About Us

Founding

Pacific Northwest Honey Company was founded in 2020. The founders had previously operated a local restaurant, which was forced to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to their closing, the restaurant had been selling honey at a small scale from one shelf inside. One of the founders had previously been operating a commercial-scale honey farming business and always had an innate interest in the little busy pollinators we often overlook.

During the pandemic, the restaurant tried to remain open for take-out orders, but the demand for honey was surprisingly consistent, and growing too. The founders then had the thought, "we might have something here". They then closed the restaurant and opened a new store across the street on Highway 12 in Rochester, Washington.

Retail Store Opened

The store has been in operation ever since, serving local honey connoisseurs as well as travelers stopping by on this arterial highway that sits between Olympia/Vancouver and Aberdeen Washington. As the operation grew in size, so did the dedicated team behind it, taking on new staff and growing month after month.

Throughout the entire venture, one overriding goal has guided the company: delivering high-quality raw honey to the general public while also acting as teachers, informing visitors about honeybees and how honey is made.

With this vision in mind, the store began acting as a destination for customers. continuously adding new products, honey flavors, and expanding their ability to teach visitors about honey and the bees that make it alike.

Appreciation For Our Busy Pollinators

It's easy to take honeybees for granted, but they are immensely fascinating little creatures. From their ability to forage for miles within a single day, to how they construct their hives, how they collaborate, communicate, and their life cycle. These insects, while small, contribute to an estimated 1/3 of all of the food we humans consume regularly.

Over millennia, they have formed a symbiotic relationship with the flowers they forage on, with both adapting to each other over time. The bees receiving pollen and nectar from the flowers while the flowers receive a massively increased level of diversity in the flowers they can reproduce with, thanks to the bees spreading pollen from flower to flower as they forage and collect what they need from the flowers to survive.

Quality Through Passion

Pacific Northwest Honey Company prides itself on providing the highest quality honey possible. Every step of the way, our goal is to preserve the characteristics that honey naturally has, and to avoid altering or augmenting it wherever possible. It's unfortunate that a lot of the honey available to the public found on supermarket shelves is overly processed, with added sugars, fillers, and added artificial flavoring that dilutes it's natural flavor and nutritional benefits. Visitors will routinely sample our honey at our Honey Bar and be shocked at how different it tastes compared to what they routinely have at their dinner table. This is our primary mission: to expand our customers' awareness of the richness in quality that exists. In the same way a person might seek out high-quality wine and sample its characteristics, we believe that honey has this same capability. You can taste the subtle notes and flavors from the differing flowers that our bees forage on, usually with that same fruity or nutty flavor seeping into the honey itself. Folks are often surprised to hear that we don't add any flavoring (or anything else for that matter) to our honey. The diversity in flavor you taste from one honey flavor to the next comes solely from what our bees consume.

Our apiaries are based out of Rochester, Washington, and we partner with local farms, as well as farms located states away, who benefit from the pollination our bees provide, while we benefit from having a new flavor to offer to our customers.

Pacific Northwest Honey Company was founded by people who are passionate about what we do. At every step, our goal is to protect the quality of the honey, not change it. We go so far as to avoid even pasteurizing it, because even that can change the honey's characteristics. When we harvest honey, we simply strain out any debris, warm it slightly to make it easier to pour, and that's it! The honey we produce is even certified as 100% raw by the F.D.A..

Core Values

• Commitment to keeping the honey we produce as raw and authentic as possible.
• To overcome stigmas related to most honey found on store shelves and highlight the stark contrast between between raw honey and the "store bought stuff".
• To properly represent and praise the beekeeping industry for its invaluable role in the food industry.

Community

Pacific Northwest Honey Company routinely welcomes local schools on field trips where they can learn from our observation hive, a real operating hive with viewing panels that can be found in our store. Our staff loves to teach kids and adults alike about these amazing creatures and welcomes any opportunity to educate the public. Bees are often seen as pests or as "scary" insects, but in reality, when they aren't being threatened, they are very docile creatures. They work together to build and maintain their hive. They communicate and collaborate, even when there's tens-of-thousands of them.

Fun fact: honeybees strictly control the humidity of the honey in their hives. They work to keep the honey at a consistent humidity level to avoid fermentation. They use their wings to fan the honey to help dry it out, when needed, and will even control airflow through the hive by flapping their wings at hive entrances.

Team and Culture

We strive to foster a healthy obsession with honey in our staff. Everyone on our team is passionate about the work they do. Once you learn the ins-and-outs about honey and the bees that create it, it's hard not to be! We're always on the lookout for someone asking questions. Even a minimal amount of interest will be met with dedication and education.

Looking Forward

We aim to follow this sense of gratitude towards honey wherever it takes us. Our goal is to learn about the needs of our customers, as well as our bees, and learn to meet those needs with enthusiasm and quality.