FAQ

You can buy any type of honey available on the market. However, when buying our honey you can be sure that it is high quality Russian honey. We offer a wide range of natural Russian honeys. There are more than 20 types of honey available. 

Despite the variety in color and taste, our honey does not contain any additives nor does it contain aroma or flavor enhancers.

Pure natural honey only. 

The minimum quantity if purchased from Russia is a 20-foot container (about 5 tons). We can also ship honey in a lesser volume but it has to be discussed and arranged additionally.

If purchased from Shanghai, honey can be shipped in any quantity.

We ship honey straight from our warehouses in Vladivostok or Shanghai. You can be sure that you will receive real natural honey directly from the manufacturer.

From Russia honey may be shipped by sea to any port in China. Average delivery time for a container from Vladivostok to a China port is about 5-10 days. Also, honey can be sent via road transport, using Russian-Chinese border checkpoint in Suifenhe and farther sent to any city in China by a Chinese transport company.

We prefer to receive payments for sold honey in CNY. However, you can also pay in USD.

We can offer linden, primorsky floral, buckwheat, sunflower and Altai herbs honey by OEM to our customers.

Linden forests cover the area of about 400,000 hectares in Pimorsky Krai where the company Slavnyi Med is located. This allows us to harvest natural and pure linden honey. We can assure you that we do not mix our linden honey with any other types of honey. Linden honey has a delicate taste, white or light amber color and it is distinguished by refined and sophisticated aroma. Linden honey has a very positive effect on a human body and is particularly beneficial for human health when suffering from common cold, flu or gastrointestinal diseases. Honey is recommended in case of hyperexcitability and sleeping problems.

Not all monofloral types of honey are the same. Legally, linden honey is considered to be honey that contains 30% of linden nectar, the remaining 70% is nectar from other honey plants. Each batch of Slavnyi Med honey is checked for pollen grains content. You can be sure that you will buy pure linden honey from us. Our customers can make a conscious choice and purchase honey with high content of linden nectar in it. This rule applies to all monofloral honeys. The higher the percentage of honey plant in monofloral honey, the higher is the honey quality.

Yes, all honey exported to China is checked for compliance with Russian quality requirements. Since November 2018 all honey exported to China has also been checked for compliance with China’s veterinary requirements on 46 quality parameters. We do this with every batch of honey in order to provide our customers with assurance that they will receive natural and pure honey.

In Russia honey producers who export their honey abroad must check their honey for compliance with honey safety and quality requirements. We check our honey in the state laboratory – Primorsky Interregional Veterinary Laboratory, where all the specialists have the required qualification to conduct such tests. Moreover, honey samples are also tested for compliance with veterinary requirements in laboratories in China.

Yes, every batch of Slavnyi Med honey is tested for pesticides, antibiotics and heavy metals.

Honey is not an antibiotic, so, of course, we cannot expect it to cure all possible diseases. However, it is absolutely clear that honey consumption is of a great preventive value and also helps in the treatment of many diseases. It is a proven fact, and that is why honey is so popular among people who care about their health and the health of their children. However, it is extremely important for honey to be natural, not adulterated.

Be very careful when choosing honey and buy it only when you are confident that it is pure and natural. Many people strongly believe that consumption of natural honey is beneficial for health, but according to Russian and Chinese food laws, we are not allowed to say that honey cures different diseases. We are interested in a better understanding of all the health benefits of consuming natural Russian honey and currently there is a lot of research going on to study this amazing product and its impact on human health.

Linden honey can only be harvested during a very short period, usually from June, 25 till July, 10. 

The quantity of produced honey can vary greatly depending on weather conditions and the amount of nectar. 

On average, per season a beekeeper can get from 30 to 100 kg of honey from one hive depending on the region of honey harvesting, weather and several other factors. 

Of course. Many of our customers already have had an opportunity to visit our apiaries. We would highly recommend visiting the apiaries during the honey harvest.

Then you will have a chance to see for yourself where and how the bees collect honey for us.

Honey must be extracted only from fully capped honeycombs. However, some beekeepers in pursuit of harvesting more honey, do not wait until the bees seal the combs and start extracting honey. This honey has a high moisture content and is more likely to ferment, but the most important thing is that such honey has not yet finished ripening and fermentation process. The bees have not yet completed producing this honey, and it lacks many beneficial enzymes and health benefits.

As with all agricultural products, honey prices fluctuate from year to year. It depends mostly on the harvest. Bad weather, rains, drought and forest fires have a strong influence on the amount of honey harvested. The location of the apiary itself also influences the price of honey. For example, mountain honey is harvested and extracted in the mountains and it is quite difficult and expensive for a beekeeper to set an apiary high in the mountains. Therefore, mountain honey will always be more expensive than field herbs honey. Monofloral types of honey tend to be more expensive than polyfloral ones.

A bee cannot be forced to bring nectar from one particular type of flower, so a beekeeper who wants to harvest monofloral honey should set his apiary in places where predominantly only one honey plant blooms. It is rather difficult to harvest monofloral honey with high percentage of one honey plant and it does not depend on how professional and experienced a beekeeper is. This type of honey is produced by bees only, they choose nectar of which flower to bring to the hive.

It is only natural for pure monofloral honey with high content (70-90%) of one honey plant to be more expensive than common monofloral honey. 

Honey stored in sealed jars can last for decades and even centuries! However, according to Russian law, honey has a set shelf life of two years. While properly processed and packaged honey retains its beneficial properties for a long time.

Crystallization is the natural process by which the glucose in honey precipitates out of the liquid honey. Different types of honey will crystallize at different rates. There are types of honey that do not crystallize up to 2-3 years, for example, acacia and chestnut honey. Otherwise, honey crystallization demonstrates that this honey is a natural product. Adulterated honey never crystallizes. We would not recommend buying non-crystallized honey (except for acacia and chestnut) if more than 4 months have passed since the production date or you risk buying heated or even adulterated honey.

The weight of 1000 ml of honey is equal to about 1.4 – 1.5 kg. Lower weight indicates either an increased water content or that the honey is adulterated. 

No, there are many honey types and flavors depending on the flowers the bees collect nectar from. So, if you say that you do not like honey, I think that you just have not found the kind of honey that you like yet.

Honey is not recommended for infants under one year as their immune system is not yet fully developed. As a child turns one year old, you can start giving them honey. Please note that honey, like many other types of food, can cause allergic reaction. Therefore, start feeding your child honey in small quantities to make sure that your child is not allergic to honey. At the same time honey is safe to consume during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Raw honey usually means unpasteurized honey. Honey is filtered through fine sieve to remove all the foreign particles that could have got into the honey during the extraction process (such as bee parts, wax crumbs). Such filtration allows honey to keep plant pollen which many people who fancy this product consider a significant advantage of this type of honey.

No, our honey is not pasteurized. We offer so called raw honey. Raw honey retains all the beneficial properties of real unprocessed honey.

Our goal is not to improve the properties of honey, but to prevent the deterioration of the qualities of this amazing product that nature has given to a human being. 

When you heat honey, you destroy many of its enzymes, actually turning honey into a healthy but simply high-carbon product. Heated honey loses all its healing properties!

Honey can be stored almost anywhere and at any temperature. It is one of the few foods in the world that never goes off due to its unique chemical composition. However, the ideal storage condition for honey is to store it at a temperature of 18 degrees.

We would not recommend it. It is better to use hot water. If you use a microwave to warm up honey, the beneficial enzymes will be destroyed. 

Information on this topic was published in American Bee Journal, March 2007.

Honey color depends entirely on the honey plants from which the bees collect honey. Fresh linden honey color is light amber, it is white if crystallized. Mountain honey is also almost white or yellowish. Buckwheat honey is brown and as for mustard, it is almost black.

Unpasteurized honey will naturally crystallize over time. It is actually a sign that the honey is natural and of a high quality. If you prefer your honey runny, just put a honey jar in a container with hot water (50 degrees). Do not use microwave ovens and do not boil honey in water. When honey is heated above 45 degrees, all beneficial for human enzymes perish and decay. Honey does not become harmful after heating, but it definitely becomes less beneficial.

Many of our honey types have noticeably different flavors. You do not need any special skills to feel the difference.

We rate our honeys based on several factors: the amount we produce, availability of this type of honey on the open market, the efforts put in its production, harvesting and extraction, the unique taste of this honey type.

Almost all types of our honey are harvested from wild honey plants in the forests, in the taiga and in the mountains. There is no industry in places like these and no pesticides are used. There are no cities or other signs of human presence. Our beekeepers use only safe and non-chemical methods to deal with bees’ illnesses. Therefore, we can confidently say that almost all our honey is organic.

Most of our field honey types are produced in areas far from agricultural fields, so pesticide exposure to bees is very limited.

Our beekeepers almost never use bees to pollinate traditionally grown crops. However, even when bees collect nectar from crops, the honey is tested for pesticide or herbicide residues.

We also ask farmers to warn us about the time when fields are treated with pesticides.

In Primorsky Krai, our apiaries are located in different parts of the taiga. The distance from the city to honey harvesting sites is from 350 to 70 km. Each apiary has from 30 to 70 beehives.

Most of the honey you find on the shelves of your local supermarket is usually pasteurized (heated at very high temperatures) to kill all bacteria in the honey. This allows honey to remain liquid, makes it easier for the manufacturer to pack the honey, saves time allotted for dissolving the honey, but it destroys all the beneficial nutrients in honey. Most honeys that you buy in a supermarket are a mixture of honeys from different countries. Our honey is raw, natural, Russian. The honey is tested to be antibiotics, metabolites, nitrofurans, heavy metals and other harmful substances free. It is unmixed, unheated, unprocessed honey of a very high quality. To make sure that we offer our customers a high-quality product, we check our honey on 46 parameters.

We have preserved honey for our customers exactly the way bees made it. 

Some types of honey are high in iron minerals and this can change the color of the tea. Add a few drops of lemon juice and the tea will return to its original state.

There are several reasons for honey to separate. It also may happen with high-quality natural honey. If you are completely sure that you bought not adulterated, but natural honey, then there is no reason for you to worry. This is a natural process, when at high temperature (usually above 20 degrees) honey separates into glucose and fructose. Honey does not lose its qualities and is ideal for consumption. Nevertheless, adulterated honey can also separate. Invert sugars, which often form the basis of adulterated honey, remain in a liquid viscous state for a long time. However, sooner or later such product divides into its component parts. Unscrupulous manufacturers add starch, molasses, chalk, flour, sugar to natural honey.

All these impurities by all means affect the aspect of the product in the form of separation, turbidity, foam and other defects.

The process of white layer formation is natural. This process is called the flowering of honey. This layer is formed on the surface of the container or at the place where the honey comes into contact with the sides of the jar. The white layer is crystallized glucose. For some consumers, it looks slightly unpleasant, but it is a sign of good quality honey. A sign confirming that the honey is natural, because the white layer formation happens only in natural honey with low moisture content.

Put a container with honey in hot water (50 degrees) and stir after an hour. Honey will become liquid again. Just don't boil the honey in boiling water. If you store the honey jar at room temperature or even a little warmer (about 25°C), the honey won't get too solid.