Raw & Unfiltered Honey Our Standards

Here is something the honey insiders may not tell you: there is no legal or industry standard for the words "raw," "unfiltered," or "natural." One company's "raw" might be heated to 130°F, while another caps the heat much lower. One person's "unfiltered" might be strained so fine there is virtually no pollen left, and another's might come full of wax chunks and bee parts. The words can mean almost anything, which makes it genuinely hard to know what you are actually buying.

We have been doing this for 21 years, and we think you deserve a number, not a marketing word. So we publish exactly what our standards are, and why we set them where we do. You don't need to be a honey expert. You just need honesty and transparency.

Our raw standard: never above 118°F

118°F is our hard ceiling, not our target.

Raw honey naturally crystallizes in the drums it is stored in. To pour it and strain it, we gently and briefly warm it back to a liquid, and that is the only heat our honey ever sees. We never pasteurize. Where a grocery-store packer typically cooks honey to 140 to 160°F to keep it clear and pourable on the shelf, we cap ours at 118°F and usually stay under.

Different honeys need different amounts of that gentle warmth, so we monitor each one:

• Wildflower is our most stubborn. It often needs the full 118°F to reliquefy.
• Orange blossom is happy at a lower temperature, and it is also our most heat-sensitive honey, so we watch it especially closely to protect its delicate flavor.
• Clover is one of our sturdier honeys and reliably stays under the ceiling.

Capping the heat is how we protect the flavor, aroma, and natural character of each honey, which is the reason it tastes the way it does.

Our unfiltered standard: strained at 400 microns

"Unfiltered" is just as loose a word. With no standard behind it, one honey labeled "unfiltered" might be strained at 50 microns and another at 600. That is a huge range, and you would never know.

(When measuring strainer screen in microns larger numbers mean larger holes.)

We strain at 400 microns. That is wide enough to leave all of the natural pollen in the honey, and fine enough to remove the things you do not want: wax chunks, bits of honeycomb, bee parts, and the occasional splinter of wood from the extraction equipment.

Why 400 specifically? Pollen grains are tiny. Most run 20 to 50 microns across but can be as small as 2.5 microns and as large as 250 microns.  For reference the average human hair is 70 microns across.

At 400 microns, none of the pollen is strained out. It all stays in the jar, the way honey comes from the hive. That is the difference between straining (what we do) and filtering (forcing honey through fine mesh under pressure, which strips the pollen out). We strain. We do not filter.

Pollen (2.5 to 200 microns) is far smaller than our 400-micron strainer opening, so it stays in the honey, while large bits of wax and debris are caught.

Want the wider picture? Read more about raw and unfiltered honey.

Where our honey comes from

Real standards start with real sourcing. Our honey comes from the United States, tended by beekeepers with decades of hands-on expertise:

• Clover from the northern Plains and Mountain West (South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Idaho, and Utah).
• Orange blossom from Southern California.
• Wildflower from two locations here in Northern Utah.

None of it is blended to look or taste identical from one bottle to the next, even within the same kind of honey. Clover and orange blossom are varietal honeys, which means the bees worked mostly one kind of blossom. We pour each crop individually, by hand, and never mix one area's crop with another. Our wildflower is exactly what it sounds like, a mix of pollens from whatever the bees decide to visit. But ours is special. Each crop comes from the mix of wild blooms from one region rather than a blend of mystery honeys trucked in from everywhere. It stays that way once it arrives. Because each honey stays true to its source, the color and flavor vary naturally from season to season and place to place. That variation is the fingerprint of real, unblended honey.

Why we publish this

Most of the honey business hides behind vague words. We would rather hand you the numbers and let you decide: a 118°F heat ceiling, 400 microns, and never pasteurized. A standard you can measure is worth more than words that sounds nice but mean nothing.

Real Honey. Real People. Really Easy.

Shop our raw, unfiltered honey.

Frequently asked questions

Is honey still raw if it has been heated?

It depends how much. "Raw" means the honey has not been pasteurized or heated to high temperatures that change its natural state. Ours is never heated above 118°F, and it usually stays below, using only brief, gentle warmth to reliquefy it for straining. Most grocery-store honey is heated to 140 to 160°F.

What temperature is raw honey, and what is your maximum?

Our hard ceiling is 118°F, though our honey usually stays under it. We use gentle, monitored warmth only to bring crystallized honey back to a pourable state for straining. We never pasteurize.

What is the difference between raw, unfiltered, and unpasteurized?

Unpasteurized simply means the honey was not flash-heated to kill natural yeast, which is the bare minimum. Raw goes further: we cap all heat at 118°F. Unfiltered describes straining: we use a 400-micron strain that leaves the pollen in. A honey can be unpasteurized yet still heavily heated or finely filtered. Ours is all three: raw, unfiltered, and unpasteurized, by a published standard.

What does "unfiltered" mean, and what micron do you strain at?

"Unfiltered" has no standard. It can mean a 50-micron strain or a 600-micron one. We strain at 400 microns: large enough to let all the natural pollen stay (pollen ranges from 2.5 microns to 200 microns), fine enough to remove wax, bee parts, and extraction debris.

Does raw honey crystallize?

Yes. Real raw honey naturally crystallizes over time, usually into a smooth, creamy texture. It is not spoilage, and it is not whipped or creamed honey. To bring it back, set the container in warm water and keep it under 118°F to protect the raw quality.

Do you pasteurize your honey?

No, never. The only heat our honey sees is brief, gentle, monitored warmth (never above 118°F) to reliquefy it for straining.