The Honey Project is a true modern love story. It began during our own summer of love, 2019.

Like many couples, we met on Hinge. We started seeing each other in early spring but it wasn’t until a hazy summer afternoon overlooking the backstreet gardens of South London that our thoughts turned to bees, hives and honey.

Laura had been working on a branding project for one of the UK’s biggest honey companies. She had bold ideas for the brand to do good. To give back to nature and help bees, not just sell more honey. The business, however, wasn't interested.

And so, in an attempt to impress Laura (and any bees who might be eavesdropping too), Ed said something like:

‘Why don’t we do it ourselves? Why don’t we create a honey brand that’s about doing good and giving back? Next generation honey where every jar you buy helps plant wildflowers up and down the countryside, and rewards our glorious pollinators.’
Laura said yes.

And that was the beginning of a three and a half year adventure, bee suits at the ready.

We found out that a shapeless white overall is never a sexy get up. We also found out that honey manufacturing and supply is a scandalous affair. Honey is the third most faked food in the world, behind milk & olive oil.

‘Honey launderers’ (yes that’s a real thing) are cheating authenticity tests by adding cheap rice and corn syrup to the mix.

This lack of transparency makes it harder to trace the honey’s provenance. Before it even hits your toast, your cereal or your smoothie, it’s often travelled halfway around the world with untraceable, unsuspecting and near-endless amounts of air miles attached to it. That's why we work with is a small bee farm based in Tamworth in Staffordshire with over 140 hives that focuses on quality and provenance.

It’s not only honey lovers that feel cheated. Beekeepers, we discovered, are angry too – and not just because of the very unsexy but definitely very necessary uniforms we mentioned before. Fake honey oozing into the UK market drives down prices and puts them out of business.

So we’re starting small. Very small. Making honey that’s a force for good – sweet stuff that’ll help reflower the world around us, jar by delicious jar.