Healing Honey

Just over five years ago, as part of a plan to help her youngest son overcome his fear of bees, Katie Merchant purchased 20,000 bees and two backyard hives in the hope that learning beekeeping could serve as exposure therapy for her scared little boy.

Merchant took a beekeeping course, and soon the endeavour turned into a true love of the bees and beekeeping. The whole family got involved, expanding their hives and ultimately finding themselves with thousands of pounds of honey.

When gifting to friends and family was not enough to get rid of it all, Merchant decided to expand the scope of her honey-producing hobby. She began experimenting with new flavours, perfecting the creaming methods, and ultimately launched The Honey Merchants as a business in the summer of 2022.

The Honey Merchants Healing Honey was created to serve as a natural alternative to pharmaceutical pain relievers. Since honey is so often associated with natural healing, a concoction like this only makes sense: by adding healthful ingredients to her honey, Merchant has created something that’s good for what ails you, but also tastes delicious.

Healing Honey is chock full of natural, organic ingredients used in ayurvedic medicine — turmeric, ginger, cayenne and black peppers — and flavoured with lemon. It not only makes you feel great, but it tastes fantastic, whether eaten by the spoonful or stirred into warm water.

Now housing more than 2 million bees out in Millarville, Alta., The Honey Merchants has since produced hundreds of Healing Honeys in addition to its 11 other varieties of honey, merchandise and beeswax products.

$20
thehoneymerchants.com

What the judges said:
“I loved the earthy flavour of the Healing Honey, with its delicious light spicy kick from the cayenne and black peppers. It’s a perfect food gift!” -Sylvia Kong