$2800 a jar: Hawke's Bay company's Manuka honey vintage now the most expensive in world

One single windswept tree block has produced the most extraordinary and expensive Mānuka honey that the world has ever seen.

Ahuriri-based The True Honey Co is now selling its supplies of its 2017 Rare Harvest to luxury retailers such as Selfridges and Harrods in London.

The retailers are buying up to 10 of the 230 gram jars at a time to secure a supply with each jar selling for £1388 (NZD$2815) in the United Kingdom.

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The authentic New Zealand Mānuka honey is harvested from a single highly secret block of Mānuka trees.

Just as a grapevine under stress creates a better vintage, challenging conditions in 2017 drove one single windswept, remote Mānuka block to produce a particularly potent nectar, resulting in an extraordinary, singular harvest.

This kind of result may be due to an extraordinary set of natural circumstances, but The True Honey Co founder Jim McMillan says it's not something left simply to chance.

It has been independently certified at an unprecedented 1,700+ methylglyoxal, the naturally occurring compound that makes Manuka honey.

It's also been certified as 31+ UMF (Unique Mānuka Factor).

The supplies of it are strictly limited to 1000, hand numbered, signed jars.

McMillan said the care of honeybees is "paramount" to the honey's success.

"Healthy bees make exceptional honey."

The True Honey Co was launched in 2016 to sell only authentic, premium New Zealand Mānuka honey.

Built on a high beekeeper to hive ratio and transparent relationships with landowners, the company only places hives in dense stands of Mānuka bush deep within New Zealand's remote back country, making exceptional products, prized by honey lovers worldwide.

Each jar is luxuriously topped with hand-turned NZ native timber lids, the wood also incorporated into a bespoke, brass handled honey drizzlier.

Its white magnetically closed outer box opens out into five segments, reflecting the petals of the Mānuka blossom.

Already the very limited of supplies True Honey Co Rare Harvest are being snapped up, with orders coming in from around the world.

UMF Honey Association spokesperson John Rawcliffe said the Mānuka Honey sample submitted by The True Honey Co had generated the highest ever recorded UMF test result since our accredited laboratories first began testing samples.

"The UMFHA testing process tests for three key signature markers that confirm whether a product is genuine Mānuka Honey from New Zealand.

"The levels of signature markers found in the True Honey Co product are exceptional and underscore the quality and intensity of Mānuka honey from New Zealand."