Ever since the first cavemen harvested honey 8000 years ago, we have craved for its sweet delicacy. But more than its taste, honey has a ton of great health benefits that researches never seem to find all of its hidden potential benefits. Putting honey into your warm tea to relieve sore throat or applying it to a wound to let it heal faster, are great holistic remedies this sweet liquid offers. It is mainly undiscovered how the bees integrate the honey’s best features. What we know is that we immensely owe the life on Earth to them.

The best honey in the world comes from the mountains of the Black Sea region of Turkey. Turkish honey is known to be finely processed to preserve their unique tastes. The taste and benefit of Turkish honey depend on where the bees are kept, and every region has its specialty. Take the Black Sea region, for example, that is famous for taking Persian to victory in a battle against Rome with the help of honey. We will go over this story later on.
The Turks on some regions pass down the beekeeping tradition since the 1840s and discovered that their honey is far superior to honey from other countries like Canada, New Zealand, and even China that is the number 1 producer of honey. Most beekeeping activities in Turkey are done in remote areas in traditional ways as a family business. Many of their products do not even reach the international market, and when they do, they are priced higher because of the rarity. It is possible to buy original Turkish Honey here or other countries in the world, but there is no guarantee that it is the original one.

Turkish Honey Specialty

Pine Honey

Initially, the farmers did small beekeeping to help their crops properly pollinated. Later on, they realize that the honey produced became very popular and the beekeeping industry started to grow. The Muğla province is one of the first regions to practice large scale beekeeping. 75% of honey production in Turkey is from this southwestern part of Turkey. It is also the birthplace of Pine Honey, the first honey specialty in Turkey. It is the majority of honey consumed in Turkey, so it will not be hard to get yourself a jar of this sweet healthy liquid.

This variety of honey is known for the dark color and less sweet for it has less glucose and fructose than other honey. Pine Honey is rich in antibacterial and antioxidant properties and arguably richer than Manuka honey produced in Australia and New Zealand. This kind of honey is often mixed into food and beverages as much as taken spoonful to cure remedies like fever or sore throat. How the bees make Pine Honey is interesting, too. Contrary to a common belief that honey is from flowers (nectar), bees make this honey by collecting the honeydew from the aphid colonies that live on the pine trees.

Anzer Honey

Anzer is the name of the area in İkizdere that produces one of the best jars of honey in the world; even the bears favor this honey more than others. The bees collect Anzer honey from 90 kinds of flowers that grow in the area. The result is this golden colored and packed honey with abundant health-promoting attributes to help patients to recover from memory loss, paralysis, and stomach problems. The price for Anzer honey is one of the highest due to the high demand.

‘Mad Honey’ from the Black Sea

We mentioned the story about the battle between the Persian and Rome army where the Persians had the upper hand with the help of honey. The Persian was pursued by the Rome army along the Black Sea coast when they realized the power of some locally produced honey that can induce hallucination and delirium when ingested. They left the establishment, leaving the honey behind and the Rome army did not think twice to take the bait. The Persian army came back to find the 1,000 men were all in an impossible state of battle, continued to finish them off, and went home victorious.

Nowadays, it is still possible to buy original Turkish Honey here because some beekeepers keep producing small batches of this amazing honey. Mad Honey is the product from the bee colonies that mainly collect nectar from the Rhododendron flower, a flower that contains a potent neurotoxin called grayanotoxin. The taste will hit your palate instantly with a bit of bitterness and it is warned that one can only take maximum one spoonful. More than that can induce delirium or even death. The price of this honey is a lot higher from the more common Pine Honey. It is often used to treat organ dysfunction and hypertension.

Elvish Honey

The first batch of Elvish honey was sold for almost $50,000 in an auction. You need about $600 to get a chance of purchasing a jar of this one-of-a-kind honey. The reason why it is so expensive is that it is only harvestable from an extremely high wall of a cave in Saricayir valley. It is an incredibly rare kind of honey only the riches can afford.

Conclusion

Turkey has some of the best honey in the world with various specialties from the ones with most health benefits to ones that are the most expensive. We are not sure if it is possible to buy original Turkey Honey here because there are fake ones around and saturate the market. The best place to purchase a jar is to find established brands that produce their honey ethically, or (obviously) visit the places that produce it firsthand. Lucky for us, it is now possible to buy original Turkish Honey here without risking buying the fake ones, thanks to the invention of online shopping!