Warm Drinks & Mānuka: Enjoying MGO 700+ in Winter
Mānuka honey is at its best in the colder months — not because it does anything to you, but because its flavour suits everything winter already involves. It is thicker and more resinous than a clover honey, with a slight bitterness underneath the sweetness, and that character holds up in warm drinks where a lighter honey would simply disappear.
Here is how to get the most out of a jar of MGO 700+ when the weather turns.
Temperature matters more than anything
The single most useful thing to know: warm, not boiling.
Stir Mānuka into water or tea that has cooled for a minute or two off the boil. At full boiling temperature the honey’s aroma flashes off and the texture thins out, and you lose most of what you paid for. Around 40–60°C — comfortably drinkable — is the sweet spot. If the cup is too hot to sip, it is too hot for the honey.
Five warm drinks worth making
- Lemon and Mānuka. A teaspoon in warm water with a good squeeze of lemon. Simple, and the acidity cuts the sweetness nicely.
- Mānuka in black tea. Let the tea stand a minute after brewing, then stir a teaspoon through. Works particularly well with a strong breakfast blend.
- Ginger and Mānuka. Steep fresh sliced ginger in hot water for five minutes, let it cool slightly, then add honey. The heat of the ginger and the resinous edge of the mānuka work together.
- Mānuka flat white. Half a teaspoon stirred into the milk before pouring. An unusual pairing that sounds odd and tastes excellent.
- Warm milk and Mānuka. Gently heated milk with a teaspoon stirred through — the closest thing to a winter dessert in a mug.
Beyond the mug
Winter cooking gives Mānuka plenty to do. Drizzle it over hot porridge once it is off the heat. Spread it on sourdough toast with good butter. Whisk it into a dressing with olive oil and cider vinegar for a roast vegetable salad. Spoon it over thick yoghurt with toasted nuts.
For roasting, add it near the end rather than the beginning — high oven heat will caramelise and eventually burn it, taking the flavour with it.
A note on crystallisation
If your honey turns grainy or firm over winter, nothing has gone wrong. Crystallisation is a normal property of raw honey and is more likely in a cold kitchen. Stand the jar in a bowl of warm water for ten minutes and it will loosen. Avoid the microwave, which heats unevenly and overcooks the honey at the edges.
Storing it well
Keep the jar in a cool, dry cupboard with the lid firmly closed. No refrigeration needed — cold encourages crystallisation. Use a dry spoon each time, since moisture is the one thing that genuinely shortens honey’s life.
Our MGO 700+ is graded from a laboratory result on that specific batch. The batch code on your jar traces back to its harvest and test result, whatever the weather is doing outside.