It’s sweet. It’s sticky. It’s Winne the Pooh’s meal of choice. “Honey is nature’s candy,” our guest taster, Mythical graphics director Matthew Dwyer observed. And, amazingly enough, it’s all very different. Some are much, much better than others.
You might think you know what honey tastes like, you might think it always comes in a bear, but you’d be wrong. Honey is a nuanced product whose flavor changes depending on where the bees forage. The Sporked team sat down around our soon-to-be-very-sticky conference table to taste through a rainbow of honeys and find out which ones are best for your tea, your PB&H sandwiches, and more. How did we judge the flavor? We ate each honey straight off a spoon. We were, indeed, buzzing by the end of our taste test. (I’ll show myself out.)
Here are the seven best honeys we tasted.
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- Local Hive Raw & Unfiltered Honey, SoCal
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Local Hive partners with, you guessed it, local bee farmers in different regions across the country to produce unique, seriously delicious honeys. Being based in Los Angeles, the Sporked team tasted the company’s SoCal honey. It’s incredibly versatile, balancing sweetness with floral notes and herbal notes. After tasting through some blander honeys, Matthew commented that, “There’s more of everything.” It’s beautifully thick and would work well in everything from tea to a marinade.
Credit: Ryan Martin / Amazon
- Wild Mountain Honey
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“I taste wild mountain for sure,” said Matthew. I’m not totally sure what a mountain tastes like, let alone a wild mountain, and yet I agree. This honey is dark and mysterious, filled with flavors of caramelized oranges and pears. It made Sporked writer Danny Palumbo exclaim, “Woo woo!” After he calmed down, he noted that it tasted like “it’s been roasted, but it goes down smooth.” It does have some mesquite notes to it. This honey is complex and deserves to be brought to the savory table. Put a little bowlful of it on a cheese platter. Use it to baste ribs. I took away a spork only because of the packaging. While jars are quaint, they’re not user friendly (especially when you’re extremely accident prone, like me).
Credit: Ryan Martin / Target
- Miller’s Raw Natural Clover Honey
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This honey is thick with orange blossom flavor. It wants, nay, deserves to be put front and center. Drizzle it onto a piece of toast and appreciate its deliciousness. Allow it to elevate your plain yogurt. Eat a spoonful of it as an afternoon treat. “There’s something about this level of honey,” said Matthew. “It just has a satisfying texture that’s thicker but also smooth and clean.” Plus, the packaging is just plain adorable. Is it my only inspiration for my next child’s nursery? You betcha.
Credit: Ryan Martin / Walmart
- 365 Mountain Forest Raw Honey
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I wasn’t aware of spreadable honey before this taste test, but I am enamored with it. It has a waxy layer on top that you have to break through—and that’s just fun. It feels like you’re digging into a jar of honey from the pioneer times—something ma and pa put up in the spring and now you get to enjoy it in the winter. And it’s not just the experience factor. It tastes great, too. It’s extremely aromatic with lots of citrusy flavors. It’s buttery and smooth. It’s definitely not as useful as a pourable honey, though. But it would be perfect on a cheese board.
Credit: Ryan Martin / Amazon
- Jamie’s Hive to Table Raw Honey and Comb
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So, here’s the thing with this one. I’ve looked online and I’ve seen this product presented as a standard container of honey with an intact honeycomb suspended in the bottle. But I’ve also seen it like ours: with the honeycomb pureed into the honey to make an opaque honey smoothie. This was an experience. “There’s so much going on, I can’t focus my thoughts,” said Matthew. It has a bright tang and a spectacular aftertaste. And the little bits of comb are wonderfully chewy. “It reminds me of eating a sugar scrub but not in a bad way,” said Sporked writer Jordan Myrick. What is this for? I’m not sure. But should you get it? Yes.
Credit: Ryan Martin / Amazon
- Nature Nate’s Raw & Unfiltered Honey
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This thick, unctuous honey leans more sweet than floral, but it also packs a zesty kick that you’ll feel in the back of your throat as the honey slides down. “It feels like natural honey,” Danny said. “It feels deep with flavor.” The citrusy notes would help this honey work particularly well in a mug of tea—like a chamomile or mint. Bonus intel: I’ll save you the time and tell you that this is the psalm referenced on the label: “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.”
Credit: Ryan Martin / Amazon
- First Street Mesquite Blossom
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Most of the generic, store brand honeys we tested tasted pretty much the same. First Street is no different. It tastes like what you imagine basic honey to taste like. It’s sweet. It’s fairly thick. It has a touch of that honey tang. But this one stood out from the rest because of its brilliant packaging. It comes in a no-drip bottle that actually works. No more sticky pantry shelves, no honey bottle you dread touching. This is the workhorse honey to keep on hand for your all-around honey needs.
Credit: Ryan Martin / Instacart
Best of the Best
Best Dark
Best Value
Best Spreadable
Best with Honeycomb
Best Citrusy
Best No-Drip Bottle
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sometimes you just get imprinted with a product from your childhood. for me, it’s Golden Blossom Honey. the website says it’s a blend of orange blossom, sage buckwheat and extra white clover, but for me it tastes like sweet, sweet sunshine.
I would love one of the best hot honey, flavored honey, and whipped honey.
Tupelo for me. I love how delicate the flavor is. I’m not a fan of a honey that slaps you in the face.
You should try honey from every state and see what state has the best honey. Y’all NEED to try Florida orange blossom honey. Or Texas lemon honey. And it tastes completely different from Illinois honey.