What Makes Raw Honey So Special? A Forest‑to‑Jar Guide

For us here at Manawa Honey NZ, raw honey is not a trend or a marketing label. It is how we have always had our honey, since the honey bee first came to cover our forest homeland in Te Urewera in the mid-19th century. Today, raw honey remains our way of staying honest to the work of our bees and our forest.

Like us, some people close to the earth understand raw honey, but for many, there’s lots of unanswered questions. So through this blog we will answer your questions about raw honey and provide you with a comprehensive forest-to-jar guide on raw honey.

Here’s what we will cover in this article:

• Raw Honey is Unprocessed
• What Raw Honey Can Also Mean
• Why Raw Honey Crystallises – and Why That’s a Good Sign
• Natural Raw vs Soft Set Raw Honey
• How Do You Know You Have Raw Honey?
• How Do You Look After Raw Honey?
• How Can You Use Raw Honey?
• Is Raw Honey Better for You?
• Why Raw Matters to Us at Manawa Honey NZ

Raw honey is the most natural way to bring the work of our bees and our forest into your home. In general, ‘raw honey’ has become a label of quality, a term discerning honey-lovers seek for its purity and health benefits. But in a market filled with claims, what does “raw” truly mean?

For most, the term ‘raw honey’ in simple terms means “not heated.” But there’s more to what raw honey means. Here’s the key points…

Raw Honey is unfiltered

• We strain our raw honey to remove large pieces of wax and bits of bees but it is not ultra-filtered to make it crystal-clear.
• Small particles of pollen and wax, and some honey crystals, even particles of health-giving propolis, usually remain in the honey, and these are signs that the honey is still close to how it left the hive.

Raw Honey is unpasteurised and not ultra-heated.

• Pasteurisation involves heating honey to 60-65°C (140-149°F) and is used in processing honey to manage microbe levels.
• Ultra-high temperatures of 63°C-71°C (145°F-160°F) are used by commercial honey packers to make honey stay liquid and clear for longer in the jar.
• Our raw honey is never pasteurised or ultra-heated. It is only ever warmed very gently to get it into the jar – a temperature of only 35-40°C (140-149°F), the same temperature found in the natural state of the hive.

Raw Honey is unprocessed

• In summary, our raw honey comes unprocessed so that it retains all its natural components such as fine pollen, particles of propolis and beeswax, and live enzymes. The table below provides a summary of the differences between the treatment of raw and processed creamed and liquid honeys.

For us here at Manawa Honey NZ, the meaning of raw honey goes beyond just the definition in processing terms. Our worldview as forest-dwellers and tangata whenua (people of the land) dictates that “raw” is part of a larger covenant with the land and our forest.

Raw Honey has provenance 

Our Raw Honey, coming from the flowers and the environment of our forest trees, are a direct reflection of Te Urewera’s terroir and dynamic ecosystems. It cannot be replicated elsewhere.

This is why we avoid high heat and ultra-filtering, because processing immediately disconnects the honey from its unique origins.  Instead, our Raw Honey brings you an authentic forest print of our homeland.

Raw Honey has standout taste

Ultra-heat and filtering simply flatten the unique taste of a raw honey into a generic sweetness. In our Raw Honey, we protect the floral notes and nuanced taste of our forest to offer a genuine flavour experience that only nature could craft.

Raw Honey is part of kaitiaki responsibility 

Like our work as kaitiaki (guardians) for our native forests, we work to protect the line of origin and uniqueness from our forest to our raw honeys. We work patiently with the rhythms of our forest, and we keep our bees and produce our raw honey with the care and respect that this taonga (special food) deserves.

So our Raw Honey is not just a special food, it’s also connecting you to our tikanga (codes and practices) as guardians of our forest.

Raw Honey is seasonal vintage 

Most discussions about raw honey focus on what happens in the shed. We like to start in the forest.

In Te Urewera, our bees move with the seasons and the flowering of native trees such as Kānuka, Rewarewa, Tāwari and Mānuka. Each season brings a different profile of nectars, and each nectar becomes a slightly different honey with subtle differences in colour, aroma and texture.

In summary, raw honey lets you taste not just the goodness and sweetness of honey, but also the particular year, place and forest trees the bees have worked.

One of the first questions people ask about raw honey is: “Why has my honey crystalised and gone hard?”

In raw honey, crystallisation is natural. Honey crystallises because it is actually a supersaturated solution containing more glucose and fructose than the water in the honey can technically hold. This state causes the glucose to separate and solidify. Crystallisation is accelerated by cold temperatures, the high glucose-to-fructose ratios of some honeys, and particles like pollen around which honey crystals form.

For some honeys the crystallisation has small grains so it gains quite a smooth texture, although it may still set quite hard. Tāwari, Kānuka and Pua-a-Tane Wild Forest Honey are examples of this pattern, and sometimes Mānuka.

For other honeys, the crystallisation process delivers a firm or grainy set with crunchy crystals. Rewarewa often sets in this way, as sometimes does Mānuka.

For raw honey, we see crystalisation as a positive – it shows that the honey has not been over-processed or ultra-heated. Indeed, it tells you that the honey is, in fact, raw.

So you like Raw Honey because you want the benefits of unfiltered and unpasteurised honey. But you don’t like those chunky crystals that some honeys will form.

Or, you love the smooth texture of creamed honey but you don’t like the processing creamed honey undergoes.

Well, as they say, do we have a honey for you! We call it ‘Soft-set’ Raw as opposed to ‘Natural’ Raw Honey.

Soft-set is a term that is sometimes used to mean the same as ‘creamed’ in the world of honey, but at Manawa Honey, we have designed a different process so that we can apply it to our Raw Honey.

‘Creamed’ actually refers to a process that:

• was originally defined by patent (known as the Dyce method)
• which includes treatment with high heat for pasteurisation
• also usually involves fine or ultra-filtering
• is designed to ensure all crystals in the honey are melted or filtered out so no crystals remain to induce natural crystallisation which would interfere with the creaming process.

In Soft-set Raw Honey production, we use a process that:

• avoids high heating and ultra-filtering so that the honey remains raw
• is only slightly different to Natural Raw Honey production
• involves addin a small amount of ‘starter’ from the last batch of Soft-Set Raw Honey
• gentle stirring for some time.
• is designed to induce a fine crystallisation that will render a soft, smooth texture for the final raw honey.

Below we present an expanded version of the table presented earlier in this article, that fleshes out the comparisons between raw and processed honeys to take into account Soft-set Raw and Natural Raw Honey.

So it’s important to you. You want to know that really do have Raw Honey. Here’s the signs:

The Look & Feel

• Raw Honey may be liquid if it has just been packed, but after a month or more, it will become cloudy, creamy or crunchy due to pollen and natural crystallisation, or it might be a mix of these textures.
• Note that different varietals and different batches can behave in different ways, but one thing is for sure, raw honey will never be perfectly clear or uniformly liquid year-round.

The ‘Raw’ Taste

• Raw Honey will taste robust and complex, not just sweet in a one-dimensional way.

The ‘Raw’ Story

• A genuine producer will explain their ‘raw’ process and philosophy, not just use the word as a sticker.
• If the production process meets the criteria of not ultra-heated or pasteurised, not ultra filtered and not processed, then you will have raw honey.
• It’s not easy to tell the difference between Creamed Honey and Soft-set Raw Honey so you have to check the labelling of the honey. So choose a producer you can trust.

We know that honey in general is good for you (1). But the question we’re asking here is about raw honey compared to processed honey. You will often see claims about raw honey being much more health-giving than processed honey. But we are careful about making unsubstantiated claims and go back to sound research to back any statements we make on this matter.

What we can say is:

• A widely-cited review on honey and human health notes that processing (especially heating and ultra-filtration) can reduce some of honey’s bio-active components, including enzymes and certain phenolic compounds.(2)
• Another study on raw vs processed honey found that raw honey contained up to 4.3 times more antioxidant compounds than the processed sample, suggesting that minimal processing preserves antioxidants.(3)
• A review of heat treatment on honey found that heating honey can result in non-peroxide antibacterial activity and heat‑sensitive enzymes (like glucose oxidase) decreasing as temperature/time rises.(4)

We can conclude that raw honey certainly maintains bio-active properties, that are or can be degraded by processing. This is the knowledge that drives the choices that many people make for raw honey.

However, research on raw honey has yet to reach the next level of head‑to‑head human trials to demonstrate conclusively that raw honey delivers greater health outcomes when compared to processed honey. We await research in this field with interest.

Being Part of Something Bigger

It may seem to be just a jar or a pail of honey. But we are Tūhoe, the tribal guardians of Te Urewera.

Our beekeeping creates jobs at home in Ruatāhuna; our business supports our community; our purpose sits within our wider responsibility to care for land, water and life.

Presenting honey in a raw form is one small way we keep that relationship visible in the jar, and we reach out for you to join us in our endeavour.

Ready to taste the difference? Check out our range of raw New Zealand native honeys, crafted with a depth of care that extends from our forest and the heart of our community…