The Queen is selling organic honey produced at Sandringham, and it's flying off the shelves.
For £14.99, visitors to the gift shop at Sandringham can snap up the handiwork of the bees that live on the Queen's sprawling Norfolk estate. The honey that goes into every jar is collected from hives at Sandringham, with the bees working hard to produce the sweet stuff by visiting the hedgerows and fields around the Royal Family's rural retreat.
The sale of honey at Sandringham is thought to have come as part of a fresh move by Prince Charles to make the 20,000 acre estate organic, according to the MailOnline. Each 454g jar is said to have its own unique taste.
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A notice on display next to the jars in the Sandringham gift shop says: "Each batch has its own distinct flavour, depending where the beehives are at the time of collection. It could be the taste of the Lime trees which line roads here at Sandringham, heather or even lavender, which are both grown on the estate. Whatever the flavour, expect an amazing taste of nature."
The honey is being sold in different consistencies, depending on the desired use of the consumer. For those who are fans of honey on toast, a crystallised edition can be purchased, whilst a runny version can be bought for those who like drizzling honey on yoghurt or fruit.
Sandringham's bees are said to harvest nectar for the honey "from the avenues of pleached Lime trees and wild flowers including Phacelia, Clover and Blackcurrants", according to the label on the product. The honey is said to have a "pleasing, complex taste", and is unprocessed, not counting the coarse straining that takes place to remove impurities.
Honey has been produced for the royal kitchens in a hidden part of the gardens at Buckingham Palace since 2009, but this has never been sold to the general public. Although, the honey produced at Sandringham is not the only royal variety of honey to be sold publicly - Prince Charles sells two varieties of organic honey from his Highgrove Estate, in Gloucestershire.
The honey on offer at Sandringham comes in at three times the average supermarket brand at £14.99, although one shopper told the Daily Mail that the price was worth it. They said: "It is rather expensive - but it tastes absolutely delicious so it is worth it."
Varieties sold at Highgrove appear to be cheaper than those sold at Sandringham, but the jars are smaller, with shoppers getting less than half the amount for over half the price of the Sandringham honey. Highgrove Royal Garden Honey comes in at £9.95 for a 200g jar, whilst the cheaper Highgrove Royal Orchard variety will save you a couple of pounds at £7.95 a jar.
Alongside its newly launched honey, the gift shop at Sandringham sells a number of products from the Royal rural retreat, including £50 bottles of gin, which is flavoured with myrtle plants and exotic Sharon fruit, known as Chinese persimmon, from its walled garden.
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