Kiwot honey is the Filipino ingredient you’ve never heard of—Kaya Kusina is here to change that

Walk us through what the “kiwot” or “stingless bee” actually is.

Val Anthony Alvero: “Kiwot” is the Tagalog word for stingless bee. It’s actually one of many terms depending on the region. The species that we primarily focus on is called Tetragonula biroi, an endemic species traditionally used mainly as a pollinator to increase yields of native fruits like mangoes and coconuts. Honey was simply a byproduct, which is why you do not see it widely used in Filipino cuisine, despite the first recorded domestication of stingless bees in the Philippines happening almost a hundred years ago.

Jessica Hernandez: The honey dominating the global market comes from Apis mellifera, or the European honey bee. That’s because it’s the most docile bee species, the easiest to domesticate and highly productive. Due to their foraging habits, these bees are favoured to produce monofloral honey. Kiwot foraging is primarily multifloral due to the lush biodiversity in the Philippines, meaning they gather nectar from a variety of plants and flowers. 

What are the medicinal properties of kiwot honey, and how do they compare to mānuka honey?

Both: Kiwot honey has a lot of the compounds that make mānuka honey great. Where manuka honey excels is in its standardisation, guaranteeing certain properties for medicinal use. Since stingless bees are multifloral foragers, foraging on dozens of plants, there is a lot more natural variance. This doesn’t make it any less healthy, and in some ways makes it even more robust in its health benefits, but it does mean it’s a bit harder to generalise certain health claims.

One main advantage is that almost all stingless bee honey from the hive is probiotic, making it good for gut health in ways that traditional honey and mānuka are not. We’d urge anyone to look at the work being done by the UP Los Banos Bee Program led by Dr Cleofas R Cervancia if they want to learn more, as they are world-class experts on these topics.

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How do farmers benefit from stingless bees and their honey?

Both: Farming and beekeeping go hand in hand—the beekeepers we work with are all mainly farmers or agriculturists first, but they realised that raising bees on their land increases crop yield and productivity. The bees already add value simply by being on the farm. Harvesting honey, pollen and propolis just provides additional revenue on top of that.

Kiwot has this signature sweet-sour complexity that sets it apart from commercial honey. How do you describe the flavour to someone who’s never tried it—and why should chefs and bartenders consider adding it to their pantries?

VAA: I would describe the flavour as milder in sweetness than traditional honey, with a distinct tang and varying complexity depending on the foraging sources and region. And with how our kiwot honeys change over time through fermentation and ageing, that first taste is really just the starting point. The longer we work with kiwot honey ourselves and with other chefs and bartenders, the more we see how versatile it is. Some age to become umami-forward, like soy sauce or Modena vinegar. Others start fruity and develop fermented complexity and sourness. Others are quite herbal.

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Why is kiwot honey still so underappreciated?

Both: The biggest problem with stingless honey is volume. Stingless bees produce roughly 20 to 40 times less honey per colony than traditional honey bees, so achieving scale is difficult. But it’s actually not impossible to address this, as the bees thrive practically anywhere in the Philippines where there is an abundance of foraging sources, especially native plants.

The problem compounds with awareness. In areas where people know about stingless honey and its benefits, demand outstrips supply, leaving little for newcomers. In areas without awareness, the practice dies from a lack of demand, making it impossible to grow the volume needed to supply future buyers. This is especially true for kiwot honey in the Philippines, where many farmers we talk to are either sold out or not harvesting honey at all; some have even given up.

Tell us about the honeys in your current portfolio. How do you guide someone through tasting them for the first time?

Both: We often start by telling people to “take what they know about honey and leave it at the door.” When we started, we talked about our kiwot honey based on the province it came from. Now our catalogue has grown so much that we separate some honeys by barangay, given how dramatically the flavour profile can vary. Beyond that, it is the foraging sources that physically shape the honey’s traits, so each colony has its own unique personality. This leads to radical differences even between hives right next to each other. We compare it to wines from a single vineyard—like how grapes can vary drastically depending on whether it’s on a west-facing slope or if it’s battered by winds; the same goes for kiwot honey.

Our catalogue is designed to reflect that variance across regions, while also highlighting interesting applications like ageing, fermentation and infusions.

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Kiwot honey fits naturally into the Slow Food conversation. Why is it important that we promote and conserve kiwot honey, and what structural changes would help the cause?

JH: Stingless bees have supported tropical ecosystems, yet they remain largely absent from global conversations about food and agriculture. Across Southeast Asia, native stingless bees face increasing pressure from habitat loss, agricultural intensification, pesticide use (chemical pesticides are lethal to kiwot) and the dominance of the European honeybee in commercial honey production. As markets become standardised around a single species and a single idea of what honey should taste like, the diversity of native bee species, local honeys and traditional beekeeping practices risks being overlooked. Conserving kiwot honey means conserving the ecosystems, livelihoods and cultural heritage that make its production possible. 

Structural change begins with recognising stingless bee honey as a distinct, terroir-driven ingredient rather than simply an alternative to conventional honey.

The food and beverage sector can play a significant role by featuring stingless bee honey in restaurants, tastings and educational programmes that celebrate its unique sensory qualities and regional identities. Agriculture and environmental policy can further support native pollinators by protecting natural habitats, encouraging organic farming practices and investing in research on Southeast Asia’s native stingless bee species.

Ultimately, promoting kiwot honey is not simply about preserving a unique ingredient. It’s about demonstrating that biodiversity has value at the table. By choosing these honeys, we help create resilient food systems, protect our forests and local knowledge of native flora and celebrate the extraordinary diversity of the Philippines and the Global South.

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