- Mānuka honey is known for being earthier, richer, and more viscous than many other honeys.
- In its purest form, it can cost up to $99 per 100 grams. That's more than 100 times the price of normal honey.
- The mānuka plant is very rare and only native to New Zealand. It's also difficult to harvest and sometimes requires helicopters to collect the honey.
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Mānuka honey known for being earthier, richer, and more viscous than many other honeys. It comes from the nectar of the flower of Leptospermum scoparium - also known as Manuka, which is only native to New Zealand. Mānuka, in fact, is a Maori word.
"The plant itself is very rare. It's difficult to harvest because the flower is only open for 12 days, and sometimes we have to use helicopters to collect this honey." John Rawcliffe from the Mānuka Factor Honey Association told Business Insider.
Although mānuka bushes can also be found in Australia, New Zealand accounts for almost all the world's production, with exports worth 300 million NZ dollars ($204m) and expected to rise to 1.2 billion NZ ($800m) by 2028.