Where it started

During a visit to an international trade show in 2019, we noticed a small but growing trend of honey with chilis. Upon our return, we started working on this project, investigating different ways of infusing chili and honey, which involved myriad trials of differing chilies and differing varietals of honey…. Unfortunately, we were then hit by our first of many lockdowns and the product development was shelved.

Fast forward to 2022

Another trip to an international trade show, and the small trend of honey with chilis had blossomed into quite a growth sector of the honey market and reinvigorated us to dust off our previous iterations and try again.

Back to NZ and back to the Drawing Board

Once we returned, we went through our previous iterations, and concluded that we needed to start again. By this time, another NZ brand had emerged with a pretty decent hot honey, so with that in mind, we looked at how we could create a similar product with a difference.

Manuka Doctor x Kaitaia Fire

It was whilst we were revisiting all of the various honey/chili combinations, that I grabbed the first pot of Manuka Doctor honey that I had in the pantry and the first hot sauce at hand… which happened to be the Iconic Original Hot Sauce – Kaitaia Fire. After trialling various ratios, we realised that we were onto something. We reached out to Kaitaia Fire to propose a collaboration….

Manuka Doctor Hot & Spicy Honey with Kaitaia Fire

After a lot of discussion and product development, we finally settled on a final recipe…. Concocted in the fiery depths of the hive, Manuka Doctor® Hot & Spicy Honey combines our high quality New Zealand Honey with the buzzing hot flavour provided by Kaitaia Fire Chili Pepper Sauce to create a 100% homegrown taste sensation that’s sure to set your tastebuds on fire.