Increased awareness of the importance of bees
and pollination also has a lot to do with why
people are seeking out honey, says Lori Jean
Levy, CEO and owner of My Global Table, an
importer of specialty goods. Bee populations
have plummeted, she notes, threatening the
food supply.
``This makes it a true current events issue,” she
says. Honey is a sustainable and eco-friendly
product at a time when many consumers are
making that a priority.
Elyse Hohnerlein, operations coordinator for
Savannah Bee Honey, in Savannah, Georgia,
notes that honey producers support ``both the
beekeepers and the bees.”
“People are wanting to make the environment
a better place, and honey is a delicious way of
getting to that goal,” she says.
A preference for local food has also boosted the
popularity of honey, says Hohnerlein. She says
there are more than 300 types of honey in the
United States alone, and Savannah Bee bottles
15 different types of liquid honey from around
the world.
She explains that raw, artisanal honey is often
monofloral (from one pollen source) and is
labeled with that plant name, such as sourwood,
lavender or orange blossom. Honey takes on
some of the flavor of its pollen source. She also
says sales of honeycomb have spiked over the
past few years.
Levy says that unlike processed honey, raw
honey “is neither heated or filtered.” Those
processes, she says, removes much of raw
honey’s nutritional punch.