I purchased Honey from Costco Wholesale. Kirkland products are usually high quality, and this Honey is widely available for a terrific price. It claims to be sourced locally by the State with neighboring counties. This Kirkland Texas Raw Unfiltered Honey is 100% U.S. Grade A, True Source Certified in a 3lb plastic bottle.

Is this a Costco Keeper? Or is this just another grocery store Honey in a bigger bottle?

Honey: Likely heated, inaccurately raw. Heavily processed from USA.
Color: Standard Golden Amber.
Aroma: Nutty and classic Oaky scent.
Flavor: Typical Clover, or Wildflower taste.
Texture: Smooth, but thick and gel like. It has a gumminess to it, likely from being heated and over pasteurized.

Kirkland Texas Raw Unfiltered Honey

If you’re a member of Costco you can benefit from bulk products like Honey, Olive Oil and Nuts for great prices. I picked up this Kirkland Texas Raw Unfiltered Honey for $8.99 in a 3lb jar. I did a little research on where this was actually sourced in Texas and found a couple interesting things.

Kirkland Signature Local Texas Raw Unfiltered Honey is distributed in Texas within the cities of Houston, Dallas, and Ft. Worth. Other States may have something similar, where it’s pulled from the biggest cities and their supplier of choice.

They couldn’t verify who the suppliers or beekeepers actually were, but I’ll take what I could get as to where it was sourced.

Misleading, but this is the world of Honey.

Diving Deeper – So, Who Produces It?

According to this article by the Costco Connection, it states

“Costco has been utilizing Rice’s Honey Under the new local honey program, Rice’s will supply warehouses in Texas, the Pacific Northwest, Colorado, Utah and Southern California.

If you look into Rice’s Honey, you’ll soon discover its actually Local Hive which is based out of Colorado. Now that article from Costco Connection is back in 2019, but it is likely they are still utilizing that contract with Rice’s Honey aka Local Hive.

Costco referred to using 2 vendors and that its a 51% blend with clover honey.
If you think it’s actually unfiltered, it isn’t. Costco cited the USDA’s grading standard for Grade A filtered honey. Which doesn’t tell us what we think it means.

“There is nothing about “U.S. Grade A” that implies it’s produced in the U.S.
(in whole or in part). It just means it met our standards.

The Sticky Issue

Real honey is not a blended product and is not filtered to the point that most or all of the pollen is removed.

Commercially blended honey products do not build a market for real honey.
Did you know one Third of Honey is blended and adulterated, right next to Olive Oil?

This is Costco’s way to sell “store bought” honey like it’s “beekeeper honey”.
But they aren’t the same thing!

What Did I Think?

The Honey itself is similar to Kelley’s Honey I just reviewed. It’s a standard Clover or Wildflower Honey with no evident varietal source. The details on it’s origin are convoluted with States and no context of season or pollen sources. You’re far too big of a entity to even consider local sourcing. That’s like saying the Chicago Bulls are Wisconsin’s Pro Basketball Team because it’s the team everyone knows in the Midwest.

This Kirkland Raw Unfiltered Honey is not actually Raw, and if it was unfiltered there would be early signs of crystallization with the household temperature hitting below 65 this season.

What It Means

This means it’s been heat treated, and heavily filtered for Costco labeling and FDA standards.

Which means the “local” benefits have been processed out. I really dislike supporting this kind of honey and how its being marketed when everything that makes Honey beneficial is stripped out.

It’s still useful

I think if you’re using this to replace sugar content in recipes, or Teas its fine. Honey, I put into hot Tea is the “generic’ Honey. Where I’m just using it to sweeten something, and not really concerned about adding taste or getting the health benefits, since I’m going to kill it with scalding Hot Water.

I’ll likely use this for more Infused Honey ideas, or baked goods and breads. And with up to 65 servings at 1 tbsp each, that’s at least 60 cups of Tea. And you may think this is a value, and for some it is. But I can head to Walker Honey Farm in Rogers Texas and get an entire Quart filled on tap for $11, which is a verified source with no misleading marketing, and I get to choose from Mesquite, Orange Blossom or more.

Got to love Commercial branding, right?

I appreciate that Costco wanted to reach more markets with its Local Honey Program, but it’s just a marketing gimmick to pair up with Local Hive. The only thing the bottle is missing is the comb embossing on the side. And well, actual local honey.

The information I got from Customer Service, and the article in Costco Connection, this isn’t actually what it’s being sold as.

Making this Kirkland Texas Raw Unfiltered Honey is just another generic grocery store Honey.

Beekeepers associate these companies as Honey Packers and not actually Beekeepers. I wouldn’t buy this again, unless I needed this much in a bind.
If you don’t have a Costco membership, you could purchase this Local Hive Texas Honey on Amazon. It’s basically the same exact thing.