Want some of NC’s rare purple (or blue) honey? Here’s where to buy it.

As a Reddit post makes its internet rounds, teaching thousands about a purple-blue kind of honey that bees in North Carolina make, people are asking the same question:

How can I get some of it?

The answer is both mysterious and disappointing: Many of the lucky beekeepers whose bees have produced purple (or blue) honey in the past aren’t sure they’ll ever get it again. Thankfully, a few beekeepers in the area still have teeny jars of the colorful honey — which range from being harvested a few months to a few years ago — for sale.

The honey is a head-scratcher, and beekeepers and apiculturists are torn on what gives the sweet stuff its special hue. Suspected reasons range from acidic soil to kudzu flowers to sourwood trees.

But they agree that a) purple or blue honey comes sporadically with no tried-and-true telltale signs that it’s coming, and b) the color is natural.

Christi Henthorn, president of the Granville County Beekeepers, got purple honey in 2017 in Oxford for the first time, and she hasn’t seen it since.

“It’s not a consistent product, and there is usually not a lot available,” Henthorn said. “I only heard of people getting it once randomly and then not again. I don’t think I know of a single person who has gotten lucky twice!”

A handful of lucky beekeepers have experienced the honey more than once, though not on a regular schedule.

David Auman, president of the Richmond County Beekeepers Association, gets a little bit of the stuff each year, but needs to wait a few years to get the unique honey in large batches that he’s able to separate, jar and sell.

He keeps two or three hives at a time, though he’ll surprisingly only get purple honey in one of them, he said.

Where to buy purple, blue honey in North Carolina

• Zombees Honey of NC: Whitney Barnes, who co-owns Zombees Honey of NC with her husband in Timberlake, saw purple honey for the first time in 2017. It was the first time she’d ever learned bees in the area could do such a thing.

“It was so fun. I went to these group meetings in the area with my honey, and other people did the same thing. Because when I told them about it, they said, ‘You too? I thought I was the only one!’” she said. “I tried to put together a database of who got it, but it wasn’t a big list. Maybe six names total — just to show you how rare it is when it hits.”

Barnes got the honey again in 2018, and lots of it this time. She jarred it in two-ounce containers and sold some that year. Her bees haven’t made purple honey since, but she still has some of those earlier jars for sale.

To buy Barnes’ purple honey, you can visit Zombees Honey on Facebook and contact the shop to make your purchase.

Note: Over time, purple and blue honey loses its vibrancy. Buying purple or blue honey that’s a few years old will look darker brown, though you can still see the candy-esque hues, Barnes said.

The rarity alone makes the purchase worth it, whether the honey is still a vibrant purple or not, Barnes said.

“It’s so unique and rare — that’s why I don’t rush to sell it. And that’s why I sell in small batches, just so people can try it,” she said. “It doesn’t taste like any honey you’ve ever had.”

• Dees Bees Apiary: Donald Dees, owner of Dees Bees Apiary in the Sandhills, sees a little bit of blue in his hives each year.

“Every year, my honey has blue traces in it,” Dees said. “But to get it out in harvestable amounts that are exclusively blue honey, you need 25% or 50% of the frame to be solid blue. That only happens every few years — could be five or 10.”

When the Reddit post went viral, making its way onto some North Carolina social media pages, Dees was getting call after call for the stuff.

“Everyone wanted some. I’ve been going to the retail stores that sell my blue honey to get some jars off the shelf and ship them out to people,” he said. He still has a few pounds left, and he sells them in tiny increments so more people have the chance to try it.

To buy Dees’ blue honey, visit deesbeesapiary.com and contact the shop to make your purchase.

This story will be updated as The N&O learns of more apiaries selling blue and/or purple honey.

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