Why is raw honey from Costco twice as expensive as Filtered ?

[rbowman]

That page is a little ambiguous but I assume unfiltered honey is what is drawn straight from the extractor like unfiltered cider is straight from the press.

[Ralph Mowery]

Probably the best way to buy honey. I have heard that local honey can help reduce hay feaver in some people.

From what I understand honey will not spoil if it is not 'watered down'.

[rbowman]

You'll be happy to know your honey is kosher. Probably halal too if you're a Muslim. Pareve means it's neither fleishig (meat) or milchig (dairy) so it can be used sweeten your tea with milk or make a sauce for your ribs (beef, of course)

You might not be so happy to know the price you paid for the honey includes the fee charged by one of the kosher concerns to certify the company isn't lubricating the extractor with lard or something.

[rbowman]

No, they just ship the whole hives by flatbed truck. And when you wreck one of those, doesn't everybody have fun:

[rbowman]

Are those good, hardworking North American bees, or did some of those shifty, undocumented Latin American bees slip in?

[Danny D.]

Oren wrote, on Fri, 01 Jan 2016 16:18:37 -0800:

Trans fat free too I'll bet!

[Paul M. Cook]

That's not what my Costco store sells as unfiltered clover honey.

I only have one jar at a time, so I can't snap a picture for you of the other two types I get.

Sometimes I get the small bear-shaped jar as shown in this picture:

Other times I get the much larger (and cheaper) Kirkland brand:

Both of these seem to be "filtered" honey, which, inexplicably, is half as expensive as the raw honey I currently have from Costco.

Apparently the stuff I have is ONLY sold at Costco northern California:

[Paintedcow]

They only allow bees which have a tiny red-white-blue American Flag tattoo on their wings! That tattoo is applied by the Federal Census Bureau when the bees are checked for citizenship papers, during the U.S. Census. :)

[James Dickson]

The whole story of how that particular Costco-only honey is made is here

[Micky]

Ron, I really want to try this cow-sharing, but I can't get my modem to work right.

Both sides did that.

[wanderer]

Yes, the big D with the k inside is Dallas Kosher.

And the OU is the OU.

Why do you say something like this? The cost of inspecting a honey facility is probably less than a penny a bottle. It's nothing like meat where inspection has to be continuous and adds, with the other requirements for kosher meat, several dollars a pound to the cost of meat.

For a product like honey, especially since it has only one ingredient, the inspector would only have to visit once or twice a year for a couple hours, if that much. The first time, they'd show him around the plant, he'd learn how honey was bottled there, he'd see that there are no other ingredients (He'd probably already have learned that before his first visit.), maybe they'd have a little tea with honey , and he'd be done. After that, it would take even less time for the inspection.

Unflavored honey, as this product is, wouldn't even require inspection except that it's heated (what difference that makes, I'm not sure) and this company probaby solicited the inspection in order to increase sales, which they wouldn't do if the price went up much.

NORTH DALLAS HONEY/NATURE NATE'S

6573 County Road 124 McKinney, TX 75071 (214-701-3443) With offices in Frisco, TX North Dallas Honey Company has been providing local, raw and unfiltered honey for you and your family since 1972. They have partnered with North Texas beekeepers to provide top-quality, local raw honey. Their Texas honey is gently warmed and strained through cheesecloth to remove the "bee knees," leaving the enzymes and the antioxidants of the honey. For constancy, they blend a variety of honeys from honey-producing plants, including clover, vetch, wildflower, and mesquite. This refers to all their products and not especially the one in this thread.

[RonNNN]

I know, and admit I was only thinking of what is legal where I live.

[Terry Coombs]

Local honey will contain local pollen in miniscule amounts . This can desenzitize SOME people - and AFAK you can't filter it out . By law honey can contain no more that 16.5% (I think that's the number) water , more than that and the honey can ferment . A good thing if you're making mead , but for other uses not so much . There has been so much said here about unfiltered honey not being "raw" honey . That's not the criterion . Raw honey , just like raw milk , has not been pasteurized . Heating honey to the temps used to pasteurize it destroys all the microorganisms that give honey it's "medicinal" properties . IMO the only use for pasteurized honey is for children under a year old , because occasionally botulinim spores occcur in it and can make the wee ones sick .

-- Snag

[Terry Coombs]

Those bees were being shipped to somewhere for pollination , not to harvest the honey . Many smaller operations will sell their honey in bulk to a packager for resale . Less profit , but also less invested in packaging and filtering equipment .

[Paul M. Cook]

You said it in the post but I'll underscore that I think it's heated just so that it's thin enough to filter easily.

[Paul M. Cook]

This is good to know because it's *not* on the label!

[Paul M. Cook]

I was wondering why they said on the bottle not to feed to infants! Thanks for pointing out why, before I even asked!

[rbowman]

Why should I pay even a penny to support some religious organization? Will the Muslims be the next to see a nice scam in having a cresent M or something on every container? I'm not interested in whether my honey, coffee, salmon, or myriad other products are kosher or not. Unfortunately it's out of my hands if producers want to cater to 2% or less of the US population.

[Tony Hwang]

Even adult can get drunk if too much raw honey is eaten.

[rbowman]

Don't be so quick to laugh:

Any bee with the wrong chip, or no chip, will be droned forthwith.