The Honey Hive: A Sweet Treat
The Honey Hive - Taupo, NZ
No trip to Taupo can be complete without stopping by The Honey Hive. This sweet spot is conveniently located just north of the town near Huka Falls. We’ve been to the hive twice – we went the second time to show my visiting brother-in-law and try the honey ice cream.
The Honey Hive - Taupo, NZ
After being greeted by the friendly staff, we walked around a mini bee museum. They actually have a hive with glass walls so you can safely watch the bees in action. Don’t worry there is nothing flying around the shop to sting you. There are cool interactive exhibits for kids to learn about honey and fun bee facts hanging on the wall.
Honey Comb and Honey from The Honey Hive
Of course we spent most of our time at the tasting counter in the back. We started by sticking Popsicle sticks in various jars of honey. They had everything from peanut butter honey to jasmine honey. We chose a basic plain honey to take home for some added sweetness to our tea and biscuits (American biscuits, which are bread, not cookies). After sampling the honey we moved to the liquor and wine. I think a sign says there is a limit to how much you can sample, but a friendly conversation with the staff and they insist on you trying all the wine, liquors, and mead. We were all honey-ed out, but when the staff realized we hadn’t tasted the honey-comb we just had to try one more bite of the delicious bee treat. It was delicious! And it is said to have medicinal qualities.
In addition to the tasting, I walked around and slathered my skin with various honey-based lotions. They have every skin care product you can imagine and it all smells wonderful!
As much as I wanted to try honey ice cream, there was no way I could enjoy it after all the tasting on my first visit. Luckily a visitor gave us a great excuse to go back and I made a bee-line straight for the ice cream counter. Definitely try the ice cream!
The Honey Hive - Taupo, NZ
I guess they had to have had Manuka honey. New Zealand is said
to have some of the best medicinal honeys in the world.
Did they have Blue Borage honey ?
They did have Manuka honey. Seems honey as a medicine is very popular here, all of the commercials for cold medicine mention or contain honey.
I’m a huge fan of honey and eucalyptus when I have a cold. There used to be a perfect tea, Wellness Tea by Celestial Seasons. It had everything you would want for a cold – tasted horrible, but cleared your sinuses. They changed the formula – not as good now, but I still use it.
Have you heard of propolio? I may not have that just right. It is a honey product from Columbia. My friend had her mom bring me some back from the country. It is nasty – I mix it in tea, but it contains so much eucalyptus it hard to drink. BUT it does the trick. My friend says it is better than honey for some reason or another, probably similar to the Manuka Honey. But the Manuka honey tasted yummy.
The honey hive does have blue Borage Honey – http://www.honeyhivetaupo.com/search.pasp?emguid=71531F8BE0AF4F43B0E8D818D94AA000&numbertoreturn=30&searchstring=Blue+Borag&Go=Go
Wish I could go back, but we don’t have our car.