 | |
| Inventor | Katie Sanchez |
|---|---|
| Inception | 2012 [1] |
| Website | beefreehonee |
Bee Free Honee was an apple-based vegan alternative to honey that achieved recognition and funding from Shark Tank . [2] Produced from apples, lemon juice, and cane sugar, it could be used as a replacement for honey in recipes. [3] The product could be consumed by young children [4] and by people with an allergy to honey. [5] In 2019, the company went out of business. [6]
The product was accidentally developed in 1999 by Katie Sanchez while she was making apple jelly. [7] The company was established in 2012, [1] with a production facility in River Falls, Wisconsin. [8] After being featured on Shark Tank in February 2016, [2] sales quadrupled and the company moved production from Wisconsin to Texas. [1]
Company co-owner Melissa Elms claimed that by not using bees for production, the product was beneficial to honeybee populations, which she said were often exposed to unsuitable environments in commercial production. [9]
The main ingredients in Bee Free Honee were apple juice, cane sugar, and lemon juice. [4] Flavored variations included ancho chile, mint, and slippery elm. [4] The products were most often sold in stores that specialize in organic/natural foods, including H-E-B, Sprouts Farmers Market, Vitamin Cottage Natural Grocers, Wegmans, and Whole Foods Market. [1] [9]
Bee Free Honee was featured at the Specialty Food Association's Summer Fancy Food Show in 2016 [10] and Winter Fancy Food Show in January 2017. [11]
Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants or the secretions of other insects, like the honeydew of aphids. This refinement takes place both within individual bees, through regurgitation and enzymatic activity, and during storage in the hive, through water evaporation that concentrates the honey's sugars until it is thick and viscous.
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double sugars, are molecules made of two bonded monosaccharides; common examples are sucrose, lactose, and maltose. White sugar is a refined form of sucrose. In the body, compound sugars are hydrolysed into simple sugars.
Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains from 5% to 18% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to ethanol using yeast and ethanol to acetic acid using acetic acid bacteria. Many types of vinegar are made, depending on source materials. The product is now mainly used in the culinary arts as a flavorful, acidic cooking ingredient or in pickling. Various types are used as condiments or garnishes, including balsamic vinegar and malt vinegar.
Molasses is a viscous byproduct, principally obtained from the refining of sugarcane or sugar beet juice into sugar. Molasses varies in the amount of sugar, the method of extraction and age of the plant. Sugarcane molasses is usually used to sweeten and flavour foods. Molasses is a major constituent of fine commercial brown sugar.
Muesli is a cold Swiss breakfast dish, the primary ingredient of which is rolled oats. Traditionally, it is set to soak overnight and eaten the next morning. Additional ingredients, such as grains, nuts, seeds, and fresh or dried fruits are sometimes added, along with milk or cream, a small amount of citrus juice, and honey to add sweetness. Yoghurt, other milk products, or milk substitutes are now commonly added to both homemade and commercially packaged muesli recipes.
Lemonade is a sweetened lemon-flavored drink.
Minute Maid is an American product line of beverages, usually associated with lemonade or orange juice, but which now extends to soft drinks of different kinds, including Hi-C. Minute Maid is sold under the Cappy brand in Central Europe and under the brand "Моя Семья" in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Minute Maid was the first company to market frozen orange juice concentrate, allowing it to be distributed throughout the United States and served year-round. The Minute Maid Company is owned by The Coca-Cola Company, the world's largest marketer of fruit juices and drinks. The firm opened its headquarters in Sugar Land Town Square in Sugar Land, Texas, United States, on February 16, 2009; previously it was headquartered in the 2000 St. James Place building in Houston.
Starburst is the brand name of a box-shaped, fruit-flavoured soft taffy candy manufactured by The Wrigley Company, which is a subsidiary of Mars, Incorporated. Starburst has many different varieties, such as Tropical, Sour, FaveREDs, Watermelon, Very Berry, Superfruit, Summer Blast and Original.
Apple butter is a highly concentrated form of apple sauce produced by long, slow cooking of apples with apple juice or water to a point where the sugar in the apples caramelizes, turning the apple butter a deep brown. The concentration of sugar gives apple butter a much longer shelf life as a preserve than apple sauce.
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), also known as glucose–fructose, isoglucose and glucose–fructose syrup, is a sweetener made from corn starch. As in the production of conventional corn syrup, the starch is broken down into glucose by enzymes. To make HFCS, the corn syrup is further processed by D-xylose isomerase to convert some of its glucose into fructose. HFCS was first marketed in the early 1970s by the Clinton Corn Processing Company, together with the Japanese Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, where the enzyme was discovered in 1965.
Monster Beverage Corporation is an American beverage company that manufactures energy drinks including Monster Energy, Relentless, Reign and Burn. The company was originally founded as Hansen's in 1935 in Southern California, originally selling juice products. The company renamed itself as Monster Beverage in 2012.
Sugarcane juice is the liquid extracted from pressed sugarcane. It is consumed as a beverage in many places, especially where sugarcane is commercially grown, such as Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, North Africa, mainly Egypt, and also in South America. Sugarcane juice is obtained by crushing peeled sugar cane in a mill and is one of the main precursors of rum.
The lemon is a species of small evergreen tree in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar, and China.
Ginger tea is a herbal beverage that is made from ginger root. It has a long history as a traditional herbal medicine in East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and West Asia.
Sharbat is a drink prepared from fruit or flower petals. It is a sweet cordial, and usually served chilled. It can be served in concentrated form and eaten with a spoon or diluted with water to create the drink.
A bees knees is a Prohibition era cocktail made with gin, fresh lemon juice, and honey. It is served shaken and chilled, often with a lemon twist.
An entrepreneur from Philadelphia hopes the Sharks don't take a bite out of him while pitching a smart plate containing food-recognition technology that could solve all your dieting problems; two energetic women from Minneapolis, MN and Waco, TX have created a sweetener that tastes just like honey, but not made by bees.
Media related to Bee Free Honee at Wikimedia Commons