What "raw" actually means — and what we won't claim until we can prove it

"Raw honey" is a popular label, and an inconsistently defined one. In the plainest sense, it usually means honey that has not been heated above the temperature it naturally reaches inside the hive, and has only been lightly filtered to remove large debris like wax fragments — not finely filtered or pasteurized.

Why we're cautious with the word

Because the term has no single enforced legal definition in most markets, it is easy to print on a label without changing anything about the process behind it. We would rather describe our actual handling step by step than attach a word that sounds reassuring but can't be checked.

• What temperature, if any, the honey is warmed to before bottling.
• What filtering it passes through, and how fine.
• How long after harvest it is bottled.

We intend to publish our actual answers to those three questions, batch by batch, once we have a production process we can describe accurately and stand behind. Until then, this page will say exactly that — rather than a confident-sounding claim we can't yet support.