The Goodness of NZ Honeydew Honey… in a Glass

New Zealand’s beech forests are home to one of nature’s rarest nectars: honeydew honey. Unlike clover or mānuka, this honey isn’t gathered from blossoms. Instead, bees collect droplets of sap exuded by tiny scale insects living on the beech trees. The result is a deep, almost molasses-like honey, rich in minerals and antioxidants, with flavours that shift from earthy to caramel, resinous, and even slightly fruity.

Honeydew honey is often celebrated as one of the world’s most nutrient-dense honeys. Studies have found it contains higher levels of antioxidants and oligosaccharides than most floral honeys, supporting gut health and helping the body combat oxidative stress. It’s also naturally rich in minerals such as potassium, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus, making it not only distinctive in flavour but also unusually nourishing compared to other honeys.

The ancient Greeks often spoke of mead as the “nectar of the gods,” believing that bees gathered not just from flowers but from the very dew of the heavens. What we now understand as honeydew — the sweet sap droplets found on forest trees — was seen in classical times as a mystical substance, a link between earth and sky. To drink mead made from honeydew was, in their eyes, to sip something divine: a gift touched by nature’s mystery and favoured by the gods themselves.

At Undisturbed, we’ve taken this forest treasure and fermented it into mead. In the glass, honeydew mead carries the forest with it – dark, complex, and layered, like a walk beneath towering beech trees. Every sip is both ancient and local, a taste of New Zealand’s wilderness transformed into something to share with friends.

And while the flavour speaks for itself, there’s a wider story too. Honeydew is gathered in untouched native forests that thrive without irrigation, fertilisers, or pesticides. By choosing honeydew, you’re tasting the resilience of ecosystems that protect our rivers, nurture biodiversity, and stand tall against climate pressures. It’s a reminder that goodness in a glass can also mean goodness for the land.

If you’re curious to explore mead beyond the familiar sweetness of clover or the bold edge of mānuka, honeydew is where depth lives. Complex, sustaining, and naturally gathered – it’s goodness in a glass.

Ready to try it for yourself? Shop our Honeydew Mead here or here and experience a taste of New Zealand’s beech forests in your glass.