Enredadera · Mesquite Honey in Hand-Painted Ceramic · Edition of 700

The last time a honey like this will exist.

Seven hundred numbered vessels. Each one unique. Each painted by hand by the women of Santa María Canchesdá, in the State of Mexico. Each one holds monofloral mesquite honey, harvested by beekeepers in Jalisco from a single bloom of a tree native to the Mexican semi-desert.

When the 700 are gone, the mold is retired. This piece will not be made again.

The honey

Mesquite honey. Soft on the palate, with a restrained sweetness that never cloys. Pale, almost golden. Not supermarket honey: one origin, one bloom. Raw, never pasteurized. It may crystallize in the cold, which is the proof that nobody heated it.

The vessel

Hexagonal ceramic, made and painted by hand in Santa María Canchesdá. Every artisan paints freehand, without a stencil. No two are alike. When the honey is gone the vessel stays. It was made for that.

Your number

Each piece is engraved with its own, 1 through 700. The one you receive is yours and will not exist again. We don't choose it and neither do you. It comes as it comes, which is part of the point.

The origin

Bought directly from beekeepers in Jalisco and artisans in the State of Mexico, at prices agreed with them. No middlemen. No factories.

The card

Included, and written by hand with whatever message you give us at checkout. Specific beats general: a date, a line only the two of you understand. Generic gets forgotten.

Why it turns pale and thick

It crystallizes. All raw honey does, and mesquite faster than most because of its glucose ratio. Sometimes overnight. It turns pale and spreadable, with the texture of butter.

It has not gone bad. It is the evidence that nobody heated it. If you want it liquid again, set the vessel in warm water, never boiling, and wait.

How to use it

Its low sweetness makes it useful where other honeys flatten a plate. Over goat cheese, or a blue. In a light roast coffee, where it doesn't bury the acidity. On sourdough with salted butter. In plain yogurt. In a spirit over ice with lime.

Sealed and out of the sun it keeps for years. Don't refrigerate it: that only speeds up crystallization.

What happens to the vessel

That is where its second life begins, and the reason it is hexagonal and airtight instead of an ordinary jar. Wash it in warm water with mild soap. No dishwasher, no abrasives: the painting is freehand and carries no industrial varnish.

Then keep whatever you like in it. Coarse salt, ground coffee, earrings, paper clips. Most people who receive one end up leaving it in plain sight, which is exactly the point. A gift you eat is over; this one stays in the house, remembering who sent it.

Shipping

Ships from our warehouse in McAllen, Texas, to addresses across the United States. The package carries no prices and no visible invoice, so it can go straight to the door of whoever receives it.

If anything arrives damaged, we replace the piece. No questions.

Product information

• Ingredients: Honey.
• Product of Mexico. Distributed by Fantina, McAllen, TX.
• Store at room temperature, away from direct sunlight.
• Warning: do not feed honey to infants under one year of age.