Labonté honey has been a fixture in Quebec for over 70 years. In 1937 Rolland Labonté started the business in Victoriaville and it has grown into a large, global operation. Jean-Marc Labonté continues the tradition as the current head of the company. Labonté honey offers local Quebecois honey (blueberry, clover, and "pure and natural" which is probably a wild flower mix), and packages and distributes honey from Brazil (eucalyptus and organic pure and natural). You may know them for their "upside down pack no mess" honey bottles. They also produce maple syrup and offer bulk honey. And they aren't kidding when they call it bulk; their bulk containers range in size from 7 kg to 30 kg pails to a 1,400 kg Intermediate Bulk Container (IBC). It is hard for me to imagine the scale of 1,400 kg of honey. I envision a small swimming pool of liquid gold, which isn't too far off (see photo of 1,000 liter IBC containers).
 |
| 1000 liter IBC containers |
Labonté honey also prides itself in its quality assurance program and are HACCP certified (i.e. use the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point Food Safety Management System), are ECO certified and BIO certified (for their organic products). If you want guarantees that you are getting 100% natural honey, you can't go wrong with Labonté honey.
The honey I have is their "pure & natural organic honey" from Brazil. I checked the Labonté honey website to see if there was any more information about the honey-where in Brazil, what the floral was, etc.-but came up empty handed. Usually if a floral source isn't specified it is a wild flower blend.
 |
| Labonté Pure & Natural organic honey from Brazil |
The honey is an amber golden color, very clear and of medium thickness, exactly what you think of when you think of honey. I don't see any particulate matter in it. It has a uniform sweet flavor with a hint of eucalyptus menthol at the end. This makes me think that they may place hives in the border areas around a eucalyptus forest or some batches of their eucalyptus honey have too much pollen from other sources, so it ends up being "pure and natural organic honey" rather than eucalyptus honey. In my opinion some of the most interesting honey has multiple floral sources.
This is a very good quality, robust honey that will please anyone who likes traditional honey. It is perfect for hot toast, baking or adding to tea or hot cereal.
