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There's a reason you've never seen real MGO 850+ Mānuka honey at the supermarket.
Real, high-grade Mānuka honey can't be mass-produced. The bees, the trees, the weather, the testing — every variable has to line up. Here's how it actually gets made, and why it's so rare.
Monday, May 18
by Krista Budgen
16,396 Verified 5-star reviews
MGO 850+ Mānuka honey is made during a ~6-week window, once a year, on one side of the world.
*Mānuka (Leptospermum scoparium) is native to New Zealand and parts of southeast Australia. Manukora is single-sourced from native NZ Mānuka forests.
The Mānuka tree (Leptospermum scoparium) only grows in two places on earth: New Zealand and parts of Australia. The Mānuka that produces the highest-grade honey, with the highest MGO, comes from remote regions of New Zealand — the kind of land you can't get to by road. Many of our harvest sites are only accessible by helicopter.
That alone makes Mānuka rare. But the rarity goes deeper than geography.
Mānuka trees only flower for about 6 weeks a year. The window is narrow, weather-dependent, and impossible to control.
When the Mānuka trees bloom, the beekeepers move fast. They transport hives by helicopter into the remote forests, set them up close to the flowering trees, and the bees go to work. But Mānuka flowers compete with everything else in bloom — clover, other native flowers, anything sweeter and easier to access. Bees, being practical creatures, don't always choose Mānuka.
The result is that most batches of Mānuka honey come back with relatively low MGO. To get a batch with 850+ MGO, the bees need to have spent the majority of their time on Mānuka flowers, in good weather, during a narrow flowering window. The variables stack against you.
For a limited time
Save 31% + $25 in free gifts on the MGO 850+ Starter Kit (the #1 high-grade Mānuka honey in the US).
5 honey sticks, wooden dose spoon, Mānuka guidebook, and a personal onboarding call with a Mānuka specialist — included free with your first order.
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Why the number on the jar tells the rarity story.
Here's the practical implication. MGO 50+ Mānuka is relatively easy to produce — that's why you can find it at major retailers. MGO 200+ is harder. MGO 600+ is harder again. And MGO 850+ is one of the highest grades available because the bees, the weather, and the flowers all have to cooperate.
Only a small fraction of every season's Mānuka honey ever tests at MGO 850+ or above. The rest is graded down.
Once the honey is harvested, every batch is independently lab-tested in New Zealand. Only the batches that test at or above 850+ MGO are bottled as our hero grade. Everything else gets graded down. That's why supply is limited — and why we cap how much MGO 850+ we offer through our subscription.
Single-Origin
100% from New Zealand. Never blended with cheaper honey. Single-source means single-source.
Lab-Verified
Every batch tested by independent NZ labs to confirm MGO levels before it's bottled.
Traceable
Every jar has a QR code linking to the beekeeper, the harvest location, and the test results.
From a 6-week window to your spoon — the journey behind every jar.
This is what makes Manukora different from generic honey, and from many other Mānuka brands too. Most Mānuka jars on a supermarket shelf are blended — multiple sources, multiple grades, mixed together to hit a price point. Manukora isn't. Every jar of MGO 850+ is single-origin, harvested in a narrow window, and tested before it ever reaches you.
It's why our most loyal customers describe their first jar as "the real deal" — and why most stay on subscription. Once you've tasted what real, high-grade, single-origin Mānuka is, the supermarket version stops looking like an alternative.
For a limited time, you can save 31% + $25 in free gifts on the best high-grade Mānuka honey in the US.
Try Manukora Honey
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