Again this year, the famous competition “The best Italian honey” took place; it was held from 18 to 20 September in Castel San Pietro Terme (a small town in the province of Bologna, in Emilia Romagna).
Every year, this competition awards the best honeys with the prizes “Three golden drops”, “Two golden drops” and “One golden drop”.
In a nutshell, drops are for honeys what Michelin stars are for restaurants.
This year, almost 500 beekeepers from all over Italy took part in the competition and the jury was composed of 66 experienced experts in the field.
Over a thousand honeys competed for the awards, but only 22 of them received the prestigious “Three golden drops”, 180 received the “Two golden drops” and 243 received the “One golden drop”.
Among the winners of the most prestigious prize – the “Three golden drops” – there is the honeydew honey from the beekeeping farm “L’ape nell’orto” (literally, the bee in the vegetable garden), owned by Filippo Ragone.
This honey comes from Altamura (a small town in the province of Bari, in Puglia) and, more precisely, it is produced inside the Alta Murgia National Park.
This park is amazing, it has an area of over 680 square kilometers and, within the park, there are the Archaeological Sites of Botromagno and Padre Eterno, the Necropolis of Saint Magno and the castle Castel del monte that are definitely worth visiting.
Today, thanks to the beekeeper Filippo Ragone, people from Puglia can be proud of another local gem: the honeydew honey with the “Three golden drops”.
The competition for the best Italian honey and its “Three golden drops” prize
The most important competition for Italian beekeeping farms was created in 1981, under the patronage of the National Honey Monitoring Scheme.
This competition is known as “Competition for the Three golden drops – The best Italian honey” and this year marked its 46th edition. To date, honeys can compete in 6 categories:
- Slow honeys
- Organic honeys/span>
- Wildflower honeys
- The best honey in Abruzzo
- The best honey in Puglia
- The best honey in Sicily
Honeys are judged by experts in the field, who carefully analyse them to evaluate their properties and characteristics and, of course, their taste. The competition has been created to support, train and inform the Italian beekeeping farms, with the aim of making Made in Italy a prestigious and competitive brand also in the beekeeping sector.Moreover, the best Italian honeys should stand out among the other high-quality honeys worldwide… that’s the most important goal of the competition!
