What is honey costing you?

[BudNini]

Just wondering what the price of honey is in other areas of the country?
In my area of New York I have found a place that charges $3.75 a pound plus tax of course. I have yet to taste this honey as I just found this place. Sure hope it is good as the price is all most too good to be true.The honey is local raw clover. I am going to find supplier and buy in bulk.

 

[bmd2k1]

$20 for 5lbs -- local raw clover honey -- here in Southeast Michigan.

Cheers!

 

[SouthBounds]

$4.66/lb for wildflower, Florida

 

[Maylar]

$100 for 15 lb local wildflower. Connecticut.

 

[CodeSection]

$20 for 5 lbs for either wildflower, desert blend, or mesquite here in AZ.

 

[Brooothru]

$20 for 5 lbs for either wildflower, desert blend, or mesquite here in AZ.

Oh, 'Honey' is costing me a bundle. But she's worth every penny!

Brooo Brother

 

[CodeSection]

Oh, 'Honey' is costing me a bundle. But she's worth every penny!

Brooo Brother

<looking around> LOL...don't you know it!

 

[Seamonkey84]

I feel like I lucked out and found that a discount store near me had Gunters orange blossom for 3.99/lb. then another chain store has Golden Harvest wildflower for $10 for a 3lb bottle.

 

[Jag75]

I can get a 5 gallon jug (60#) of orange blossom for 200$ . Dutchhoney has pretty good prices .

 

[BruceH]

Costco wildflower honey is $10 for 5lbs. My experience is that this used as a portion of the mead along with specialty honey still makes a very good mead. In fact the more I experiment the more I believe the yeast adds alot to the final flavor. I've also found that I shouldn't touch my mead for at least a year post fermentation. YMMV.

 

[Jag75]

Do you guys know what bakers choice honey is ?

 

[videojunkie1208]

I found a local guy (Nebraska) selling 12lb gallons for $50.
I am looking at upping to 5 gal buckets from bulk suppliers. I've found a couple of places with varietal honeys (Cranberry, Blueberry, Wildflower, etc) for ~$200 ($3.33/lb.)
Other than that, Costco generally has pretty good prices on generic clover honey in 5lb bottles.

 

[videojunkie1208]

Do you guys know what bakers choice honey is ?

Bakers choice is the darker honey that doesn't pass the visual check for the amber color that people think of a 'clover' honey. used for baking because all they care about is the honey taste in the final product. I've never used it, but if your doing a mead that has other flavors (e.g. a metheglin) which is spice forward, you are probably ok. I would do a small batch to make sure that there aren't any off flavors in the honey, and then go for it.

 

[bushpilot]

I am going to be THAT guy, and say I am a beekeeper, so the honey costs me ...

... well probably $100/gallon, to be honest.

But this year is going to be so much better!

 

[Maylar]

I think $7-8 is typical, plus shipping if buying online. I haven't made mead from the local wildflower yet but it certainly tastes good in tea
A friend of mine bought 5 gallons (60 lb) of tupelo last year for $750 and was happy to get it.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Just wondering what the price of honey is in other areas of the country?
In my area of New York I have found a place that charges $3.75 a pound plus tax of course. I have yet to taste this honey as I just found this place. Sure hope it is good as the price is all most too good to be true.The honey is local raw clover. I am going to find supplier and buy in bulk.

Why tax? Honey is food!

 

[beermanpete]

Last summer I was paying $20.00 for 2.5 lb jars of local, raw honey in Northridge (Los Angeles), CA. The farmers market has not opened this year due to the COVID-19 outbreak so I don't know what the current prices is. I am on my last bottle of the winter stock and was hoping to get more this spring.

 

[BudNini]

Why tax? Honey is food!

Oops my bad you are right, no tax. But the co-op price is $3.75 a lb

boy is my wife laughing at me,even called me a lovely name lol

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Well, it’s not funny, actually. I shop at LHBS frequently and one charges tax on everything and another sells grain not taxed (as food) when I mentioned it the one collecting tax wasn’t sure.

 

[CKuhns]

Honey from Monarch on the East Coast is running for about $2.50 a pound including delivery to my door for wildflower. less for Bakers choice and a bit more for orange blossom. But you must buy it in 5 gallon 60# buckets. I have used them almost exclusively through the Webstaurant store when i cant get honey from my local apiary (I can get it for $3.00 a pound when in season) and have been pretty happy with the Monarch product. (The Fed Ex gal delivering the buckets hates me and just drops them at the garage and wont even bring them to the front steps.)

https://www.webstaurantstore.com/monarchs-choice-60-lb-wildflower-honey/789HONWILD60.html

 

[Shine0n]

I get Brazilian pepper honey for 150$ for 5 gal
Same plant but in Hawaii is anywhere from 380-500 for 5 gallon.
Brazilian pepper/ Christmas berry = same honey just different locations

 

[videojunkie1208]

Other than Monarch, I've found these folks seem to have really good prices on varietal honey (and shipping on bulk is free!)

https://crystalsrawhoney.com/collections/bulk-honey-1


Dutch Gold also has pretty good pricing on 60lb pails:

https://www.dutchgoldhoney.com/prod...ize=60-lb-pail&really_curr_tax=96-product_cat

 

[lump42]

Free, but I have to share the batch with the keeper.

 

[Branman1986]

Costco wildflower honey is $10 for 5lbs.

That is assuredly rice syrup and not real honey. You can't even buy real honey wholesale for $2/lb. When it comes to honey, you definitely get what you pay for. Rice syrup adulteration is rampant, especially anything super cheap online or in a retail store.

 

[videojunkie1208]

That is assuredly rice syrup and not real honey. You can't even buy real honey wholesale for $2/lb. When it comes to honey, you definitely get what you pay for. Rice syrup adulteration is rampant, especially anything super cheap online or in a retail store.

Their clover honey is 'true source certified' for whatever that's worth. It's cheap imported honey (apparently from South America) and it ferments well to make decent meads. Knowing Costco, they probably purchase the full production of several apiaries on contract several years at a time.

 

[Branman1986]

Their clover honey is 'true source certified' for whatever that's worth. It's cheap imported honey (apparently from South America) and it ferments well to make decent meads. Knowing Costco, they probably purchase the full production of several apiaries on contract several years at a time.

At Apimondia this year, adulteration was the main topic and there were a few NMR(Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) food testing startups. One of the companies went to Costco and tested every honey they had just as a baseline test, and all tested positive for rice syrup, but he didn't publish his findings because he didn't want to get in any legal trouble with Costco. He also was not a beekeeper or really affiliated with the honey industry, so I mostly trusted his motives, he was just selling their service for food testing in general. But that $10 for 5lbs is supposedly from the US...and there is not a single supplier that I have ever heard of that would even sell that wholesale cheap enough to make a retail profit at $2.

 

[videojunkie1208]

<looks at the rabbit hole of C4 vs C3 testing>

Interesting. Looks like if it's getting adulterated, it's at the source. Which calls into question all commercially sourced honey.

Lately, I have been buying from a local bee keeper.

 

[Branman1986]

It's probably some at the source and moreso at the broker level I'd guess. I mean if it ferments it ferments and if it's tasty, all the better. I would just say it's closer to a honey flavored rice wine than mead .

All that being said, Im starting my first batch of mead tomorrow. I did homebrew in college, but that was twenty five years ago with extracts and hopped extract kits that came in cans. Need to relearn everything. Also hoping to turn a large portion of it into honey vinegar. Fingers crossed!

 

[Branman1986]

I should add that along with the rice syrup, whatever honey in it is probably illegally imported Chinese honey. If you do a Google search, you find that three of the largest honey importers and packers quietly paid multi million dollar fines and pleaded guilty of illegally importing chinese honey and relabelling it as from the US or from another non-Chinese country. If the biggest three were doing it, you have to assume the others are doing it as well to be able to keep up. Chinese honey is loaded with antibiotics and often lead, which is bad for adults, but HORRIBLE for children. If you have Netflix, watch Rotten Season 1, Episode 1. It's eye opening.

 

[Jag75]

I stick to local honey from a farm . Its pricey but the honey is delicious. About 100$ worth of honey for a 5 gallon batch of mead . 20$ a mason jar of honey .

 

[videojunkie1208]

@Jag75 , that's about what I am paying. $50 a gallon. (Which ranges from 12-14 lbs).

 

[BruceH]

That is assuredly rice syrup and not real honey. You can't even buy real honey wholesale for $2/lb. When it comes to honey, you definitely get what you pay for. Rice syrup adulteration is rampant, especially anything super cheap online or in a retail store.

So you joined up just to push debunked drivel...

What does True Source Honey certification mean?

https://truesourcehoney.com/true-source-certified/

 

[Branman1986]

So you joined up just to push debunked drivel...

What does True Source Honey certification mean?

https://truesourcehoney.com/true-source-certified/

I joined because I'm starting to make mead. You can believe whatever drivel you want. Debunked?

 

[BruceH]

I joined because I'm starting to make mead. You can believe whatever drivel you want. Debunked?

I did my research when this came up. Couldn't find one reliable source. Nothing but hearsay meant to cause doubt.


Still consider myself a beginner at mead. It takes at least a year before everything mellows out in my meads so the learning curve is very slow.

For now I'm still concentrating on finding the correct yeast for my taste, nutrients, feeding and racking schedules as they have a great influence on the final product and taste.

If you want to pay more for honey you are learning on go ahead, but making a statement that Costco honey is rice syrup without any documented proof is hard for any reasonable person to believe.

 

[AJinJacksonville]

I am going to be THAT guy, and say I am a beekeeper, so the honey costs me ...

... well probably $100/gallon, to be honest.

But this year is going to be so much better!

I’m going to be THAT guy too. Haha. I will say that this year has been weird! We have six and the honey production this year has been lackluster. NE FL here. Pulling honey next week.

 

[BruceH]

This might explain low cost bulk honey. Especially when it's coming from South America.

I will say it's a shame that the US can't produce enough honey to meet consumption. I do recall reading we can only produce a little less than 50% of demand.

https://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/fvmhoney.pdf
Edit: Prices were effective in April.

South American honey is less than $1 per pound before shipping. California Buckwheat is $1.60, Dakotas Clover $1.40.

 

[bob1852]

It takes at least a year before everything mellows out in my meads so the learning curve is very slow.

Speaking of debunking things....

Meads made properly (yeast proofed with GoFerm, staggered nutrient additions, low fermentation temps, etc., etc.) don't take years to mellow...

Great mead can be made in weeks, not months/years with the proper techniques...

 

[BruceH]

Speaking of debunking things....

Meads made properly (yeast proofed with GoFerm, staggered nutrient additions, low fermentation temps, etc., etc.) don't take years to mellow...

Great mead can be made in weeks, not months/years with the proper techniques...

That's why I don't claim to be anything more than a beginner, I've not had a dry mead mellow before a year. Once it mellowed it was fabulous.

 

[bkboiler]

Hmm...I don't have time at the moment to go out a seek the really high quality sources for my honey,
However Aldi carries a few levels of quality..
The "honey bear" entry level is probably diluted, but 16 oz is around $3.5 I think...
"Local So Cal" honey from Aldi is maybe 20% more...
Their "specially selected" top of the line is pretty good, but honestly a bit strong to use as the main honey...
I've honestly had good results just using the entry level one but I've only made 3 or 4 batches...
That being said I don't favor complexity in my meads...pallet hasn't acquired that expensive taste yet

 

[bushpilot]

I’m going to be THAT guy too. Haha. I will say that this year has been weird! We have six and the honey production this year has been lackluster. NE FL here. Pulling honey next week.

We are struggling with a very wet spring, and the bees are not getting out to forage much. Hopefully it will still be a productive year, we'll see. I only harvest once a year, probably in August this year, in order to give themtime to get it capped.

Eastern WA, 9 hives.