Article: Manuka Honey. What’s all the buzz about?
Manuka Honey. What’s all the buzz about?
Jo Gowans explains the careful blend of tradition, innovation, nature and passion that goes into making our signature ingredient.
As a New Zealand brand, Manuka made sense as an ingredient that reflects our provenance. More than that, with research showing that health is the main driver for non-alcoholic beverage consumption, we wanted to deliver big flavour without the refined sugar trade-off and stay true to our brand belief that zero alcohol should be about what you add, not what you take away. This super ingredient gave us a way of naturally sweetening our ready-to-drink range of cans and became the inspiration and core ingredient for our Manuka bottled botanical blend.
Our world-class Manuka supplier, Midlands Apiaries is based one and a half hours down the road from our Christchurch distillery. We caught up with Jo Gowans there, who took us back to the source of our signature ingredient.
What was your route into the honey market?
I love beautiful, natural, New Zealand-made products. I came from Evolu Skincare, a homegrown natural skincare brand and it was an easy pivot into honey as a quality natural ingredient. I had firsthand experience of Manuka’s benefits having used it myself for years and I have never had to sell the product because it sells itself. It’s nature’s power in a jar. I was born and raised here in Canterbury and I’m very proud of the product we make and supply around the world.
Can you tell us a bit more about Midlands Apiaries’?
Midlands Apiaries was founded in 2006, but the beekeeping heritage is much older than that. Midlands acquired Symes Apiaries, a third-generation family business dating back to the early 1920s so our history of beekeeping goes back over 100 years. Today we have several highly knowledgeable Manuka Honey artisans on our team. We combine advanced production technology with decades of honey expertise to deliver premium Manuka and specialty honey. As a holistic company, we have complete visibility over the supply chain with our network of beekeepers across the country and invest in further research that supports bee health and colony strength. This means we can guarantee the lab-tested purity and quality of our products.
How many bees do you employ?
We own just over 6,500 hives throughout New Zealand and each hive typically contains approximately 20,000-60,000 bees depending on the season. One worker bee produces only about ¼ teaspoon of honey in its lifetime which is usually around 40 days. They are the hardest working of us all.
How sustainable is your honey?
We’re committed to environmental sustainability across the business. We use independent carbon certification, emissions measurement, reduction targets, supplier approval processes and internal sustainability reviews to make our environmental work more measurable.
Midlands is Toitū Net Carbon Zero Organisation certified. Our measured emissions include activities such as fuel, electricity, freight, waste and travel, with bees and apiaries included in the certification scope. We’re subject to annual maintenance audits and continued improvement requirements and run regular supplier reviews and internal cross-functional sustainability meetings to ensure continued measurement and improvement, including transport efficiency, energy, waste and other reduction opportunities.
Where is your Manuka Honey harvested?
Our Manuka comes from all over New Zealand. We’re lucky to benefit from an abundance of snow-fed rivers that provide plenty of clean water for floral growth and the warmer, drier conditions in the North of the South Island and the North Island are particularly conducive to bountiful honey production.
The Manuka then makes its way to our facility in the Canterbury Plains where we test it for the presence of MGO and then age it – almost like aging a red wine – to grow the MGO. This process can take anywhere from six months to two years and involves careful management of its environment – much like in the hive.
What’s special about Manuka?
Manuka Honey is world-renowned for its unique properties including MGO – a natural chemical compound responsible for its stable antibacterial power. Each Manuka Honey is given a MGO rating as an international measurement of the Manuka pollen count.
It has a characteristically rich flavour, golden amber colour and thick texture, making it distinct from any other honey found in the world. It’s protected by the New Zealand government and must pass stringent regulations to be classified as pure Manuka Honey.
How do you ensure the quality of your Manuka?
We make no concessions. Every batch is lab tested and independently verified by internationally accredited labs, ensuring its authenticity, potency, shelf-life, and freshness. We’re certified to be 100% New Zealand made, non-GMO, unadulterated (which means it hasn’t been diluted with sugar or high fructose corn syrup) and antibiotic-free.
What Manuka do you supply to Ecology & Co?
We have worked closely with Karl (Ecology & Co lead distiller) to provide the right Manuka for the new range that’s been developed. The Multifloral Manuka Honey which we selected together comes with the Manuka quality assurances we offer and is perfect for everyday consumption.
As someone who has to believe in what she works with, I love the Ecology & Co products. They are joyous drinks and it’s a great experience to contribute to their crafting.
What’s the most surprising thing about Manuka?
Manuka is extremely rare because it’s sourced from bushes that only flower for two to six weeks per year, and its pale pink flowers are less attractive to bees than brighter colours, so the flowers have to work harder to get their pollinators to gravitate to them. To overcome this, there’s ongoing research to suggest that the Manuka flower senses the vibrations of the bees as they approach and makes its pollen sweeter which would be a pretty incredible example of nature’s power of innovation.
