Single-origin is a term borrowed from coffee and chocolate, and like those industries, it gets used loosely in honey. Some producers use it to mean a single country. Others mean a single region. We use it to mean a single named site where our hives are placed during a specific flowering period. The difference matters, and it is worth explaining why.
Why most commercial honey is blended ¶
Large-scale honey production involves sourcing from many apiaries, often across multiple countries, and blending the results to achieve a consistent flavour and colour. This is not necessarily dishonest, but it does mean the honey in a supermarket jar might contain nectar from dozens of different plant species across a wide geographic area. The result is a product that tastes broadly of honey but not of any particular place or flower. Blending also makes it easier to hide lower-quality batches within a larger volume.
What we mean by single-origin ¶
Each of our varieties comes from hives placed at one specific site during one specific flowering period. The Azumino Apple Blossom comes from hives in Takahashi-san's apple orchard during May blossom. The Hotaka Soba Flower comes from hives placed near the buckwheat fields outside Hotaka in late July and August. We move the hives to take advantage of each flowering period and extract separately so the varieties do not mix. The result is honey that tastes of a specific place at a specific time of year.
How location affects flavour ¶
The flavour of honey is determined by the nectar the bees collect, which varies enormously depending on the plant species, the soil, the altitude, and the weather during flowering. Our Azumino site sits at around 550 metres in an apple-growing valley. The Shiojiri forest site is above 900 metres in mixed woodland. The difference in altitude, temperature, and plant diversity produces honeys that taste genuinely different from each other, not just slightly different shades of sweet.
The role of the harvest date ¶
We print the harvest date on every jar rather than just a best-before date. This lets you track the difference between seasons. The 2025 spring apple blossom and the 2026 spring apple blossom came from the same orchard and the same hives, but a warm March in 2026 produced a paler, brighter honey than the cooler spring of the year before. The harvest date is the only way to know which season you are tasting.
Why single-origin honey costs more ¶
Moving hives to specific sites, extracting separately, and keeping batches small all take more time and equipment than running a fixed apiary and blending everything together. We also produce less volume per year than a blended operation of similar size. The price reflects the actual cost of doing it this way, not a marketing premium. A 200g jar of our apple blossom honey costs ¥1,600. A 200g jar of supermarket blended honey costs around ¥400. The difference is real.
If you want to taste what single-origin means in practice, the Spring Harvest Gift Set is a good place to start. Three varieties, one box, and you can taste the difference between sites side by side.