Comvita

History

Comvita was founded in 1974 in New Zealand by Claude Stratford, a beekeeper, and Alan Bougen, on the conviction that the honey from the country's native manuka shrub (Leptospermum scoparium) had distinctive properties worth building a business around. Over the following decades, as research identified the compound methylglyoxal (MGO), derived from a precursor in manuka nectar, as responsible for manuka's non-peroxide antibacterial activity, manuka honey grew from a niche product into a global premium category, and Comvita became one of its largest and most established producers. The company sources from hives placed in remote manuka scrubland across New Zealand, often in hard-to-reach country where the manuka flowers in a short window, and built a vertically integrated operation from hives to testing to packing. The defining issue with manuka, and the reason a producer like Comvita matters to a cook or buyer, is grading and authenticity. Manuka commands a high price, and the market is heavily counterfeited: far more honey is sold worldwide as manuka than New Zealand could possibly produce, much of it blended, mislabeled, or fake. Two grading systems try to certify the real thing: UMF (Unique Manuka Factor), a quality-mark and grading system run by an industry association that tests for marker compounds and certifies licensed producers, and MGO, which states the methylglyoxal content in milligrams per kilogram directly. A genuine certified UMF or MGO rating, from a licensed producer, is the buyer's protection; a jar that just says manuka with no UMF or MGO number is close to meaningless. Comvita is a UMF licensee and grades its honey across the range, from lower table-grade manuka to high-activity premium jars sold largely for wellness use. The honest framing for this catalog is twofold. First, manuka is a finishing and eating honey, prized for flavor (a rich, earthy, mineral, slightly medicinal character) and texture, and at the high-activity end it is a wellness product priced accordingly; you do not cook with high-grade manuka any more than you cook with traditional balsamic. Second, the antibacterial-activity claims drive much of the price, and while the non-peroxide activity is real and measurable via MGO, the consumer should be clear about what they are buying and not overpay for activity they do not need if they want it as a honey for the table. Comvita's value is as a transparent, certified, established source in a category defined by fraud: buying a UMF-licensed, numerically graded jar from a major producer is the reliable way to get genuine manuka rather than one of the many imitations, which is exactly the named-product, honest-grade clarity this catalog exists to provide.

How they work

Comvita places hives in remote manuka scrubland across New Zealand, where the native manuka shrub flowers in a short seasonal window, often in hard-to-reach country reached by helicopter. The honey is harvested, then tested and graded before packing in a vertically integrated operation. Grading is the load-bearing step in this category: Comvita is a licensee of the UMF (Unique Manuka Factor) system, an industry quality mark that tests for the marker compounds defining authentic manuka and certifies the producer, and it also states MGO (methylglyoxal) content, the compound responsible for manuka's non-peroxide antibacterial activity, in milligrams per kilogram. These ratings are what separate certified manuka from the far larger volume of blended, mislabeled, or counterfeit honey sold worldwide as manuka. The honey is graded across a range, from lower table-grade manuka to high-activity premium jars. The testing and certification, not just the harvest, are the guarantee, because in a category this counterfeited an uncertified jar means little. Comvita's scale and integration let it test and trace its honey from remote hive to graded jar, which is the basis of its authenticity claim.

Specialties

• UMF-graded manuka honey
• MGO-rated honey
• certified New Zealand manuka

Products from this house on La Pincée

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  Honey · Medicinal honey

  Manuka Honey (UMF)

  North and South Island, coastal and forest scrubland, New Zealand (UMF)

Where to buy

Comvita is widely sold internationally, in pharmacies, health-food and wellness retailers, supermarkets, and online, in both the US and UK as well as direct from comvita.com. Prices climb steeply with the UMF or MGO grade: a lower table-grade manuka might be 15 to 30 dollars or pounds a jar, while high-activity premium grades run well into the tens or hundreds depending on the rating. Practical advice: decide first whether you want manuka as an eating honey for its distinctive earthy, mineral flavor or as a high-activity wellness product, because that determines the grade you should pay for. For the table, a genuine certified lower-to-mid UMF jar gives you the real flavor and texture without the premium of the highest activity grades, which are priced for their MGO content rather than their taste. Whatever the grade, insist on a UMF number or an MGO rating from a licensed producer, because a jar that merely says manuka with no certified number is close to meaningless in a category this heavily faked. Do not cook with high-grade manuka, since heat is wasteful of an expensive honey and degrades the activity you paid for; use it raw, on the spoon, drizzled, or in cold or barely-warm applications. Buy the size you will actually finish, since while honey keeps almost indefinitely, the point is to use it. Comvita and a handful of other established UMF licensees are the reliable sources; the protection against fraud is the certification and the producer, not the word manuka on the label.

Official site of Comvita →