Choosing The Best Manuka Honey: A Hive To Bottle Guide!
- Josh Boughton
- Jul 28
- 9 min read
Updated: Aug 1
Manuka Honey is made from the nectar of the flowering Manuka trees, a tree native to Australia and New Zealand. The Manuka tree (Leptospermum scoparium) has a white flower, sometimes tinged with pink.
How IS Manuka Honey MADE?
Manuka trees bloom from about mid-December to mid-January. The hives are moved to the area just ahead of the start of the flowering of the Manuka trees so the bees are in place and ready to forage as the nectar becomes available.
Honeybees forage for nectar when the weather is good. Warm temperatures, with daytime highs in the 70s, and nighttime lows above the mid-50s, are required for the plants to present nectar at the flower. Rain or high winds can keep the bees from getting out to forage, so weather conditions are critical during the 4-6 weeks that the Manuka is typically in flower each year.
Bees forage specifically for the nectar of the Manuka flower to make honey. Pollen is also collected as a food source and stored separately from the nectar. Forager bees collect the nectar and pass it on to younger hive bees upon returning to the hive. It begins by moving the nectar to honeycomb cells, depositing it along with the enzymes the bees produce. The incoming nectar is about 70% water, which must be evaporated down to 20% or lower to turn the nectar into honey. The nectar is mostly sucrose, which is broken down by the bee's enzymes into glucose and fructose.
The bees evaporate most of the moisture from the honey by rapidly beating their wings over the honey cells, aided by the warm temperatures (95 degrees) within the hive. Then, as the honey is dried, the bees produce wax and cap the cell to prevent it from reabsorbing moisture, thereby protecting it from mold and preventing fermentation.
The flowering, weather forecast, and the progress of the honey-making in the hive are closely monitored through the summer. Then, when the timing is right, the process of moving the hives out of the Manuka sites and harvesting the honey begins.
Manuka honey adulteration
Honey is the world's third most adulterated food product; it would take a whole book to go through all of the issues and history of honey adulteration.
In addition, often, the country of origin of the honey is mislabeled.
Check out the documentary series Rotten on Netflix; the first episode is about honey; it is an excellent way of understanding many of the issues surrounding honey.
Check out our Farm-To-Bottle Project to learn about the importance of true traceability.
THIRD PARty tested manuka honey
Many manuka honey brands claim to be third-party tested. It's important when evaluating manuka honey test results that you know what it should be tested for and that the correct testing methods are being used. Most people don't know what it should be tested for or how it should be tested. We will address that later in the article.
Not every batch may measure the same potency, one of many reasons you should not trust a company that tests one batch and uses that test result for all of their batches. There will be differences from year to year.
There are a lot of problems with third-party testing. Check out our blog to learn why we don't recommend relying on it to know if a food or supplement is good quality.
Manuka honey in glass jars
Most manuka honey is packaged in soft plastic to save money on shipping and packaging costs. While many of these soft plastics claim to be BPA-free, they often have other components that can be just as unhealthy. We contacted a number of companies selling Manuka honey in plastic, and none of them properly tested their containers to make sure there was no leaching. Avoid buying manuka honey and other liquid foods and beverages in soft plastic containers.
Manuka honey labeling terms - MGO, NPA, DHA, UMF, AND MG
Labeling of Manuka honey products can be very confusing, and finding a properly labeled one can often be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Often seen on the labels of Manuka Honey products are abbreviations or terms such as MGO (Methylglyoxal), NPA, DHA UMF, MG, and others.
Some companies have even started making up fake certifications and measurements that have no real meaning, such as "Bio Active 15+", "High Active," "Active 15+," or "K Factor 16," which are intended to make you think they are certified or tested correctly, but in fact, they are nothing more than words and numbers on a page created by the company.
Just because a jar says Manuka Honey and lists lots of fancy numbers or terms does not mean it is a good product. Marketing can conceal a lot of issues with a product.
What is mg/mgo and UMF
So what do various measurements and numbers mean?
There are only two legitimate ways to label Manuka Honey: MG/MGO or UMF.
MG/MGO (Methylglyoxal) - Manuka honey should either be labeled with the actual MG test results (in mg/kg) or with a correlated rating on the UMF (Unique Manuka Factor) scale. The UMF trademark must be on the jar if they use a UMF rating instead of the actual MG test result.
Honey labeled with the UMF logo and rating is also tested for two additional chemical markers (HMF & Leptosperin). The relationship between MG & UMF is as follows (after threshold HMF and Leptosperin levels are met):
When you see anything else on a honey label purporting to be Manuka honey, you should steer clear. Examples of what continues to show up on labels include “Active”, “Bio-Active”, “Total Activity ”, “K-Factor ”, plus a number typically ranging from 5+ to 20+. When labeled this way, the company is trying to intentionally mislead the consumer into thinking they are getting a high MG (or legitimate UMF) honey when in reality they are typically getting a very low concentration, or low activity (i.e., low MG value) honey. The label must use the MG/MGO (or Methylglyoxal) letters on the label, or it is not an actual measurement of that.
Manuka honey is the ONLY honey in the world with meaningful levels of MG. The amount of MG in a Manuka honey determines its value. If your honey has low levels (or no levels) of MG, it really shouldn't cost you more than any other table honey.
DHA (Dihydroxyacetone, different from the essential fatty acid DHA found in fish, Docosahexaenoic acid) - Dihydroxyacetone is slowly converted to MGO in honey. The higher the DHA content, the longer the life of the MGO content in manuka honey.
NPA (Non-Peroxide Antibacterial Activity) - This is present in many types of honey, the NPA activity of Manuka Honey is measured by its MGO activity. Non-Peroxide Activity (NPA) values are not directly measured by the lab but are calculated from the measured methylglyoxal concentration in the honey. The calculation is based on published data comparing the NPA and methylglyoxal concentrations measured in a range of honey samples. These calculated values do not imply that the honey is or is not manuka honey. Companies listing NPA instead of MG or MGO activity could be mixing several types of honey, so it is not a good idea to rely on this measurement; stick to looking at the MG/MGO measurement. Listing NPA activity on the label is another trick companies often use to make Manuka Honey appear more potent than it actually is, or to cover up a product with very low levels of MG/MGO.
HMF (5-hydroxymethylfurfural): High levels of HMF can indicate that a honey was heated or stored for an extended period of time.
How to use Manuka Honey
Here are some suggestions on how you can enjoy Manuka Honey:
Add it to your tea or coffee as a healthier sweetener
Spread it on your toast or crumpets
Drizzle it over your porridge or cereal
Pair with a mild goat's cheese or soft brie
Take it directly off the spoon to soothe the throat.
Use for general health and wellbeing
Externally:
Apply topically to irritated areas.
DIY face mask for radiant skin.
Ingredients:
1-2 tablespoons of Manuka honey
Instructions:
Cleanse your face thoroughly.
Apply an even layer of Manuka honey to damp skin.
Leave on for 15-20 minutes. For maximum benefits, you can leave it on for up to 30 minutes.
Rinse off with warm water and pat your skin dry.
Follow with your favorite moisturizer or facial oil to seal in the moisture.
If your manuka honey crystallises or becomes too thick, liquify it by placing the jar in warm water for 15 minutes. This is a natural process and attributes to pure, raw unprocessed honey.
Do not heat manuka honey above 40°C as this may reduce some of the benefits. Not for infants under one year of age.
Store your manuka honey in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight.
How to choose the best manuka honey
As with sourcing any product, the first and most important thing to consider is how it affects the people growing or harvesting it and the environment. No matter how good a finished product is, if it causes suffering to the people producing it or damages the environment, it is not worth it. There is no reason to compromise on these areas. Corporations often try to make us feel as if we need to choose. They are wrong. We should never sacrifice our ethics to save a few dollars or make things easier.
When it comes to Manuka honey, it's important to know exactly where it comes from.
Knowing who cares for the hives and harvests the honey is the only way to find out if the honey is produced ethically. If companies are buying from many suppliers and mixing honey from middlemen, you will not be able to find out the ethical practices of the individual apiaries. If the honey is blended from various suppliers or vendors, there is simply no way to track this.
You want to buy honey from companies and apiaries that do not use antibiotics, corn syrup, or overwork their bees.
In addition to supporting charities and groups that are working towards saving the bees, we strive to buy and sell herbal and other food supplements grown and harvested without using these pesticides.
While you may not always be able to know whether the foods you buy are grown without these pesticides, there are some simple, everyday steps you can take to reduce the use of these.
Number two, urge your local hardware and garden supply store to stop selling products containing those ingredients.
Number three, do not buy plants that have been treated with them. Unbeknownst to many, garden centers often sell plants treated with these chemicals prior to sale. Always ask before buying.
With the collapse of bee populations worldwide, knowing that you are only buying honey from companies that are good stewards of the bees and the planet is so important.
ZEA manuka honey
We searched for a long time to find a source of Manuka honey that met our standards for ethics, sustainability, quality, and efficacy. After a lengthy search, we finally found a small company that did everything right and had the most incredible tasting honey. Their model aligns perfectly with our beliefs.
Zea Manuka Honey is ethically harvested from the nectar of hives scattered throughout the pristine wilderness of Flinders Island, Tasmania, in the untouched Manuka bush.
It is third-party tested for DHA, MGO, and MHF. Click the button below to download a sample test result.
The beehives are not near areas of synthetic pesticide and herbicide use, as they are deep in the manuka brush. The hives are consistently inspected to ensure they are free of disease, and the queens are strong. Did you know a single, healthy hive can grow from 10,000 bees in the winter to over 50,000 bees during the flowering season? The bees are not given unneeded antibiotics and are not treated with harsh synthetic chemicals just to increase production. The bees are not fed corn syrup or foods that are not part of their natural diet. It is incredibly important that any company producing honey or other bee products treats its bees well and takes good care of them.
The raw honey is cold-extracted and bottled in glass jars (not cheap soft plastic).
Manuka Honey has tremendous potential to help so many people. However, that promise can only come to fruition if a product is pure and potent. If you want to experience all of the nourishment that Manuka honey offers, you need to ensure you are getting Manuka honey that's made properly from hive to bottle!
Manuka honey Questions and support
If you have any questions about our Manuka honey, please feel free to email us at info@rooted-nutrition.com, and we will do our best to provide you with the answers you need.
