Executive Summary:
- Manuka honey costs more than other honeys primarily due to its unique origins.
- For many individuals, the price of Manuka honey is considered worth it for the potency of its many beneficial nutrients, giving way to various health benefits.
- At Manukora, we're confident in the value our Manuka honey brings, despite the higher cost when compared to other types of honey.
Manuka Honey: Understanding Price & Value
If you’ve shopped for Manuka honey, you've probably noticed a bit of a higher price tag than regular honey. For some, this might be a red flag. However, the higher price indicates all the amazing benefits of Manuka honey and the value that it will bring to your daily routine.
Manuka honey has become incredibly popular for its distinct taste and benefits compared to regular honey. This increased popularity has led to the availability of more types of Manuka honey, but as with anything, some are more valuable than others.
So, this buying guide offers insights into the cost of Manuka honey and an idea of what to look for before you make your purchase.
Why Does Manuka Honey Cost More than Other Honeys?
The number one reason for the higher cost of Manuka honey is its unique origin. To produce Manuka honey, honey bees collect the nectar from the flowers of the Manuka tea tree, Leptospermum scoparium, which is native to New Zealand.
Pure Manuka honey is produced only from the flowers of this tree. This means that to be genuine, Manuka honey must be produced in the remote forests of New Zealand. Yet, the Manuka tea tree only flowers for two to six weeks each year, which makes for extremely short harvest windows. With this unique origin, Manuka honey is very rare and more intensive to produce.
The time and cost involved in producing honey around the world varies greatly. Certain honey producers adopt production practices that are significantly superior to commercial or industrial beekeeping practices, which have been designed to keep costs low. The extra care for the land, the bees, and the product, inevitably costs a lot more. To understand the difference, one can compare regular honey vs Manuka honey or explore the benefits of Manuka honey for sore throat.
There is also a significant increase in cost for brands that offer full traceability to origin and comprehensive testing to ensure the purity and potency of the product.
Manuka honey also contains several bioactive nutrients that set it apart from other types of honey, making it more unique and increasing the cost. These include:
- Methylglyoxal (MGO) – This is the compound found uniquely in Manuka honey that gives the honey its antibacterial properties.
- Antioxidants – Manuka contains significantly higher levels of antioxidants than regular honey. 70% of these are from Leptosperin, a powerful antioxidant from the Manuka nectar that is not found in any other honey or food.
- Prebiotics – Manuka contains a range of prebiotics, including a unique oligosaccharide called ‘panose.’
These naturally occurring bioactive nutrients and their health benefits make Manuka honey a true super honey!
Is the Price of Manuka Honey Worth It?
Although the price of Manuka honey is higher than regular honey, there are several factors that explain the difference in price. Understanding these differences will leave you excited by the value in every jar of this type of honey.
First off, the unique nutrient profile of Manuka honey offers elevated health benefits compared to regular honey. The nutritients in Manuka honey offer the following benefits:
- Promote natural, clean energy – With a lower glycemic index than sugar and regular honey, Manuka honey offers a clean, longer-lasting energy source.
- Supports your natural immune function – MGO has antibacterial properties that can help empower your natural immune response.
- Supports gut health and digestion – Manuka honey contains prebiotics that can support a healthy gut microbiome, helping you maintain optimal digestive health.
Manuka honey is an excellent addition to your daily routine. We recommend 1-3 heaped teaspoons per day to truly reap its nutrients' potent benefits.
Manukora’s “Honey With Superpowers™”: Price vs. Value
You can’t look at a price without considering the context, and when you understand the careful detail that goes into producing Manuka honey, you see why it costs more than regular honey.
At Manukora, our super honey goes above and beyond, as we use thoughtful production practices to ensure you receive not just the highest quality product but a healthy treat you’ll love.
High MGO content
The MGO level of a honey is an indicator of its potency—the higher the MGO, the greater the potential health benefits. Higher MGO honey is also produced less frequently due to specific conditions being required, making it very rare. Therefore, when comparing the cost of different Manuka honey types, it’s essential to consider the MGO rating. Because of the vast benefits of MGO, higher potency Manuka honey will cost more.
At Manukora, we offer honey with MGO ratings ranging from 200 to 1000 and above. If you are looking for more comprehensive health support, starting with a higher MGO rating is suggested.
At the same time, you can also consider your preferred taste. Higher MGO ratings will generally have a darker, bolder taste, while lower ratings will have a sweeter, floral taste.
To learn more about what MGO rating would work best for you and your lifestyle, you can take our MGO quiz here.
Traditional Beekeeping Practices
At Manukora, we have pioneered The Art of Ethical Beekeeping. This practice means that we take important steps to support honey bees and their environment through the production of our honey, and the best part about this is that we are rewarded with the highest quality Manuka as a result.
Our practices include:
- Providing bee colonies with access to a variety of flowering species outside of the Manuka flowering season
- Ensuring minimal hive disturbance and movement
- Leaving bees with plenty of food during the winter
- Carefully placing our hives in the most remote Manuka forests across New Zealand to avoid environmental toxins that affect honey quality and bee health
- Delicately harvesting and extracting our Manuka honey 100% raw so it retains all of the beneficial, naturally occurring compounds
Creamy Texture
Out of the many benefits of Manuka honey, one of the most exciting is its unique, creamy texture that melts in your mouth. At Manukora, our honey has an indulgent, caramel-like flavor that makes it as much of a treat as it is a healthy addition to your daily routine. You can enjoy Manukora honey on toast, with yogurt, in smoothies, in teas and more.
Make the Right Choice for Your Manuka Honey
Between its rare origin, unique nutrients, and careful production practices, Manuka honey has a higher price than regular honey, but it also offers much more value. When you buy from Manukora, you can be confident that every penny you spend is worth it. Our Manuka honey is produced in the remote forests of New Zealand using the highest standards, ensuring superior quality and purity.
Our Manuka Honey MGO 850 is an excellent choice. Alternatively, the Manuka Honey MGO 200 provides a milder option for daily use. To explore more, you can check out our trending products for a range of choices.
Furthermore, our dedicated honey guides offer insights on how Manuka honey can be incorporated into a healthy lifestyle. Whether it's ideas on what to eat with honey or understanding its benefits, these resources are invaluable.
Lastly, for those focused on digestive health, our specially curated digestive support collection features products tailored to enhance gut wellness.
Every jar of Manukora honey also includes a QR code that provides information about its authenticity, potency, and even the hive and beekeeper that produced it. Our traceability system gives you a complete picture of how valuable our honey is so you can be confident in your purchase.
Explore our complete collection of Manuka honey and experience the value of this Honey with Superpowers™ for yourself.
Sources:
Antioxidant properties and antimicrobial activity of Manuka honey versus Polish honeys | PMC
The glycaemic index of Manuka honey | ScienceDirect
Antibacterial activity of Manuka honey and its components: An overview | PMC
