A Week Until National Honey Week – NZ's Sweetest Celebration

A Week to Go until National Honey Week – NZ's Sweetest Celebration

Media Release
Date: 9 March 2015

ONE WEEK TO GO UNTIL NATIONAL HONEY WEEK – NEW ZEALAND’S SWEETEST CELEBRATION

The 2015 Airborne National Honey Week is one week away, kicking off on Monday 16 March. Tying in with the end of the New Zealand honey harvest, it will be a celebration of the country’s sweetest natural resource, with a particular emphasis on the versatility, quality and uniqueness of New Zealand honey varieties.

Among other activities, public tastings in supermarkets around the country this National Honey Week will give Kiwis the opportunity to taste the nine main varieties of New Zealand single flower honey types – Kamahi, Clover, Rata, Manuka, Honeydew, Vipers Bugloss, Rewarewa, Tawari and Thyme.

The public can share their favourite honey on Twitter and the Airborne Honey Facebook page with the hashtag #NZHoneyWeek. Airborne Honey will be giving away a pack of six different premium monofloral honeys every day for two weeks starting on Tuesday 17 March. This is an opportunity for people to experiment with a honey variety that they might not have tried before.

“Honey is one of New Zealand’s favourite foods, with Kiwis eating more honey per head than anyone else in the world,” says Peter Bray, Managing Director of Airborne Honey. “We would love to see more people trying the different types and incorporating honey into their lives in more varied and interesting ways. Honey can be used in marinades, dressings, sauces and baking. You can even replace the spoonful of sugar you have in your coffee."

New Zealand is home to a number of honey varieties that can’t be found anywhere else in the world. Unlike most honey producing countries, New Zealand is also well known for not using antibiotics for the treatment of bee diseases. Kiwi beekeepers have the most disease free bees in the world and produce honey that is 100% natural with no sugar used or antibiotics added.

Now in its second year, National Honey Week is led by Airborne Honey, New Zealand‘s oldest and most loved honey brand. Still a family owned business, Airborne has been an integral part of the New Zealand honey industry for more than 100 years, starting with just a few hives in 1910.

This year, Airborne Honey will also be organising a series of activities to raise funds for Trees For Bees, a New Zealand research organisation dedicated to promoting bee health. Among other things, Trees for Bees encourages farmers and others to plant bee-friendly flowers, trees and shrubs to protect and support bees. As pollinators, bees are vital to the future of New Zealand farming and agriculture, with 80% of the diversity of what we eat entirely or partly dependent on pollinators. Donation boxes will be set up at National Honey Week tasting spots to collect funds.

When: 16 – 23 March 2015

Where: Nationwide

Why: To celebrate New Zealand's sweetest, world-famous natural resource. The aim is to help Kiwis learn more about the variety of unique, quality honey types our country has to offer, along with the versatility of the ingredient.

Visit www.facebook.com/Airborne Honey for recipes, meal inspiration, and honey tasting and shopping tips from the experts, along with daily competitions. Follow Airborne Honey on Twitter @AirborneHoney #NZHoneyWeek

ENDS

About Airborne Honey
Airborne Honey is New Zealand’s oldest and most technically competent honey company. Behind each jar is 100 years of experience, plus 25 years of laboratory experience and a comparative database containing more than 34,000 records. Airborne Honey adheres closely to International CODEX standards for honey. Evidence for this can be found on all Airborne Honey labels under Honest, Undamaged and Traceable. Specific numbers on Airborne Honey packaging relates to the honey’s actual pollen, conductivity level, HMF level, and batch number or QR code giving consumers the ability to trace the honey right back to its source. Airborne Honey has patented a unique, breakthrough technology that almost entirely minimizes heat damage to honey and delivers to the consumer the most natural and undamaged honey possible.
In 2014, Airborne Honey launched unveiled TraceMe, an online tool that allows customers across the world to look up specific details about their honey jar. These include pollen percentage, colour, conductivity, glucose, fructose levels as well as other natural sugars found in different levels depending on the honey variety and if he honey has been heat damaged. A map shows the location of the hives where it was harvested. The application is believed to be a world first. For more information on Airborne Honey, visit www.airborne.co.nz. To access TraceMe, visit http://abh.tips.

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