SCOTTISH HEATHER HONEY

🏆 Great Taste Producer
🏆 Great Taste Gold 2011 Award-winner.
🏆 Delicious Magazine Produce Awards 2018 – Finalist

• The Great Taste is the world’s largest and most trusted food and drink awards. (Described as the ‘Oscars’ of the food world)
• The Delicious Magazine Produce Awards is an international recognision which awarded only to best producers, growers and farmer around the world.

This Heather Honey also has been appreciated by The Queen Elizabeth & Her Royal Family

Come August, our hives move from the local spring blossom fields to the upper moorlands where the ubiquitous wild-flowering Purple Ling Heather – signatory of the Scottish Highlands – bursts into life, washing the rolling moors in magenta. The barren environment is both harsh and nutrient stressed, making the terrain difficult for plant growth, but heather thrives.

Heather flower near moorlands Scottish Highlands

Its fickle flowers and short-lived blossoms together with the rough terrain, are only some of the challenges we have to face; assuming temperature, weather conditions, colony health and other factors have favourably come together to net a honey harvest at all, harvesting is an equally laborious task due to the peculiar texture of Ling Heather Honey: it’s thixotropic, meaning the honey becomes more liquid as it’s stirred or agitated.

Purple Ling Heather flower

This presents a unique problem for getting the honey out of the honeycomb. Like most honey, it can’t be spun out of the comb in a centrifuge and put in a settling tank in which any impurities present float to the surface and the pure honey is drained from the bottom. Instead, a plate with hundreds of plastic needles is used to individually agitate the honey within each comb, allowing it to then be spun out as a liquid. It is then spun in a second spinner through a large mesh filter to remove any impurities. As the honey is pulled through the filter, it is gently aerated giving a consistent creamy semi-set consistency.

It is a dark amber, no lighter than caramel and often featuring a red or orange tint. It has a  floral aroma reminiscent of the Scottish Highlands, with a strong but mildly-sweet taste and a tangy aftertaste. Like a single malt whisky, its unique terroir dictates its outstanding autumnal palate and, combined with its limited production season, makes it highly sought after.

The oddest characteristic of this “true” heather honey is that it’s thixotropic, a fancy word that means it has a jelly-like consistency in the jar or bottle. If you tip the jar on its side, it won’t ooze toward the top; it will remain firmly in place.

1) According to 2013 research published in “Scottish heather honey is best for beating bacteria” published on express.co.uk,, Scottish heather honey is even more effective for treating infections than its New Zealand-based cousin Manuka Honey. 

2) Research done by University of Agricultural Sciences & Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca, Romania (read here) shows this is equivalent to the antibacterial activity of Manuka UMF 10+/Active 10+/MGO 260. Notwithstanding all unadulterated raw honeys have antibacterial properties associated with them outwith this enzyme, this dependent on the phytochemicals of the plant which are transferred via the nectar and pollen from the plant, however nothing has been clinically proven as yet.

3) All honey (as long as it’s raw and unfiltered) has a wealth of health benefits, and Heather Honey scores high on the list. It’s particularly valuable for its antioxidant properties. In fact, heather is the European honey variety with the highest levels of phenolic acids, known to prevent the cellular damage that can be done by free radicals in the body (as publish in National Library of Medicine)  

4) That activity may help fight illnesses and diseases as serious as heart disease and cancer. Heather honey is also very effective as an antibacterial and anti-microbial agent, believed to be even better than the Manuka honey renowned for treating serious bacterial infections like MRSA, as well as wounds and infections.

Heather honey has a thick consistency and powerful taste makes it less than ideal for use as a sugar substitute in tea or in baking. However, it does provide a distinctive, interesting and different flavor when used as a topping on ice cream or waffles, or mixed with yogurt.

Its most popular uses, though, are to make uniquely Scottish dishes – cranachan (also called cream crowdie) is a traditional dessert made from whipped cream, raspberries and heather honey. Scottish honey cakes topped with almonds and heather honey are another favorite dessert, and there are delicious regional recipes for poultry with a heather honey glaze.

FDA Registration No. : 10887810022
FDA Product Code : 36 C C T 04
Manufacture Certification : SALSA

*** NOT SUITABLE FOR INFANTS UNDER 12 MONTHS
*** If you are already allergic to flower pollen, honey bee enzymes, and other bee products consumption should be avoided because it will trigger a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction.

As standard, all our honeys are supplied with Certificates of Analysis testing done by international laboratories as illustrated in the European Honey CODEX :

• HMF & Diatase
  To ensure the honey has not been heat treated and is not old/adulterated honey (refer to Honey Codex).

• Sugars (Fructose/Glucose/Sucrose)
  To ensure the honey has not been adulterated by the addition of sugar syrup and the bees have foraged on flower nectar to make the honey and not fed on sugar syrup during the honey production period (refer to Honey Codex).

• Pollen Analysis and Geographical Origin
  To ensure authenticity of the botanical and geographical origin. Note, with respect to Orange Blossom Honey, the flower naturally produces very low pollen counts and therefore the concentration of Methyl Anthranilate is also analysed as an indicator of the quality and authenticity of the Orange Blossom honey.
• Antibiotic and Veterinary Residues
  To ensure products comply with those maximum residue limits for honey established by the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

• Moisture Content
  To ensure the honey has ripened properly and not diluted with water (refer to Honey Codex).

***Due to space limitation, we only published Pollen Analysis Report here. If you interested to get access on full report, please send us an email. We’ll gladly help you.

A traditional family-run honey farm established in 1945, based in the Highlands of Perthshire – the heartland of Scotland & the most beautiful and unpolluted parts of the UK. Heather Hills Farm is a Great Taste award-winning Scottish producer of artisan raw honeys and handcrafted preserves internationally recognised for their superior quality and flavour. Specialise in a selection of 100% pure, raw, monofloral and polyfloral honeys and handmade preserves.

Produce of : Perthshire Scotland
Pack & bottle : Hand pack & bottle in Perthshire, Scotland