9 Best Vegan Honey Brands Of 2024
When it comes to following a vegan diet, there are lots of foods to avoid such as meat, dairy, eggs, and seafood. But many vegans also choose to avoid consuming honey since it is an animal byproduct that comes from the honeybee.
One of the beautiful things about honey is that there is no one specific flavor profile. The notes that come out in honey change depending on what the bees were pollinating, which makes it unique in terms of sweeteners.
However, if you are eating a vegan diet and want to protect the bees, then there are some companies that are making delicious vegan alternatives to honey using pollen extracts, nectars, and bee-free sweeteners.
So, how do you choose the best vegan honey brand? First, you will want to decide what kind of sweetener you want as the base of your honey. Then look for companies that use nectars and pollens to get the closest possible flavor to true honey.
Read on to discover how to choose the best vegan honey brand for all your baking and sweetening needs.
How To Choose The Best Vegan Honey Brand
When it comes to choosing the best vegan honey to get that unique taste and texture for all your baking and sweetening needs, there are some things to look out for.
Check out the following buyer’s guide to help you pick the best vegan honey for your taste buds and budget.
Figure Out What Kind Of Sweetener You Want
When it comes to vegan honey brands, there are several ways that these companies attempt to mimic the unique flavor of honey.
Many of them use vegan-friendly sweeteners, nectars, and pollens to provide that delicate flavor and floral note of good-quality honey.
Some of the most popular sweetener bases for vegan honey brands include:
- Agave syrup
- Date syrup
- Tapioca fiber + sweetener
- Apple nectar + sugar
- Brown rice syrup
- Maple syrup
- Cane nectar
- Date nectar
- Coconut nectar
Some companies will blend different kinds of sweeteners to create a specific flavor, while others will use only one. Both options are great, you just have to decide what kinds of sweeteners you prefer to use in your kitchen.
You might want to look for brands that don’t include too many artificial colors or flavors, since that can impact the delicate flavor of the honey alternative.
Look For Brands That Use Pollens And Nectars
Since the distinct flavor of honey comes from the different flowers and plants that the bees pollinate, a great way to mimic the flavor in vegan honey is to use botanical extracts and plant nectars.
These will have the floral notes you want in high-quality honey.
Nectar is the sugary liquid that is secreted by plants, especially within flowers to encourage pollination. It is what the bees collect to make honey.
So by infusing their vegan honeys with plant nectars, these brands can mimic the taste and complexity of real honey.
Other companies may use pollen from plants to deepen the flavor of their vegan honey even more. These vegan honey brands are going to be the closest approximation to real honey, without involving a single bee in the process.
If you want to spend your money on a vegan honey brand, then look for the companies using pollens and nectars, since the flavors are going to stand above the rest in terms of approximating the complex taste of honey.
The 9 Best Vegan Honey Brands
Now that you know what to look for in terms of the best vegan honey brands, you can take a look at the choices below to find the one that best fits your baking and sweetening needs, taste buds, and budget.
| Rank | Product | Best Feature |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Blenditup Organic Bee Free Vegan Honey | Best overall vegan honey |
| 2. | Organic Harmless Hunny by Pyure | 100% Organic |
| 3. | Vegan Honey Company | Use alumroot as base |
| 4. | Just Like Honey Gluten-Free Rice Nectar | Gluten-free |
| 5. | The Single Origin Food Co.’s Vegan Un-Honey | Non-GMO |
| 6. | Humble Honee Bumble-Free Alternative | Uses chamomile in the recipe |
| 7. | 365 by Whole Foods Market Agave Nectar | Great agave nectar option |
| 8. | The Date Lady Award Winning Organic Date Syrup | Delicious date syrup |
| 9. | D'vash Organic Date Nectar Superfood Sugar/Honey Substitute | 25% less sugar than honey products |
1. Blenditup Organic Bee Free Vegan Honey
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This honey is one of the most popular ones on the market and is readily available online.
This company creates a complex flavor profile by combining apple nectar for floral notes, with organic cane sugar, and organic lemon juice for just a touch of acidity.
It isn’t as sweet as some of the other vegan honey brands on this list, but it has a very simple ingredient list, which is always something I look for when I’m shopping.
That allows the flavor of the apple nectar to sing and you still get that syrup-like sweetness from the cane sugar.
You can use this vegan honey exactly as you would use regular honey in any recipe. And one of the bonuses of all-vegan honey brands is that they are safe for babies to enjoy since they don’t contain any harmful bacteria.
2. Organic Harmless Hunny by Pyure
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If you want to get that distinct honey flavor without harming the bees or with too many grams of sugar, then this Harmless Hunny by Pyure is a perfect choice.
It is super high in fiber since its major ingredient is soluble tapioca fiber. All the ingredients are organic, which is a nice bonus.
To flavor their vegan “hunny”, Pyure uses natural flavors and stevia leaf extract.
My one caution with this brand is that they use caramel color and some kids can be allergic to this additive. It is also sweetened with stevia and some people don’t enjoy that flavor.
So, this vegan honey brand is good for folks who are looking to watch their sugar intake and up the amount of fiber in their diet (one tablespoon has 10 grams of fiber).
The texture is very similar to honey and you can use it any way you would in your kitchen.
If you’re keto or diabetic and want that hit of vegan honey sweetness, then the Harmless Hunny is your perfect choice.
3. Vegan Honey Company
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The Vegan Honey company is probably the most expansive line of vegan honeys on this list.
They have 15 different flavors of vegan honey listed on their website and are working on new ones every day.
I am seriously impressed with the effort they put into making vegan honey that tastes so great.
This company uses all-natural sugar and alumroot as the base for their vegan honey.
From there they process nectars and pollens from a variety of fruits, flowers, and plants to create a distinctive and delicious flavor that is so close to the real thing you’d have a hard time telling the difference.
They use only organic plants, fruits, purified water, alumroot, and raw sugar so you know you are getting a high-quality product. There are no added colors, flavors, or preservatives.
What you get with this company comes straight from the plants, no bees involved.
Their website also states that if you have a flavor for a honey that you’d like to see them make, they are open to suggestions and may be able to create a custom honey just for you.
I love all the different flavors this company offers because it gives a ton of opportunity to get creative with their products.
You can use them in fancy cocktails, drizzle them on toast, make amazing sauces, use them to sweeten your baked goods, the options are truly endless.
4. Just Like Honey Gluten-Free Rice Nectar
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This amazing vegan honey from Just Like Honey is made of a blend of brown rice nectar (for the floral notes), agave syrup, maple syrup, and vegan natural flavors.
The one thing about natural flavors is that it is an umbrella term for many compounds, so it’s uncertain what they actually are.
With that being said, this vegan honey brand created a product that has an amazing thick texture that is so close to honey you may not even be able to tell the difference.
It is very sweet, so it is the perfect choice for those who have a bit of a sweet tooth when compared to the Bee Free brand above.
This formula is hypoallergenic, gluten-free, and Kosher, which makes it great for anyone looking for a vegan honey alternative.
You can use it in place of honey in any kind of recipe from baking to beverages to drizzling over toast.
Like all vegan honey brands, this choice is safe for babies and children since it does not contain any harmful bacteria.
5. The Single Origin Food Co.’s Vegan Un-Honey
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This company is one of the most interesting on the list because it takes a sweetener from a single origin and turns it into the most complex and beautiful honey alternative that you can imagine.
All the products are certified organic, non-GMO, and 100% raw.
They have three flavors that range from a dark and rich copper to a medium-dark amber all the way to a light blonde.
Each variety is made from a single source of nectar from a specific plant to give it a unique and rich honey flavor.
The dark copper un-honey comes from date nectar that is grown right in the United States (Coachella to be exact).
It has a rich caramelly chocolate flavor and a thick, luscious texture that is akin to the most high-quality honey you could imagine.
6. Humble Honee Bumble-Free Alternative
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Humble Honee was created by a recent Florida university graduate who was looking for a great vegan honey alternative that didn’t impact the bees.
She created a blend made from cane juice, organic cane sugar, lemon juice, and chamomile.
Adding the chamomile flower flavor is a smart way to bring in the floral notes that are so important in honey.
This brand also has a little bit of a zing from the lemon and some citric acid (vitamin C, which acts as a natural preservative).
The texture of this honey is thick and rich and luxurious and it has that dark golden brown color of high-quality honey.
While it doesn’t come in any other flavors, the chamomile is a wonderfully natural way to bring in the taste of nature to a high-quality vegan honey alternative.
7. 365 by Whole Foods Market Agave Nectar
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The last three options on this list aren’t technically vegan honey brands, but they are great alternative sweeteners that you can use in place of honey in almost any recipe.
This option is organic agave nectar. It comes from the agave cactus and has a rich, caramel-like flavor that isn’t too dissimilar to honey.
Agave nectar is a popular sweetener used in many vegan restaurants and baked goods since it can be used in a one-to-one ratio without impacting flavor or texture.
8. The Date Lady Award Winning Organic Date Syrup
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The final two options on the list are both date syrups. I love date syrup because it has such a rich flavor, like a really high-quality dark honey.
It is completely vegan-friendly, has a complex flavor profile, and this brand uses only one ingredient in their syrup: dates.
9. D’vash Organic Date Nectar Superfood Sugar/Honey Substitute
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D’vash date nectar is 100% organic and free of GMOs.
It is made with 100% local dates and nothing else, so you know it is as pure as can be and that shows in the deep, rich, and complex flavor that comes from Medjool dates.
If you are watching your sugar intake, but still want a delicious vegan-friendly sweetener then date syrup is a wonderful choice.
It is a healthy vegan alternative to honey with 25% less sugar than honey products.
I mentioned above that nectars are the sweet liquid that comes from the flowering parts of plants.
This syrup is made from that nectar, which gives it that date and floral flavor. While not technically a vegan honey brand, this date nectar is still a perfect choice as a vegan sweetener.
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