The OpenHive Heather honey, cut straight from the comb, won bronze at the Blas na hEireann awards in 2022 and two stars at the Great Taste Awards 2023.

We love heather honey, and it’s a real delicacy. The heather in the Wicklow mountains only flowers for roughly 2-3 weeks per year so its always very reliant on getting good weather for that window. Thankfully this year we had a great harvest and are really proud of this delicious honey.

From the judges 2023:

‘Fabulous looking comb, well formed and filled with inviting, golden amber honey. Gentle floral notes with a bright citrussy tang followed  by caramel. Good length of flavour and character, there is light and dark in the flavour which brings interest.

White, even wax, untrampled and with an aroma that had us from the start.  We could smell it across the table - vivid and enticing. The flavour is outstanding. Bittersweet with a toffee like quality - buttery and warm. The was is indeed chewy and tender. An outstanding honey which we enjoyed enormously.

This is such a beautiful piece of honey. Judges were struck by the powerful heather aroma from this piece of cut comb, which was extremely enticing. The comb cut well and was richly filled with delicious, unctuous honey. The flavour of the honey is sublime and the texture of the comb wonderfully succulent, with an enjoyable chew. Just gorgeous.’

This honey was produced up in the Wicklow mountains in August. Heather honey has been recently studied by Trinity and DCU (2018) to show its comparable health benefits to Manuka honey.

Heather honey requires a lot more work than regular honey. Each year we move the hives up to the heather when it begins to flower (only a two -three week window per year).

Heather is generally located in remote hard to reach areas of the mountains which can be difficult to access. The honey is also known as a thixotropic honey, meaning it is like a gel rather than a liquid, and therefore, can not be spun out like regular honey. We either produce it as cut comb or crush it out of the comb and filter it into jars.

Delivery costs of €7 for shipping to anywhere in Ireland & Northern Ireland are added at checkout.