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Better than a Pot of Gold. Here are the Top 5 Things You Should Know about Mad Honey!

Mad Honey
May 9, 2021
4 min read

Mad honey is not your ordinary shelf-bought honey although it can be easily mistaken for a harmless nectar; it is packed with power and potency. Mad honey tastes best when tried in a wooden spoon as it doesn’t modify the taste and properties in any way. We are not the only ones who recommend eating it this way, expert beekeepers think alike. However, any spoon is just fine but leaving a metal spoon dipped in overnight is a no-no, since honey has an acidic pH and reacts with metallic surfaces. So enough rambling, let's talk about the properties of Mad Honey and more.

How to Recognize Authentic Mad Honey?

As we earlier mentioned in our previous article, The Higher the Mountain, The Madder the Honey, authentic mad honey does not taste like store-bought honey, although it is sweet, it has a bitter aftertaste- the smell is different and will remind you of ‘sugarcane wine’ known as Fangourin. It will not only bring some sweet memories but also titillate your taste buds due to its unusual yet delightful taste.

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Authentic mad honey can be recognized by its darker color, however a lot of mad honey brands that are available online claim to be selling pure mad honey without up-to-date lab tests and certifications.

This is why we recommend buyers seek in-depth information when investing in this elixir.

The Mad Honey has its Nepalese honey tested in laboratories.

Our latest certification was received on the 15th February 2021. Our Mad Honey is certified Himalayan Wild Honey from the Ministry of Agriculture Government of Nepal and is regularly tested by the National Food Laboratory. More on our Lab Report here.

Authentic Mad Honey Characteristics

Cliff honey can be recognized by its runnier consistency and deeper shade of red; it produces a slightly itchy sensation in the back of the throat when gulped down.

If you have tasted mad honey that didn’t sound like anything of the above, you’ve probably wasted your cash on altered mad honey or simply regular honey. It is easy to get scammed if you have no prior knowledge about Mad Honey so, if you are skeptical about the authenticity of our Mad Honey, read our customer reviews or simply get in touch with us on What’s App/ Telegram, Facebook, or via email for assistance.

Transparency and accountability are key principles of our brand, therefore we are here to answer all of your questions and assure the best tasting and psychoactive experience with our cliff honey.

How Much Mad Honey Should You Take?

For the Gurung Tribesmen who are used to the Nepalese nectar, it is not unusual to go beyond the recommended dosage, however, we would recommend one spoonful a day for medicinal purposes. If it is your first time trying Mad Honey, it is best to start with one teaspoon and step up to two spoonfuls once your body is acquainted with this new experience.

The dosage of grayanotoxins in a spoonful of mad honey varies from place to place and season. For instance, our Mad Honey Limited Reserve 2021 is more potent than our regular Mad Honey, this is mainly because the harvest takes place in Spring where the Rhododendron flowers are in full bloom, which in turn signifies that the foraging bees produce honey with higher potency and psychoactive properties.

The experience provided by The Mad Honey is a pleasant and predictable one, our quality is backed up by years of experience in the field. We test the harvested honey and can therefore guarantee that every teaspoon of The Mad Honey carries a potent amount of grayanotoxins.

Our Himalayan Honey can be used daily as an immune system booster as it stimulates cell regeneration. For our Mad Honey Limited Reserve 2021, 2 or 3 tablespoons will produce mild effects within 20 minutes to 1hour. The effects last anything between 3 to 5 hours.

What are Mad Honey effects?

Experienced effects are sensations such as body relaxation, brain consciousness and a surge of energy, a sense of euphoria, and alteration in colors and brightness.

More delicate and reactive bodies can also experience queasiness, dizziness, blurred vision, wilting and increased blood pressure.

For stronger effects, we recommend eating The Mad Honey on an empty stomach.

It is best to avoid drinking alcohol before or right after the intake of The Mad Honey.

We do not recommend increasing the dosage by more than 3-4 tablespoons.

Other ways to use Mad Honey

Put your fancy pants on! Since mad honey is fancy and on the pricier side, you can save it for a unique gastronomic dish. However, it is best not to expose mad honey to high temperatures since it alters its properties. Therefore, we recommend trying it out on a cheeseboard. Imagine having some Burrata with our mad honey? Mouthwatering, right? You can also consume mad honey with your tea. One teaspoon should suffice.

For Whom?

For the ones that are looking to spice up their lives or want to benefit from the medicinal properties of Mad Honey. Mad honey is an amazing mood-up lifter and has provided a magical if not, mystical experience to many. It is also a luxurious addition to your skincare routine since it has antiseptic and antibacterial properties.

Take a quick look at our reviews for more.

Be mindful when trying Mad Honey, as it is always risky to consume more than three spoons a day.

Read More:

To bee or not to bee.

The Higher the Mountain, The madder the Honey.

Smart as can bee: Discovering how honey hives function and why our Mad Honey is unique.

Mad Honey Hunting in Nepal.

MAD HONEY Limited Reserve 50g

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MAD HONEY Limited Reserve 2x50g

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HIMALAYAN HONEY 200g

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HIMALAYAN HONEY 250g

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Smart as can Bee: Discover how honey bee hives function and why our Mad Honey is unique.

Mad Honey
Feb 24, 2021
6 min read

Nothing is more delicious than the knowledge of what we consume (though, our Mad honey is clearly yummier!) Honey has been consumed for its medicinal properties for centuries, yet most of us know little about hives and the incredible social structures of hives. From the queen to the workers, we are here to enlighten you on the topic.

Mad honey is produced by the rare giant honey bee Apis Laboriosa; the Himalayan honey bee is known as the world's largest honey bee and measures up to three centimeters in length. Although the Apis Laboriosa was identified as one of the subspecies of the Apis Dorsata, in 2020 the giant bee was affirmed as a full species of its own. Since no interbreeding was detected, the Apis Laboriosa was declared unique. Yet, the organization of Apis Laboriosa honey bees is similar to the other types.

So, if you’re curious about how honeybees function and how hives are organized, read on.

This blog article is based on previous works by the Mid-ATLANTIC and other sources cited throughout the article.

What does not benefit the hive

is no benefit to the bee.

Marcus Aurelius

The Consolidated Efforts of a Micro-society

Honey bees are frequently studied due to the fact they are perceived as regarded as highly social in the animal realm. They live in structured and large family groups, comparable to humans who live in communities. These evolved insects indulge in a nexus that is not seen among most solitary insects.

Honey bees have a complex nest construction particularly among Apis Laboriosa who build their nests at an altitude of more than 3000 meters vertically. Honey bees have not only mastered communication and defense but have also developed a chain of labor that is rarely seen among solitary insects. Honey bees obtain all of their nutritional requirements from a diverse combination of pollen and nectar.

Their colonies are made up of 3 types of adult bees:

Workers
Drones
Queen

Although the queen is referred to as the superior bee, her role is rather limited to reproduction as she is the single sexually developed female qualified for laying eggs.

Thousands of honeybee workers commit their short lives to nest building, rearing, and food collection- tasks that are assigned to me them with respect to their maturity.

It is fascinating that the micro-society of honeybees is identical to the human one where the individual efforts of every hive member contribute to the success of the entire colony.

Matriarchal Organization

Since honey bees have a unique queen, it is unsurprising that they follow a matriarchal structure to allocate tasks and roles in the colony.

However, during the swarming preparations and supersedure, the colony may have more than one queen.

The queens are most reproductive in early summer and can lay up to 1,500 eggs on a daily basis. They stop laying eggs around early October and start all over again in January. A single queen can produce up to 250,000 eggs per year and more than 1,000 000 within her lifetime. (2 to 5 years while the workers and drones typically have a lifespan of 30-60days)

The Making of a Queen

Queen bees differ from the rest of the colony; they have longer frames than the drones and workers and the abdomen is usually more elongated. While the wings of the workers and drones can virtually touch the tip of the abdomen when folded, the queen’s wings cover only part of the gut.

The queen does not possess functional wax glands or pollen baskets. Her stinger is longer than that of the workers, with fewer barbs of a smaller size.

The Production of Pheromones or Identity

As we earlier mentioned, one of the primary functions of the queen is egg-laying, however, she is also responsible for providing a social identity to her hive. The production of pheromones acts as a social bind per se and provides an identity to the bee community.

According to research conducted by the Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research Centre, being the chief, the queen’s and colony’s worth are determined by her pheromone production and her reproduction abilities which are based on the genetics of the drones with which she mated.

In order to prevent inbreeding from taking place, the queen travels to other drones in flight; she is hard to miss due to the release of a chemical odor known as a pheromone.

Drones are those bees that grow from the unfertilized eggs of the queen and produce male sperm cells that are genetically similar to the egg.

Once she gets back to the hive and is ready to start laying eggs in around two days, the queen feeds on royal jelly gathered by the worker bees. The greater the amount of the food, the better prepared are the beeswax cells where the eggs are stored. Larvae will start hatching from the eggs within three days.

Overthrowing the Queen

Unfortunately, the queen bee does not enjoy her privileges once her secreted substance is no longer deemed good enough. Both the queen and her daughter remain in the hive for a longer bit after the supersedure.

There are three situations that require a new queen:

The unexpected death or disappearance of the queen.
In case of inadequate queen substance.
The preparation of swarming.

As we mentioned earlier, the queen is in charge of the matriarchal organization of her colony hence, yet she is nothing without the female workers. Though the queen is attended to during the laying period, the colony functions as a single unit with a fairly flat structure.

The queen acts as the materfamilias of the hive since she gave birth to every bee of the hive.

The hive is nothing without each bee whose role is predetermined. As English poet Thomas Hood beautifully enunciated: ‘When was honey made with one bee in a hive?’

Fun Fact:

Greek Philosopher and polymath, Aristotle (c.384 B.C. to 322 B.C.) claimed that the chef of the hive is male and referred to the latter as ‘King Bee’ Sacrilegious, right? Yeah, we know. He identified the drones as females for they have no strings and were characterized by their inferiority.

It is only later on that it was recognized that honeybees have female-led societies, thanks to Charles Butler’s work, The Feminine Monarchy.

Drones - A Seraglio of Males

Male bees are the largest in the colony and are usually around in late spring and summer; they neither equipped stingers, pollen baskets nor wax glands. Therefore, their role is rather limited to the fertilization of the queen during the mating period. Once they are four days old, the drones can start feeding themselves albeit they predominantly depend on the female workers for food.

The drones eat three times more than the workers and their presence can even be overwhelming for the colony if they radically increase in number. Drones start orientation flights once they are eight days old.

While queenless colonies allow drones to live in the hive for a longer period, colonies led by queens will usually get rid of drones due to the scarcity of pollen or nectar.

The founding father of the United States, Thomas Paine referred to the drones as ‘a seraglio of males, who neither collect the honey nor form the hive, but exist only for lazy enjoyment.’

Working Ladies

The workers of the bee colony are sexually underdeveloped females that do not normally lay eggs. They are equipped with scent glands, pollen baskets, and food glands which allows them to do all the work in the hive. The workers cater to the needs of the queen, clean and polish cells, and handle nectar. In addition, they guard the colony’s entrance.

They forage for nectar, pollen, propolis, and water however, the workers live for a short period of six weeks in warmer months and can survive up to six months in the fall. These marvelous tiny creatures ensure that the colony is preserved by rearing the new bees in the spring before their demise.

Support Ethical Honey Harvests

Due to the increasing use of pesticides such as acephate, honey bees are at the risk of extinction. By harvesting ethically and once every year, we ensure that bees have the time to mate in the best environment. Unlike Turkish mad honey, our Mad Honey is produced naturally and in a safe, bee-friendly environment i.e. their natural habitat is not in any way altered; the mad honey bees forage on natural sources of food such as the Rhododendron flowers which grow at higher altitudes.

Mad Honey works with the Nepalese local community and the Government to ensure that honey hunting remains ethical and does not interfere with nature’s course.

The honey bee is a fascinating creature it is the perfect mix of elegance and functionality; their role as pollinators is crucial in maintaining a healthy eco-system.

The Higher the Mountain, The Madder the Honey.

Mad Honey
Oct 14, 2020
4 min read

Mad Honey (पागल मह), extracted from the perilous mountains of Annapurna is not to be compared with your local honey pots. If Pooh Bear could get his hands on some of this sweetness, he would be a lot less morose, for sure. The name itself might scare off some of you but it is most definitely worth a try. Mad Honey boasts itself for its psychoactive attributes. Mad Honey is not for the faint-hearted and if you’re one who loathes trips, we would certainly suggest trying out Mad Honey for the simple fact that it is purely organic and helps with sleeping, anxiety, stress levels and hypertension amongst other issues.

Psychoactive Honey from the Deadly Annapurna Mountains

You have probably heard of the Nepalese honey that makes people trip. Although it's a new product on the market, honey from Annapurna is likely to become one of the favorites of psychoactive adepts. Annapurna means the giver of perfect food in Sanskrit, so it is no surprise that the quality of mad honey extracted from those heights is superior to others. Even though it is known as the deadliest mountain to climb, the locals have stuck to their tradition of collecting Apis Dorsata Laboriosa aka the giant honey bees’ combs for years.

The Gurungs endure 20 to 40 stings from these enormous bees while being fully protected.

The fact that Mad Honey is harvested through a delicate and rather risky process makes it one of its kind. There's a reason why the Nepalese call it ''cliff honey''. The natives known as the Gurung or Tamu people have used mad honey for centuries in sacred rituals, for recreational, medicinal, and even military purposes. The Gurung people are believed to eat it before breakfast for that ethereal sensation throughout the day.

You can now test the benefits of Mad Honey for yourself.

Mad Honey Properties

Mad Honey is a rare variety of honey. Due to the fact that it is produced by the Apis Dorsata Laboriosa, the taste is more bitter with a darker reddish color than regular honey. Mad honey actually smells different due to minimal processing. Some people refer to the smell as 'funky'. Honey connoisseurs will quickly distinguish the taste of Mad honey as unique.

Low doses of Mad Honey cause euphoria and lightheartedness. Mad honey should be consumed with caution. This unique Nepalese honey is renowned for its virtues; it not only treats anxiety but also reduces stress levels, pain, migraines, hypertension, and even promotes better sleep.

Rhododendron Flowers & The Nepalese Mad Honey

Mad honey is collected from the nectar of the indigenous Nepalese national Rhododendron flower which is different from the other hundreds of species. This flower can only be found in limited quantities in a few regions namely Nepal, Caucasus and Southern Turkey.

Some also exist in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and a few American states.

Rhododendrons In Nepal

Rhododendron in Nepal is known as Gurung and this is exactly why mad honey hunters carry the name Gurung. There are around 700 species of rhododendron flowers, however only two or three include the so-called grayanotoxin in their nectars.

The giant bees forage on these stunning flowers and their grayanotoxin-containing nectar to produce toxin-laced honey in their hives. Interestingly enough, grayanotoxins have no effects on the bees while high doses of the same could be fatal for humans.

What To Expect From Your First Tasting?

In 2016, David Caprara at VICE, described the honey as being similar to weed. He was advised by the expert honey hunters to consume two teaspoons of the sweet liquid and felt high 15 minutes later. He described the experience as a mental and bodily high. Unlike the usual psychedelic, Caprara claimed that the mad honey high was warmer and more relaxing overall. He felt lighter and happier hours later.

Why is The Mad Honey® superior?

Our brand produces genuine, certified organic Mad Honey. We work with the Honey Hunters directly to make sure that quality product is being delivered to your doorstep. Our hunters take considerable risks to collect this unique nectar for you at an altitude of 3,000 meters.

I absolutely LOVE this honey and of course the medicinal properties is the PRIMARY reason for ingestion as I live a Holistic Lifestyle therefore Health is Wealth and just to add if it makes you feel super good in the process then all the better....I look forward to ordering MORE honey from you in the future in LARGER quantities.-Latoya

Source: The Mad Honey Reviews

With the high rate of brain drain occurring in Nepali rural villages, we ensure that this tradition is kept alive and that our Gurungs' connection with their ancestors is sustained. Mass production often entails the loss of quality and extinction of natural resources. In order not to render the highly potent mad honey extinct, collection takes place on a yearly basis. Mad Honey is tested and certified by the Government of Nepal.