What is the Best Honey to Buy at Costco?

Oh do I have a taste for the sweet stuff. I love honey. We have a pantry full of different types of honey. You can come on over any time to enjoy the nuances in the different varieties of honey. Honey is very popular in my house. The kids love to try different honeys on fresh from the oven bread. Or in the yogurt we are making now in our Instant Pot.

Speaking of popular, our monthly Costco Food Finds post are among the most popular content on this blog. So it was only a matter of time before I would dedicate an entire post to buying honey at Costco.

Welcome to your sweet guide to buying honey at the warehouse giant known as Costco. This post will help you not get stung next time you are considering honey at Costco.

For the record, I don’t honey at Costco myself. I prefer to get it from local farmer’s markets and small beekeepers. Not only do I think the honey produced is superior but I also love to support these small businesses (see our Hive Five for Honey page). Those that do want to buy honey at Costco this post is meant to show you what to expect to find and what contents are in those containers.

What Types of Honey are Available at Costco?

The thing with Costco is that they aren’t known for having a lot of variety of certain items. Most conventional grocery stores are going to offer more types of foods from cereals to pasta to vegetables to of course honey. Here is a list of the honey that I found at my Costco.

Kirkland Clover Honey
Manuka Honey
Kirkland Organic Raw Honey
Great Lakes Raw Honey

Clover honey is the most common honey. It is a light, neutral flavor that most people are good with. This honey is a mix of different clover honey form both the U.S.A. and Argentina. It is not labeled as a raw honey so it is likely that it was heated up to make it easier to remove from the comb as well as to help prevent crystallization over time. This honey will be sweet, but not a whole lot of flavor beyond that.

Kirkland Clover Honey is True Source Certified. We will get to more of what that means shortly.

I believe this honey to be a better option than the first. It is a raw honey. The definition of raw honey is not regulated, but in general a raw honey wouldn’t be heated past 118 degrees at any point. Raw honey doesn’t indicate how much the honey has been filtered. This honey probably has been filtered quite a bit by the looks of it.

The honey is certified USDA organic. The source of the nectar the bees are collecting from have to be certified organic. This honey is also from Brazil.

Next up we have a honey that is local to me here in Michigan. I am not sure what stores carry this honey. I would imagine other Costcos offer local honey like this one in different parts of the country.

This honey is made by Honeytree. They say the honey is “Strained at low temperatures to retain pollen and natural enzymes.”

If you have a local honey in your Costco let me know in the comments below.

**UPDATE**

Since I originally wrote this post I have heard from several other people stating they have a local honey in their Costco stores. It seems Costco does care to carry a more local product. Here is a list of what people have found:

• North Dallas Honey Co Honey
• Peace River Organic Honey (Canada)
• Rice’s Local Hive (out of Colorado, they sell regional honey such as Midwest, Washington, Colorado, etc)

Manuka honey has been getting a lot of press over the last several years. A lot of people believe it has some great health benefits and they take a spoonful a day for that reason. It comes with a pretty hefty price tag and with that a lot of altered or not genuine Manuka honey is making it’s way to store shelves. If you are going to buy Manuka make sure you do your research on who is producing the honey so you don’t spend that money in vain.

Does Costco Sell Any Chinese or Doctored Honey?

None of the honey from Costco said it was from China. The reason that is important is because a lot of Chinese honey has fillers added to their honey so it’s not pure honey. They also have been known for shipping their honey through other countries and then into the U.S. market to try to circumvent. The Kirkland brand honey and the Honeytree Michigan honey are both True Source Certified. Here is what that means (from the True Source website)

True Source Honey, LLC has developed the True Source Certified voluntary system of traceability for those participants who wish to demonstrate through an independent third party that their sourcing practices are in full compliance with U.S. and international trade laws. This system permits honey to be tracked from the consumer back through the supply chain to the country of origin and the beekeeper that harvested the honey from the beehive.

Seeing this certification on the honey can help you breathe a bit easier that you aren’t getting doctored up honey. I don’t assume if you don’t see it that the honey is not safe. This is a program that honey producers can choose to go through.

I hope you are now a bit more educated on honey purchasing at Costco. Like I said at the top I myself don’t buy honey at Costco. There is nothing wrong with it if you choose to. I wanted you to know what you were getting yourself into it. An educated shopper is a best shopper.

Let me know in the comment section below if you have bought honey from Costco and what did you get.

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