Date Published: 31 July, 2025
Manawa Honey NZ is thrilled to announce another major category win at the Black Jar International Honey Tasting Contest, the competition for the World’s Best Tasting Honey. In 2025, our exquisite Creamed Tāwari Honey, with its silky texture and delicate butterscotch notes, won the coveted Category for Creamed Honey.
This latest honour builds on an incredible legacy of success, following our Rewarewa Honey’s 2021 Grand First Prize win as the Best Tasting Honey in the World, and our Kānuka Honey’s category win in 2022.
We are truly humbled by this consistent international recognition and are excited to share the story of our latest triumph with you.
The Best from Manawa Honey NZ
Our customers often tell us that our honey is the best they have ever tasted. We know that the honey we produce is top quality because we carefully manage every step of its journey – from the pristine forests of Te Urewera where we place our apiaries, to the moment we present our honey in its jar.
But we value the assurance on quality that comes from the independent and expert assessments undertaken as part of contest and awards held for honey across the world.
In our culture, there is a saying: “Kāre te kūmara e kōrero mō tana reka (A sweet potato doesn’t boast about how sweet it is)!” While we hold this humility dear, we also know that to be successful in our endeavour with Manawa Honey NZ, we must let the world know about the special taonga (treasure) we have here.
Building on our successes since 2021, we continue to enter a selection of our honeys into prestigious awards to see how they stand up on the world stage.
The Black Jar International Honey Tasting Contest
The World’s Best Tasting Honey is determined through the Black Jar International Honey Contest held annually in Asheville, North Carolina, USA. The contest is run by the Center for Honeybee Research, an organisation dedicated to ‘grassroot’ education and research to ensure the survival of the honey bee cause by factors such as pollution, loss of habitat and disease.
The contest has been running for 14 years as of 2025 and attracts hundreds of entries from beekeepers across the globe. In 2022, there were over 900 entries, and the contest has only grown in prestige and scope since then.
This contest is renowned for its unique blind-judging process. The Center for Honey Bee Research explains:
“In other honey contests, “perfection” is key to judging… The Black Jar is set up to rely solely on the taste of each entry. The honey that makes it to the finals is covered in black fabric so the judges cannot see the visual characteristics… We choose this form of judging because we respect the unique flavors that bees bring back to the hive as they visit different flowers.”
The contest is truly international, with a significant portion of entries now coming from outside of North America, showcasing a global tapestry of flavours.
A Legacy of Excellence: Our Journey at the Contest
Our history with the Black Jar International Honey Tasting Contest is one we are incredibly proud of.
It began in 2021, when our Chief Beekeeper Taawi Te Kurapa entered our Rewarewa Honey, and won the Grand First Prize, earning the incredible title of the Best Tasting Honey in the World. Our Tāwari Honey and Pua-ā-Tāne Wild Forest Honey were also finalists in that contest. We tell the full story of how we entered this contest, all about the contest and the results achieved in our article World’s Best Tasting Honey.
We returned in 2022 and were humbled once again when our Raw Kānuka Honey with its natural creaminess, won the Creamed Category, placing it in the Top 10 of the World’s Best Tasting Honey.
These successive wins with different honeys from our Te Urewera homeland solidified our reputation for quality and consistency, a rare achievement given the rigorous, taste-only judging process.
2025 Category Winner: Creamed Tāwari Honey
In 2025, we were ecstatic to learn that another of our prized honeys had captured the judges’ palates. Our Creamed Tāwari Honey was named the winner of the Creamed Honey category, continuing our legacy at this prestigious event.
Tāwari honey is a unique treasure of New Zealand, sourced from the nectar of the Tāwari tree (Ixerba brexioides). This beautiful tree, with its large, white flowers, grows in the ancient, untouched forests of Te Urewera.
Our Creamed Tāwari Honey is celebrated for its stunningly pale, golden colour and a wonderfully smooth, creamy texture. Its flavour profile is what truly sets it apart: a light, delicate sweetness with distinctive notes of butterscotch and toffee. It’s a sophisticated and memorable taste that clearly resonated with the judges.
The process of creaming this honey enhances its naturally fine crystals, resulting in a perfectly smooth, spreadable consistency that melts in your mouth. It is this combination of unique flavour and luxurious texture that makes our Tāwari Honey a world-class winner.
What’s Next for Manawa Honey?
This third major win at the World’s Best Tasting Honey Contest, this time for our Creamed Tāwari Honey, is a profound honour. It affirms our belief that the pristine forests of Te Urewera produce some of the most remarkable honeys on Earth.
Achieving wins with three different honeys—Rewarewa, Kānuka, and now Tāwari—highlights the incredible diversity and quality of our range. It is a testament to the hard work of our bees and our team’s commitment to delivering honey in its most pure and natural state.
We are more inspired than ever to continue sharing these gifts from our forest home with you and the world. Thank you for being part of our journey, and be sure to watch this space as we look towards 2026!
Here’s our range of Honeys of Te Urewera that have done so well in the World’s Best Tasting Honey Contest, USA.
| Brenda Tahi draws on a range of areas in her diverse experience for her writing. She has an MBA in Strategic Management from Henley College (UK) and has had careers in public sector management and governance in New Zealand. Brenda has published research in topics ranging from public sector management policy to Māori history and traditional knowledge. Brenda is a trustee for the Tuawhenua Trust of Ruatāhuna, and, drawing on beekeeping as her hobby, she was part of founding Manawa Honey NZ, of which she is now CEO. |