Reporter
leeanna.maharaj@guardian.co.tt
From the hives to the jar, honey has been part of 16-year-old Sariah Sara Maharaj’s family story. Now, she is building on her family’s beekeeping tradition with a business of her own and a new product she calls “Hot Honey”.
The former Lakshmi Girls’ Hindu College student started Sara’s Local Honey as an additional source of income for her family. More recently, she developed Hot Honey as part of a school project.
“The Hot Honey was a project for one of my CSEC subjects, Principles of Business. I had to create a cottage industry project, and I associated the honey as part of this cottage industry,” she explained.
Maharaj explained how she makes the Hot Honey.
“The taste is really different from the actual honey. It’s made of our normal honey with cayenne pepper and garlic infused. So, it is a bit thicker than the normal honey because of the additives, and it usually takes about a month to infuse,” she said.
The sweet-and-spicy combination, she said, has its appeal both on its own and as an accompaniment to food.
“I found that a lot of older people actually take a teaspoon in the mornings. It also pairs really well with wings. For my school project, I served it with wings, and it was a hit,” she said.
Maharaj said the Hot Honey has also attracted interest because of its potential health benefits.
“A lot of people may think that because it is spicy, it’s not good for you, or it may burn your stomach. But research shows it can help the stomach, and it’s actually really good for digestion,” she said.
The Sangre Grande resident said honey was not always a favourite, despite growing up around it.
“Some kids like honey because it’s sweet, but it’s not something I was really a fan of or something I was really interested in. But my dad is a beekeeper, so we always had the honey around. As I grew older, I started to like it a lot more,” she recalled.
Her father, Sunil Maharaj, has been a beekeeper for more than 15 years, extracting honey from hives on a shared family estate. Due to allergies, his wife, Savi, and Sariah are unable to join him in the apiaries.
“My dad goes into the hives and he takes all the frames with the comb, and he carries them to our extraction room, where they uncap the honey frames. Then they put them into our extractor machine and let it spin. Afterwards, they strain it from the machine and allow it to settle so we can bottle it,” she explained.
The family describes its honey as 100 per cent pure, with no added sugar.
“When it comes to honey, a lot of people have issues with it not being pure, because there is a lot of foreign honey and a lot of people who are making their own. We have our honey straight from the hive. We don’t purchase from anyone to sell at retail. It’s our very own,” she said.
Maharaj graduated this year and plans to pursue a certificate in Public Administration, followed eventually by a degree in Psychology and Counselling. However, she has no plans to stop growing the honey business.
“I mean, every time you sell a bottle of honey, it feels like an accomplishment, because that means somebody appreciates your product and is willing to give you a chance,” she said.
