Elvish Honey Is the Most Expensive Honey in the World

Honey is an amazing natural food. It’s been used as a sweetener for centuries. Many people swear by using local honey to diminish allergies. You don’t even have to eat it to benefit from it. You can use honey outside the kitchen to shine your hair or clean cuts. One of my favorite ways to use honey is during strawberry season. I happily buy both strawberries and local wildflower honey from the farmers market and make delicious strawberries daiquiris sweetened with local honey.

Although honey is delicious, versatile, and beneficial, I’m not sure it’s worth $185 an ounce. Some people think so, though. The world’s most expensive honey, called Elvish honey from Turkey, is selling for 5,000 euros ($6,800) for 1 kilogram (about 35 ounces). Europeans could buy a small car for that price.

The Elvish Honey Difference

What’s so special about it? It’s not made in hives set up by beekeepers. It’s made deep in a cave where bees create a “high-quality, mineral-rich honey” on spherical walls in northeastern Turkey. Professional climbers have to help extract it.

Still, does this make it worth the price? Gunay Gunduz, the beekeeper who discovered the honey in the cave, says, “The honey is produced in a natural way and without hives. The area is rich in endemic and medicinal plants. All this affects the price.” He also notes it’s medicinal.

Worth More Than Gold Though

Still, I ask. Does this make it worth the price? I think most of us would say, no, but there are those who are paying it. In fact, someone paid much more. The very first kilogram of Elvish honey was sold on the French stock exchange five years ago, and it went for $45,000 (about $61,000 dollars by today’s exchange rate.)