Trader Joe’s Honey Review: Mesquite, Organic, Raw & More

In this review, learn about the different types of honey available at Trader Joe's and what makes each unique. I will talk about their Mostly Mesquite, organic and raw honey options, and what you might find around the holidays.

📋 What's New In This Post (1/5/26) - Updated post to reflect what is available in 2026.

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Jump to:

• My Ongoing Love Affair with Honey
• 🍯 Types of Honey You Can Expect to Find at Trader Joe's
• 🌵 Mesquite Honey
• 🍀 Multi-Floral & Clover Honey
• 👨‍🌾 Local Honey
• 🦘 Manuka Honey
• 🎄 Seasonal Honey for the Holidays
• 🌧️ Organic Honey
• 🐝 Raw Honey
• 🚫 Discontinued Honey
• ❔ How to Tell if Trader Joe's Honey is Real Honey?
• Bonus Tip

🍯 Types of Honey You Can Expect to Find at Trader Joe's

If you are shopping at any Trader Joe's across the country, here are the types of honey you can expect to find:

• Mostly Mesquite
• Raw Honey
• Organic Honey
• Multi-Floral & Clover Honey
• Manuka Honey
• Honey collections for the holiday (great gifts)

Let me tell you a little about each of these types and what you might see at your store.

🌵 Mesquite Honey

Origin: Desert of Northern Mexico

What is Mesquite? It's a type of plant that actually falls into the legume family. It grows like a tree. You can find it in northern Mexico to the southwestern United States, even as far north as southern Kansas. Its wood is used for smoking food, particularly in Texas and southwestern BBQ.

When the tree blossoms, it makes a great nectar source for bees. The honey that is made from it is a light to medium amber color. It has a mild, yet distinctive taste. More flavor than just a clover honey. It would be great used in homemade BBQ sauce especially with some added mesquite liquid smoke - because it just seems appropriate.

How Mesquite Honey Offered Has Changed

For years Trader Joe's has sold their 100% Desert Mesquite Honey in a couple different sized containers. Then I noticed they were selling a Mostly Mesquite Honey that was from Argentina. Shortly afterward that one disappeared and their 100% Mesquite Honey was now labeled as Mostly Mesquite.

Unlike the 100% Mesquite honey they used to sell, the bees also visit other floral sources. Makes me wonder if the 100% claim was never actually true or if something else changed where they couldn't get 100% anymore.

I would say the Mostly Mesquite Honey is my favorite honey from Trader Joe's. It mostly qualifies for Eating Like No One Else 🙂 I like that it has more flavor than a lot of the generic, somewhat boring honey that is most common.

🍀 Multi-Floral & Clover Honey

Origin: Northern United States

This honey will have the standard honey flavor that most people are used to. Clover is the most common honey in the United States. It is mild in flavor. This honey is fine for adding to your coffee or tea. I think a more flavorful honey is better to spread on your morning toast or yogurt.

You may also be able to find this same honey as a creamed honey. This is an unfiltered honey that will be more spreadable than the Multi-Floral & Clover Honey. Flavor will be pretty much the same, it's more of a textural difference.

👨‍🌾 Local Honey

Origin: Your backyard!

There is a demand for local honey that Trader Joe's is trying to meet. It's good to see Trader Joe's do something local in their stores. I often get on them for not doing enough local products.

The flavor profile of these honeys vary based on the region the honey is collected from. Typically these types of honeys are collected from multiple floral sources which gives the honey a more uniform flavor. That can differ from state to state.

At a Trader Joe's in Southern California, I discovered an avocado blossom honey that was their local honey option. Avocado honey is the darkest I have seen at Trader Joe's. It has a rich honey flavor with no hints of avocado, sorry. This honey does not crystallize, so you won't have that problem.

Avocado honey is my go-to honey when it comes to using honey in savory dishes. The bold flavor it packs is perfect drizzled on top of cooked carrots. Yum!

If you are interested in learning more about Avocado honey, check out my post - What Does Avocado Honey Taste Like and Why You Might Prefer It?

🦘 Manuka Honey

Origin: New Zealand

You may notice a number on the jar. What does 10+ mean? There is a rating system for Manuka honey, that tells you the quality of the honey. This one is rated 10+ which falls into the medium grade category. 16+ is the best stuff.

🎄 Seasonal Honey for the Holidays

During the Christmas season I have found this sampler of honey. Great for a party or to give a gift. It contains 6 different varieties of honey:

• Clover
• Sunflower
• Orange Blossom
• Eucalyptus
• Macadamia
• Mimosa

If you ever want to taste how honey is different or share that with someone this is your prefect opportunity.

For Christmas in 2025, I found a 3-pack of honey called the "Trio of Flavored Honey". These weren't different varieties but honey that had ingredients added to them to flavor them. They had lavender, lemon, and ginger. I usually avoid these types of honey because I just want to enjoy the honey as pure as it can get, but there is nothing wrong if you want to go with them.

🌧️ Organic Honey

When it comes to organic honey, Trader Joe's has a couple options:

• Organic Raw Honey from Brazil
• Organic Unfiltered Honey from Uruguay

Each of these honeys has the USDA organic seal on them. As you notice those countries are in South America. Due to the pesticide use in the United States, no honey can be certified organic here. You cannot control the bees enough to keep them away from non-organic sources. But they are able to do this in the Brazilian rainforest and areas of Uruguay. If you are searching for organic honey, you are going to have to accept that it is going to be imported, not domestic.

🐝 Raw Honey

Both the types of organic honey I just mentioned are also raw honey. What is raw honey. There isn't an official USDA definition. It is really up to who made the honey what they define raw honey as. A couple things to look for:

• The honey shouldn't look perfectly clean or clear
• If the honey crystallized that is a sign that it is raw. Honey that is processed more won't tend to crystallize.

If find that your honey has crystalized check out my post - What to Do When Honey Crystallizes.

🚫 Discontinued Honey

Over the years I have seen honey varieties at Trader Joe's come and go. One of the ones I got a lot of feedback about was the Turkey Honey. The bottle said "Produced by bees foraging nectar from primarily Rock Rose, Citrus, Wildflowers, and Turkish Pines".
This honey is vastly different than the Mostly Mesquite honey. It's flavor is sweeter. It has a very unique hard candy like flavor that I have never had in a honey.

❔ How to Tell if Trader Joe's Honey is Real Honey?

This particular honey got a debate going about whether this honey was real honey or if it was doctored. Turkey is one of the higher risk countries according to True Source Certified program.

This is a big problem with Chinese honey. To get around tariffs imposed against China, their "honey" is routed through different countries before being shipped to U.S. soil. You can read more about this issue on my post on the Netflix series "Rotten".

So was it legit? I honestly could not get a for sure answer. Looking at how the honey behaves when you squeeze it from the container is important. It should be thick and not perfectly uniform, like how I described raw honey.

What is your favorite honey from Trader Joe's? Leave a comment below, I would love to hear from you!