Rewarewa Honey produced by Manawa Honey NZ has won the Grand First Prize of the 10th Black Jar International Honey Tasting Contest and is deemed the current “Best Tasting Honey in the World.” Two other Manawa honeys also made the finals - Tāwari Honey and Pua-ā-Tāne Wild Forest Honey.
The Black Jar International Honey Tasting Contest is held annual in Asheville, North Carolina, USA, and attracts hundreds of participants every year from around the world. The contest focuses solely on taste, and uses black jars designed for a ‘blind’ tasting process, so colour and appearance do not affect judging.
The contest is run by the Centre of Honey Bee Research in Asheville, USA and is based on taste to highlight the diversity of flavours from the different floral sources and terroir around the world.
Brenda Tahi, CEO of Manawa Honey explains: “We started Manawa Honey to create jobs and to develop our people, to get honey back into our diets for good health, to help our farm and forest ecosystems and to give our kids something to look up to. Our customers have always told us that our honeys taste the best! So, we entered this contest for the first time this year, to see how our honeys stand up against honeys from across the globe.
We were gob-smacked when we got the email to say we had won… It’s an incredible honour to be recognised in this way. We will proudly celebrate this award because it tells us that we in Ruatahuna, without fame or favour, are able to achieve excellence on the international stage, by making things happen with our own people’s talents, with hard work together and a real commitment to making a better future for our next generations.”
Manawa Honey NZ is based in Ruatāhuna and specialises in producing exquisite native honeys from the untouched forests of Te Urewera – homeland of its tribe Tūhoe.
Available in Countdown Supermarkets.
For more information on Manawa Honey and to shop online: https://www.manawahoney.co.nz/
