Countless new made with honey bakery foods, snacks and non-alcoholic beverages have hit supermarket shelves in the last year, and the National Honey Board recognized the top ones through its Queen’s Choice Awards. Given to food and beverage manufacturers that use honey to formulate and market a product, the Queen’s Choice Awards were conceived to recognize exceptional uses of honey as an all-natural flavor, sweetener and functional ingredient.
“From mushroom jerky to sparkling honey water, we’ve seen some incredible products that use honey developed in the last 12 months,” Catherine Barry, National Honey Board’s director of marketing, says. “By recognizing some of these products through our Queen’s Choice Award, we’re able to show appreciation to food and beverage manufacturers that choose honey and use it as a flavor, functional ingredient and marketing benefit.”
The Queen’s Choice Awards were handed out in baking and snack, and non-alcoholic beverage categories. The winners are:
Baking & Snack Categories
Packaging / Design: Organic RealBar
Snack: Supernola – Honey Sweet Goji, EVOLVE Brands
Bar: KIND Kids Chewy Honey Oat, KIND Snacks
Sweet Good: Raspberry Cocoa Brownie, Base Culture
Bread: Simply Small Honey Oat, Bimbo Bakeries USA
Cereal: Kashi by Kids Honey Cinnamon, Kashi
Beverage Categories
Packaging / Design: Blume Honey Water
RTD Tea / Juice: Watermelon Lime, Ocean’s Halo
Carbonated Drinks: Bimble Stress-Free Sparkling Drink
Functional Drink: Ginger Soother, The Ginger People
Energy, Sports and RTD Coffee: Toasted Honey Nut Vanilla, Big Watt
The National Honey Board (NHB) is an industry-funded agriculture promotion group that works to educate consumers about the benefits and uses for honey and honey products through research, marketing and promotional programs. The Board’s work, funded by an assessment on domestic and imported honey, is designed to increase the awareness and usage of honey by consumers, the foodservice industry and food manufacturers. The ten-member-Board, appointed by the US Secretary of Agriculture, represents producers (beekeepers), packers, importers and a marketing cooperative.
