The International Honey Tasting Contest is the world’s prestigious blind honey tasting competition held in Asheville, North Carolina, the 'Honey Capital' of the USA.
Manawa Honey NZ’s Tāwari Honey has taken out the Creamed Category at the 2025 Black Jar International Honey Tasting Contest.
The Black Jar Honey Tasting Contest attracted hundreds of entries from beekeepers and honey producers across the world. Multiple preliminary taste-offs were held to whittle down the entries to the Top 30 that entered the final taste-off held in June each year.
“This contest is unique for a couple of reasons. It focuses solely on taste and uses a ‘blind’ tasting process with black silk jar covers, so that colour, appearance or brand cannot affect judging” said Brenda Tahi, CEO of Manawa Honey NZ.
“It also celebrates the beekeepers at the heart of the process for producing honey. So, it is our Chief Beekeeper, Taawi Te Kurapa, who is named as the winner of this award."
This win elevated Manawa’s Tāwari Honey to the Top 10 Best Tasting Honeys globally, up from its Top 30 finalist position in 2021. It also added to a winning streak for Manawa Honey NZ in this contest, which started with Rewarewa as the Grand First Prize Winner in 2021.
Then Kānuka Honey won the Creamed Category in 2022, and Rewarewa and Pua-ā-Tāne Wild Forest Honey were Finalists in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
Tahi said that Tāwari is a unique tree found in the great groves high up on the mountains that surround Ruatāhuna. The tree has been described as one of the most beautiful native plants, and it produces a stunning light honey that is quite rare in New Zealand’s honey landscape.
“As for the taste, well, it’s beautifully sweet with complex underpinning hints of butterscotch, or even liquorice, otherworldly delicious.”
Manawa Honey NZ is renowned for producing exquisite native honeys from its homeland forests of Te Urewera, including Rewarewa, Kānuka, Mānuka, Tāwari, and Pua-ā-Tāne.
Explore more about local New Zealand honey in the May issue here
