Questions, answered as honestly as we can
21questions about grades, the shop, delivery and the things we won't say. Where the answer is “we don't know yet”, that's what it says.
Grades and labels
What does UMF™ mean?
It is a licensed grade from the UMF Honey Association, built on four tests: MGO for potency, leptosperin for authenticity, DHA for shelf life and HMF for freshness. The full table is here.
What does UMF™ 10+ require?
At least 261 mg/kg of MGO, more than 150 mg/kg of leptosperin and at least 250 mg/kg of DHA, per UMFHA's own published table.
Can I convert MGO to UMF™?
No. UMFHA's own answer is "MGO /NPA does not convert to UMF™." Our grade tool is a lookup, not a converter, for exactly that reason.
Is UMF™ 20+ four hundred times stronger than 5+?
No — an older version of this site said so and it was wrong. On UMFHA's table it is about 10.0× the minimum MGO. The correction is here.
What is multifloral mānuka?
One of the two categories New Zealand's government test produces. It is genuinely mānuka honey and it is not the same as monofloral. More on the government's definition.
Do you hold a UMF™ licence?
No. UMF™ is the UMF Honey Association's trade mark and a licence belongs to a producer or packer. We're a retailer of other people's sealed jars.
The shop
Can I buy honey from you right now?
No. We won't list a jar until a wholesale account is signed, the stock is in hand, and the producer has confirmed the grade and licence number as printed. Join the waitlist on the mānuka page and you'll get one email when that's done.
Whose honey will you sell?
Producers we name, in their own sealed jars. Nothing is decanted, repacked or relabelled, and no jar carries a grade sticker of ours.
Where can I buy today?
Five UMF™-licensed brands sell direct in New Zealand dollars, and we've priced them per 100 g at each grade on the buying pillar. Those links are plain — we earn nothing from them.
Are your prices GST-inclusive?
They will be, with a price per 100 g beside every jar so two sizes can actually be compared.
Delivery, gifts and the subscription
How much is delivery?
Not set yet. Rates come from a real courier account before the first order, and delivery and returns is updated the day they do. We won't publish a plausible-looking guess.
Do you ship overseas?
Not at launch. New Zealand only, because glass in an international parcel is an expensive problem we haven't solved.
What if a jar arrives broken?
Send us a photo and we replace it or refund it. Glass in the post breaks sometimes; that's our problem, not yours. Your Consumer Guarantees Act rights apply regardless of anything in our terms.
Can I send a gift with a note?
That's the plan: a recipient name, a message we print on a card, prices left out of the box by default, and the parcel addressed to them. Gift packs aren't packed yet, so nothing is promised yet.
How does the subscription work, and how do I cancel?
Sealed jars from named producers every two months, delivery included in the price. You cancel from a link in every email we send, effective at the end of the cycle you've paid for. The full detail.
Can I skip a delivery?
Yes — email us and we'll pause your billing for one cycle. That's a manual step at first rather than a button, and we'd rather say so than build a button that doesn't exist.
The awkward ones
Why won't you tell me what mānuka honey is good for?
Because honey is a food, and in New Zealand health claims about food are regulated — the rules cover advertising, not just labels. We've gone further than the law requires and make no health, wellness or "use" claims at all. We sell food. Nothing on this site is health advice. The whole rule.
Why are there no reviews or ratings on this site?
Because none would be real. We've sold nothing, so nobody has reviewed anything. When there's a real review system with real reviews in it, that's when reviews appear.
This site used to list apiaries. What happened to them?
They weren't real. Twenty invented businesses across this site and nz-honey.co.nz have been deleted, and their pages return 410 Gone rather than redirecting so the names stop circulating. The full account.
Do you earn commission on the brands you link to?
Not today — every outbound link is plain. If a programme is ever approved, the brand's row will say so above the link and it will never change the order of a table. Disclosure.
Who writes this site?
NZ Mānuka Honey does, as an organisation. There's no personal byline anywhere, and no invented one either.
Not answered?
Ask us. If it's a good question we'll add it here, and if we get something wrong we'll fix it and change the date on the page.
The shop isn't open yet. Want to know when it is?
One email when the first producers are on the shelf, and nothing else. In the meantime, the NZ-dollar price table shows what five licensed brands charge, per 100 g.
We sell food. Nothing on this site is health advice.