the content of Manuka pollen, the more, the better. KIVA Manuka honey has a UMF rating higher than 15. The individual snap packets make it easy to carry on the go. It is a great supplement to cure sore throat, colds, flu, energy, digestive health, wound care and beauty routines, etc. Add it to your tea or drizzle some on your bread and give a healthy twist to your meal. Kiva manuka honey is filtered, but the company ensures that its nutritional value is not highly compromised.
8. Honest Raw Wildflower Honey
Key features
- It is free from antibiotics and chemicals.
- Non- GMO.
- Honeycombs are located far away from urban areas.
- Kosher-certified product.
- Gluten-free.
This brand promises hives to home products. The rich and pure raw unfiltered honey has an unforgettable taste. Manufactured in Texas, the hives located 10 miles away from commercial farms protect honey from pollutants. Foraging within a 3-mile radius helps bees produce honey free of chemicals.
Honest honey is sold in its crystalline form, making it perfect as a spread. The Texan wildflowers give it a unique, local flavor. Manufacturing honey is quite hard to accomplish because the mandatory distance increases transportation costs. Locally sourced brands like this help customers receive authentic and healthy products. It is rich in propolis, vital amino acids, enzymes, and antioxidants. Quit sugar today with this affordable and healthy alternative.
9. Desert Creek Raw Texas Honey
Key features
- Darker honey contains more beneficial compounds.
- High in fructose.
- No artificial colors is added.
- 100% unaltered.
- Better sweetening effect compared to sugar.
If raw and unfiltered honey is a part of your daily diet, then this brand is your go-to. Desert Creek sells larger quantities of honey compared to other brands. The nectar mainly comes from the flowers of Clover, Indian Blanket, and Scabiosa. These plants grow uncultivated in Texas.
The combination of these nectars results in a darker coloration, unlike the typical golden hue. Honey is mostly used as a substitute for sugar in baking. An important rule to follow while using this sugar substitute is to ensure that the ratio is 3:4. That is, for 1 cup of sugar, you substitute a 3/4th cup of honey. The honey is sold in its raw form, keeping all its medicinal properties intact. It is raw as well as organic, making it a top-quality product.
10. Wedderspoon Raw Manuka Honey
Key features
- High capacity to kill harmful bacteria.
- Pollen from flowers is retained.
- Non-GMO and unpasteurized.
- No refrigeration is required.
- BPA-free, non-leaching packaging.
Wedderspoon prides itself on using the correct harvesting methods for honey. Manuka is a plant exclusively found in New Zealand. This brand manufactures and packs its products in New Zealand to retain its authenticity. Raw Manuka honey has the highest antibacterial and antiviral properties. The cost of these products is usually higher than the others. While being a worthy addition to the medicine cabinet, this non-GMO product is an excellent sweetener.
Wedderspoon Raw Premium Manuka honey is free of chemicals, pesticides, and antibiotics. Sourced straight from the hives in New Zealand, this delicious superfood is an ideal addition to your collection of condiments and medicines. The K factor of this honey is 16, meaning that 75 percent of it comes from the manuka bush. With this number, this honey is considered medical grade. The minty taste of Wedderspoon honey has satisfied many customers.
What to look for when you are buying organic raw honey
Despite widespread knowledge that tampering with pure raw unfiltered honey deteriorates its quality, a little amount of filtering is essential. You see, the purest and best form of honey comes with several other things like wax, dead bees, dust etc. It is unappetizing to look at.
A cheesecloth, metal sieve, or nylon mesh can easily remove the part you might not want to see in your honey. However, honeycombs located in urban areas get exposed to more harmful substances, such as fine dust particles and chemical emissions. Removing these is complicated and ends up in a low-quality final product that is not nutritional.
Look out for the filtering process
The most appealing form of honey is filtered honey, however, this appeal is only visual. People like honey to be clear and smooth. To achieve clarity, diatomaceous earth (DE) is added to honey. It absorbs all the fine particles. Unfortunately, this results in the loss of nutritional value. A better way to obtain clear honey is to strain it.
A brief of honey-related terminology
In many cases, pure honey gets adulterated with regular syrup. You may often come across terms like “pure”, “organic”, “raw” and “active” while shopping for honey. Even though they are mostly used interchangeably, they have separate meanings in the honey manufacturing business.
Raw Honey
Raw refers to unpasteurized and unfiltered honey. Pasteurization involves heating the honey above 45 degrees. This process kills useful components in the honey. It is mostly sold in local shops, independent farmers’ markets, and over the internet. Supermarkets are less likely to store raw honey because it crystallizes. People tend to misinterpret crystallization as a result of sugar content. It happens due to the high pollen content.
Is raw honey better than organic honey?
The answer to this depends on what you prioritize as a customer. Raw honey can be inorganic and organic honey may be pasteurized and filtered. Inorganic honey contains harmful substances which eventually accumulate in your body. These components have a toxic effect on your body in the long run.
Pure Honey
The word “Pure” refers to zero addition of any foreign ingredients. It excludes chemicals and antibiotics. Honey enhanced with different flavors like ginger and blackseed is not pure. A significant rating for honey is the “active” value. Look for an active rating above ten if you want your product with antibacterial properties (1). The most popular type of honey associated with active rating is Manuka honey.
The final word
Honey is possibly the best way to extract nutrients from flowers without having them undergo heavy processing. It is high-quality food and is available in abundance in nature. Many people refuse to go back to sugar after they become familiar with using honey as a natural sweetener. Some types of honey brands are costly, such as premium manuka honey, but the health benefits are worth it.
Despite obvious health benefits, it is not advisable to eat a large amount of honey in a single day. It is especially true for people trying to lose weight and control blood sugar. The recommended amount of honey servings in one day is close to that of sugar.
Around 6 to 10 teaspoons of honey are considered a balanced serving for someone without health problems.
Another tip to recognize pure raw unfiltered best honey is to check the expiry date. If there is an expiry date mentioned, then this honey might not be raw at all. It is because organic unfiltered raw honey does not have an expiry. Keeping it in a sealed container is enough to preserve the honey. It has an extraordinarily long shelf life due to its acidity and lack of water.