Balqees honey: Sheffield’s first 'honey boutique' at Sheffield Botanical Gardens sells range of honey fusions

The family-run raw honey business, which opened in September 2022, prides itself on producing honey “straight from the hive” and using sustainable beekeeping methods.

Salem Hamed, who runs the shop with his uncle Riath, told The Star that the project was born out of seeing how much consumers were being deceived when buying honey. “No one’s getting the good stuff. We wanted the real thing ourselves, and to allow others to be able to access it too,” he said.

Where mass produced honey often contains sugar-syrup instead of pure honey, Balqees works with beekeepers across the globe to ensure its authenticity. Compared to commercial honey found in supermarkets, which is sweetened and goes through an ultra-filtration process, raw honey is unpasteurised, (unheated) completely natural and harmless to bees involved.

Salem Hamed calls his uncle “the honey explorer,” as he travels around the world, meeting suppliers and tasting the honey before it is stocked at Balqees. “My uncle knows every one of our beekeeper’s by name,” Mr Hamed said.

The business is completely transparent about ingredients and origin. They source honey from Greece, New Zealand, Madagascar, Sheffield and Yemen, where the family is originally from.

Yemeni honey comes at a higher price point, but is known as the “Manuka of the Middle East” for its medicinal element as it includes antioxidant, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties.

Balqees has a number of popular honey fusions, such as lemon and ginger, cinnamon and sesame seed and orange and turmeric. Smaller pots are priced at £8.

Mr Hamed acknowledges their honey is more expensive than the average retailer, but says that if honey is priced any cheaper, it will likely consist of sugar-syrup. Beekeepers who mass produce are also known to feed the bees antibiotics, which is then passed on to the honey.

The pair work with a beekeeping cooperative in Madagascar, which helps to rehabilitate people by teaching them how to make the honey. They are located by the main gatehouse entrance of Sheffield Botanical Gardens, and are open Monday – Saturday from 10.30am to 6pm throughout the summer months, and 10.30am to 3.30pm in the winter.