For centuries honey has been consumed for treating a variety of ailments from ulcer and cancer to cough, cold and cuts. It is also taken as medicine to satisfy the incorrigible sweet tooth or incorporated as an additive in various foods and beverages. The biggest problem is its quality as also the age-old debate whether raw honey is better than the regular one.

Wild Honey Hunters, started by Arun Prashath, Stephen Raj and Vinod Arthnanari, believes in saving the purity and originality of honey. They select the best varieties of multi-floral honey collected by various tribespeople of particular regions giving them employment. They harvest only free-range hives to procure the best quality of raw honey known as ‘Ghats Honey’.

Raw honey is the most natural and purest form of the material as is procured from beehives that contain pollen, enzymes and small quantities of wax. However, honey bought from store does not contain these nutrients because of the processing. Nutrients get destroyed by high heat during pasteurisation before bottling.

As per World Health Organisation, “Honey is the natural sweet substance produced by honeybees from the nectar of plants or from secretions of living parts of plants or excretions of plant-sucking insects on the living parts of plants, which the bees collect, transform by combining with specific substances of their own, deposit, dehydrate, store and leave in honeycombs to ripen and mature. Honey comprises 17-20 per cent water, 76–80 per cent glucose, and fructose, pollen, wax and mineral salts. Its composition and colour are dependent upon the type of flower that supplies the nectar.”

Vinod takes pride that thier each batch has different taste and texture depending on the flowering season and the nectar of the flower keeping the flavour and nutrients intact compared to store-bought ones which are always of the same taste and texture.

“Our honey has a Glycaemic Index below 50, which is lesser than commercially-produced honey and thus better for diabetes patients. We had sent the samples to labs and were astonished that the levels were as low as 17 per cent which translates to best quality honey,” says Vinod.

“Raw honey is a little expensive but the taste is far better than the store-bought one. They have neem, moringa, kuringi flower, jamun and his favourite is sunflower-flavoured honey. Apart from the taste, consistency, smell and texture, the thing that I love is they have a long shelf life. My kids love it as well,” says a consumer.

Some people choose one over the other because of various factors the major one being pricing. However, if you are looking to cleanse, boost immunity, treat allergies, lose weight or even use it as a natural face pack, raw honey is the way to go.