Tupelo honey is that of a delicacy among those who love honey. Unlike traditional honey, the production of tupelo honey is limited to 2-3 weeks in April and May and is becoming more and more rare. Harvested by Tupelo trees near the Gulf Coast, the labor process for beekeepers is stressful and exhausting. Besides the working conditions, beekeepers have to manage the bees and make sure there’s no cross-pollination, keeping the tupelo honey pure. Development in the area of the Gulf Coast is also making it tough for tupelo honey to be harvested. With construction companies owning miles and miles of the coastline, wetlands where tupelo trees grow are becoming scarce. For this reason, the town of Wewahitchka, Florida celebrates their local delicacy every year. 
The festival includes farmers from the area with booths of their fine honey to taste and buy. Along with this, there are plenty of vendors for food, drinks, and fun. This year’s festival is set to take place on Saturday May 19th from 9:00am to 4:00pm at Lake Alice Park in Wewahitchka, Florida. Back in 1941 while most other large cities were developing nicely, Wewahitchka was home to less than 1,000 people, but was one of the largest producers of the aggressively sought after tupelo honey. That marked the first year of the annual Tupelo Honey Festival, a tradition that has carried on ever since. They even began the tradition of crowning a years’ tupelo honey queen. The festival successfully served as an identity for the town. If you’re not from this area of Florida, or even the state of Florida for that matter, you can still try the both famous and unique tupelo honey. Companies like Smiley Honey provide online stores where you can choose from a ton of homegrown honeys. Smiley Honey’s Tupelo Honey for example is one of their most sought after products, due to its unique floral taste and how tough it is to come by. Smiley Honey offers a range of honeys including:
- Acacia Honey
- Blackberry Honey
- Citrus Honey
- Cotton Honey
- Clover Honey
- Holly Honey
- Linden Honey
- Orange Honey
- Sage Honey
- Sourwood Honey
- Thyme Honey
- Wildflower Honey
- Chocolate Honey
- Tupelo Honey
- Premium Tupelo Honey
Smiley Honey also offers things like:
- Antioxidant boosting tea
- Inner warmth tea
- Breathe easy tea
- Relaxation therapy tea
- Digestive relief tea
- Feeling good tea
- The spiced life tea
- Beeswax lip balm
- Beeswax hand lotion
- Natur balm
Smiley Honey gets it’s Premium tupelo honey from regions in Georgia because of all the development and weather issues that Florida has been having over the last couple of years. The price for this premium tupelo honey is undoubtedly high because of the excellent quality and limited quantity, but you get what you pay for. Smiley Honey sent a sample of their pure tupelo honey to a Texas A&M testing facility to find out how pure the sample truly was. The response was incredible, articulating that Smiley Honey’s Tupelo Honey was 73% tupelo, one of the highest ratings seen in quite some time. 100% pure tupelo is nearly impossible to get because beekeepers can only control and manage the bees to the best of their ability. In theory, pure tupelo honey would never crystalize. However, any tupelo honey you do buy is bound to gather a thin layer of sugar eventually, a natural and easily reversible characteristic. If you ever get a chance to check out the southern tupelo honey festival, do it. If you can’t, buy it online before supply runs out permanently. No studies are showing the tupelo honey will go extinct any time soon, but the quality in certain areas due to development and weather is decreasing drastically. If you want to try the best tupelo honey you’ve ever had in your life, there’s no time to wait. If you’re not so sure what you like, try Smiley Honey’s sample packages to find your favorite type of honey.
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I’m a 20-something stay-at-home mother and wife. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, two loving dogs, and a lazy cat. I wouldn’t change my life for anything! I love to read, listen to music, cook and blog!
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