Honey is one of the most incredibly versatile products Mother Nature has to offer. When we think of honey, its amazing medical benefits come to mind immediately. Mad honey is an amped-up version of regular honey. Extracted from the rhododendron flower, mad honey has hallucinogenic properties. This is why it’s also known as hallucinogenic honey.
MadHoney commercializes the original mad honey, extracted by the Gurung tribes of Nepal. They provide the customers with the authentic experience of Nepal mad honey taking honey hunting traditions seriously. Mad Honey is the venture that are dedicated to keeping the tradition alive while supplying the best product on the market.
We interviewed Mr. Sanjay Kafle, Founder at Best MadHoney and he gave us some insights regarding his startup.
1. Describe briefly about the venture? What is the story behind its initiation?
Best Madhoney is a company under Mitho Masino foods, it’s a brand. We generally extract the cliffs, honey, through expedition and honey hunting. We go on an expedition in the month of Baishak, Jestha and Ashar. We bring honey to Kathmandu, store it, package it and then and sell it. It’s established on 2019, but as a company, it’s been 3 months registered.
The honey are extracted on the slopes of the Himalayan Mountains from wild bee’s hives and this whole process takes place at an altitude of 3000 meters. Mad Honey is a pure honey product without harmful additives, carcinogens, and other foreign substances offering a natural taste.
I love travelling and I completed my undergraduate study from Lamjung district, central west Nepal. There was a honey hunting expedition going to take place and my peers were so interested in it. I also agreed on joining them in a honey hunting expedition, and that was a great adventure to unleash ourselves. I also went there to bring some pure honey. The place we travelled was 2000m in Tanje village of the district. There were many honey hunters in that village and we stayed with them. During that time, I wrote many blogs and shot pictures, later on, posted through my social media accounts also gave it to newspaper publication. I even brought some honey back home and then I wanted to know the curiosity of the people about mad Honey. So, I posted the picture of honey I got from Lamjung and asked if anyone is interested to taste it? I was shocked to see the demand of people. I got to know that pure mad Honey was less accessible to the people and to make it more accessible, I started this business.
2. What is the legal status of your company’s development? What is success?
It’s been 3 months since Best Mad Honey is registered as a company. We are working as a team to supply pure honey to our valued customers and we are yet to embark a long journey towards success. I don’t know how we can measure success but for me, Success is the journey we have been to and trust me it’s amazing. The honey that we supply has health benefits, nutritional benefits and that way I am serving the people. Sometimes I get a call from elderly people and they bless me with their prayers mentioning the honey we supplied actually improved their joint pains and so on. This is the motivation we get to do well in our work.
3. What are the features of Best Mad Honey?
Mad honey is the mountain honey. Dark in colour, ranging from deep amber to an almost glassy black with yellowish hues, it has a bold aromatic profile and an equally complex mysterious flavour. The flavour is very unique and very sweet. Its flavour is complex, very mild sweetness and Tangy with spicy undertones followed by a slightly bitter aftertaste. It matches Excellent with aged cheeses and with fine yoghurts. The serving size is 1 Tbsp. (21 gm).This Honey should not be taken under the age of 18. It shouldn’t be given to children and Honey should be stored in a safe place, out of the reach of children, and clearly labelled as Mad Honey. People could easily confuse this product with normal honey and get poisoned by eating too much.
4. How many employees are working in your team?
We have our 3 friends working on the ground level for expedition and managing logistics, honey hunting and so on. And here we have a team of 2 people working to distribute honey, packaging things and I am basically working to overlook all the staffs.
5. What are the challenges you faced with your startups?
The challenges faced is actually an adventure. There are a lot of challenges but I see them as a part of my journey. First of all, the idea of bringing Mad Honey accessible to the public is itself life-threatening. We need to climb higher cliffs, expedition process, and honey hunters devoting their life, climbing the hills through ropes, just to extract honey. It’s way too risky. I have also survived in this adventure. However, it’s a work we are doing although it’s challenging.
If I have to name the other challenge, sometimes we need to deal with loss, led by the damage of the honey jars because of the rupture as our porters need to carry honey from high altitude. Likewise, we need to go through a number of legal permissions before honey hunting as honey is the forest product. In addition to this, highly poor accessibility to the international market is also one challenge while exporting honey and bringing honey jars.
But challenges has been an amazing factor of my life, and also the venture as I have been able to see the different horizon and plan the work with focus, concentration and creativity. As a whole, I am loving this journey.
6. What are your future plans?
I want to take this product globally. I want to map this product in the global food system. I have completed my bachelor’s degree in Agriculture and coming from an Agricultural background, I have seen a lot of potential in Agriculture in our country. Although we have the potential, we have majorly failed to bring our local products in the market and bring money from outside.
Therefore, I want to take this product into the international market, because it is rare and unique, you can’t find it everywhere. I want to brand this product accordingly and take it to the global market so that people can be benefitted with it. That’s my future plan.
Website Link: https://www.bestmadhoney.com/?fbclid=IwAR170Uilz0XrrgEJdpaIuKTfwvSdJxB5w7AV9OZ823Y8fOUajXL-tKZMSiw
Picture Credit: Mr.Sanjay Kafle ©
