Our Great Taste Award & South Yorkshire Beekeeping Story
Behind every jar of Haskins Honey is a story that stretches back years — of seasons spent tending hives, watching bees work the South Yorkshire/Derbyshire countryside, and learning a craft that can't be rushed. We're proud to share that story, and even prouder that it's now been recognised with a 2 Star Great Taste Award.
What Is the Great Taste Award?
The Great Taste Award is widely regarded as the most trusted mark of quality in the food and drink industry. Run by the Guild of Fine Food, it involves blind tasting by hundreds of judges — chefs, buyers, food writers, and producers — who evaluate products purely on taste. There are no brand names, no packaging, no marketing. Just the food itself.
Each year, more than 15,000 products are entered. Only the top 10% earn 2 stars — which is exactly what our honey achieved. Which is why, when our honey was recognised, it meant everything to us.
Beekeeping in South Yorkshire
Our hives are based on the South Yorkshire and Derbyshire border, where the bees forage across a varied landscape of wildflower meadows, hedgerows, and farmland. The diversity of forage is reflected in the complexity of the honey — it's never quite the same from one season to the next, and that's exactly how it should be.
Beekeeping here follows the natural calendar. Spring brings the first flows as fruit trees and dandelions bloom. Summer sees the bees at their most productive, working clover, wildflowers, and whatever else is in season. By late summer, we're preparing the hives for winter — ensuring the colonies are strong, well-fed, and ready to emerge again the following year.
Small Batch, Hands-On
We extract and jar our honey in small batches. This isn't a production line — it's a hands-on process where we can monitor quality at every stage. We don't blend honey from elsewhere, nor do we entrust our beekeeping to others. What's in your jar came from our hives, tended by us, in our region, in a specific season.
That traceability matters to us. It's the foundation of everything we do.
Why We Do It
Beekeeping is not easy. The seasons are unpredictable, the work is extremely physical, and the bees have their own ideas about how things should go. But there's something deeply satisfying about producing a food that is entirely natural, entirely local, and genuinely good.
The 2 Star Great Taste Award — earned against more than 15,000 competing products — is a reminder that people can taste the difference. And that makes every early morning hive inspection, every careful extraction, and every jar we fill worth it.
Thank you for supporting Haskins Honey — and for choosing honey that comes with a story.