What Makes Tupelo Honey So Expensive?

When folks throw around the phrase "the nectar of the gods," they should be talking about tupelo honey. Artisanal honeys, from buckwheat to manuka honey (Broad City fans, rise up), are having a moment right now. Today, we're talking about the variety known as the champagne of honeys. It's high praise, but the honey is well worth the prestigious reputation and high price tag that accompany it.

Tupelo honey is famed for its velvety texture and delicately sweet flavor (there's even a Van Morrison song about it). Outside of Florida and Georgia, it can typically only be purchased from online retailers. Honey Feast raw tupelo honey costs $12.99 per 12-ounce jar, and specialty artisanal options like Savannah Bee Company raw tupelo honey can run even steeper ($9.99 per three-ounce jar). So, what's all the hype about? Regular honey couldn't possibly warrant such a cost, could it? Answer, "correct," but tupelo honey is not regular honey.

One of the chief reasons for tupelo honey's steep price is its limited availability. Tupelo honey is exclusively produced from the Ogeechee tupelo gum tree, which only grows in the wet, swampy climate of the American southeast (primarily Northwestern Florida, Southern Georgia, and Louisiana). Only a few places in the country are suited for growing the tree in large enough quantities to make honey. The tree's blooming season also only lasts for roughly three weeks, from late April to early May, and those delicate white flowers can be easily destroyed by rain or high winds.

Due to these precise growing conditions, raw tupelo honey can only be sourced from the Southern Cypress Swamp — typically either the Apalachicola River basin in the Florida panhandle or the Okeefenokee Wildlife Refuge on the Florida-Georgia border. Swamp beekeeping is also wickedly labor-intensive. Thriving alligator populations in these swamps prevent the construction of traditional apiaries. In order to reach the riverbank hives, beekeepers must often construct floating barge platforms along the river's edge. To really get a picture of the work involved, the 1997 film "Ulee's Gold" starring Peter Fonda is about a swamp beekeeper harvesting tupelo honey, and director Victor Nuñez referred to L.L. Lanier and Sons' family beekeeping company from Wewahitchka, Florida, as consultants for authenticity.

To diehard honey fans, it's a labor of love. Tupelo honey totes distinctive tasting notes of light cinnamon, fresh flowers, buttery richness, and subtle tones of rosewater and cotton candy. Tupelo honey is also known as liquid gold for its hue and uniquely high ratio of fructose to glucose, making for slower crystallization. It stays liquid for years and has a tremendous shelf life. According to the aforementioned L.L. Lanier and Sons Tupelo Honey company, the contemporary market is rife with tupelo honey imposters that are often a wildflower blend — if an affordably priced offering labelled as "tupelo honey" seems too good to be true, it probably is. You get what you pay for.