The Difference Between Store-Bought Honey and Raw Honey

Store-bought honey vs. raw honey

All honey is the same, isn’t it?

You must “bee” joking!

There are some pretty big differences between what we produce at Allisons’ Apiaries and what you’ll find on the average supermarket shelf.

Where does store-bought honey come from?

Did you know that typical store-bought honey can come from almost anywhere in the world? (Mexico, Canada, China, and Brazil are some of the more common source countries.) While this isn’t necessarily a problem, it means that you probably won’t get any allergy relief if you’re using honey to help manage seasonal sneezes and sniffles. Your honey needs to come from bees that frequent flowers close to where you actually live, in order to be effective for treating allergy symptoms. All of the honey bottled by Allisons’ Apiaries comes from bees in the Central Florida area, including locally bred queens.

Store-bought honey lacks nutritional benefits

The way your honey is processed also has an impact on its nutritional benefits. Store-bought honey is usually micro-filtered and pasteurized. This might sound like a good thing, but not only is it unnecessary, it also removes the very phytonutrients and pollen that make honey such a great choice. As you may have guessed, honey from Allison’s Apiaries is raw — not pasteurized, filtered, or processed in any way that would destroy any of its nutritional value.

Store-bought honey is often not fresh

And, whether you’re treating allergies or just looking for a sweet treat, freshness is the key. Imagine how long it takes to get honey to supermarket shelves: extracted from hives in many different locations, put in large containers, shipped to the buyer, processed, bottled, and shipped to the store. It could take weeks — or even months! In contrast, Allisons’ Apiaries honey is extracted in small batches, bottled, and sold in a matter of days. So, whether you find us at the Farmer’s Market or place an order online, you’ll know that you’ve got the absolute freshest honey available (short of going to the hive yourself!).

Store-bought honey lacks flavor and nuance

Last, let’s talk about flavor. Unlike many commercially-produced honey brands, our honey has no artificial flavors or additives. Better yet, we specialize in specific flavor varieties based on the flowers the bees frequent. Have you ever tried a honey that bees produce from the nectar of Ruby Red grapefruit blossoms, wild flowers, orange blossoms, or even Florida holly? If not, you need to find out what you’ve been missing all of these years when you thought “clover honey” was the only thing out there!

Where you can buy raw honey

Not convinced? We invite you to taste the difference between raw, unfiltered honey and store bought honey for yourself — but be warned, you may never be satisfied with store-bought honey again!