What makes honey expensive

The six things you might be paying for

• Scarcity of the flow. A honey from a plant that flowers for ten days in one region is expensive because there is not much of it. Acacia, leatherwood and Anzer are all in this category.
• Difficulty of harvest. Heather honey must be pressed or roller-extracted because it is thixotropic. Kiawe sets in the comb. Cliff honey is taken by rope from a Himalayan overhang.
• Yield per colony. Stingless bee honey costs what it does because a strong colony produces about a litre a year, against forty or more from a honey bee colony.
• Certification and testing. Manuka's price includes the cost of an MGO or UMF assay on every batch. Protected designations carry audit costs.
• Reputation. Manuka, Anzer and sidr all carry a premium beyond what scarcity alone explains.
• Marketing claims. Some of the price is paying for a health claim that the evidence does not support.

Where the money is genuinely justified

Where it is not

Two patterns account for most overpaying. The first is a health claim: honey marketed for diabetes, cancer or immunity is charging for a benefit that has not been demonstrated, and the honey itself is generally ordinary. The second is a provenance claim nobody can check — raw, wild, ancient forest, single-origin — attached to a jar with no supporting evidence.

How to spend well

• Decide what you want it for first. An expensive honey for tea is a waste; a cheap honey for a cheeseboard is a different waste.
• Buy small jars of expensive honeys. You are buying an experience, not a supply.
• For everyday use, a good bulk monofloral — clover, orange blossom, mallee — is better value than a mediocre premium one.
• Prefer a specific floral and geographic claim over an adjective. Blend of EU and non-EU honeys is honest; wild raw artisanal honey is not information.