Rosh Hashanah is a holiday of beginnings, and the honey on the table is meant to feel like one: familiar, generous, and worth sharing.
At our farm in Chiriquí, we keep around twenty honeys at any one time and as many as thirty-five across a full season. They are not interchangeable. Some are floral and traditional, some are thick and buttery, and some carry the unmistakable character of the place and moment where they were made.
If you are choosing honey for Rosh Hashanah in Panama, the best option depends on the kind of table you want to set. Here is what each group is like, who it suits, and how to get it to Panama City in time.
Rosh Hashanah 2026 begins at sundown on Friday, September 11, and ends at nightfall on Sunday, September 13. The first festive meal is Friday evening.
Rosh Hashanah 2027 begins at sundown on Friday, October 1, 2027, and ends at nightfall on Sunday, October 3, 2027, marking the start of the Hebrew year 5788.
Rosh Hashanah 2028 begins at sundown on Wednesday, September 20, 2028, and ends at nightfall on Friday, September 22, 2028
Rosh Hashanah 2029 begins at sundown on Sunday, September 9, 2029, and ends at nightfall on Tuesday, September 11, 2029, marking the start of the Hebrew year 5790
Rosh Hashanah in 2030 (Hebrew Year 5791) begins at sundown on Friday, September 27, 2030, and ends at nightfall on Sunday, September 29, 2030.
For a traditional table, choose a middle-elevation floral honey or the Premium Gourmet Honey. The first tastes like the honey people expect; the second feels more deliberate and gift-worthy.
If you want the jar to start a conversation, choose a single-harvest honey, especially the smoky batch. If you are bringing several jars, combine a classic honey with an infusion or a small specialty jar so people can taste the difference between them.
There is no ranking here. The right jar depends on whether you want tradition, a strong sense of place, a pairing for food, or a gift people will remember.
Our traditional honeys come from Africanised bees and are multifloral rather than single-origin. The bees work with whatever is in flower, so the flavor reflects the season and the landscape instead of one crop alone.
The most noticeable difference comes from elevation. Our hives are spread across Chiriquí, and the pattern is consistent.
If you want the honey to taste like the way people remember honey tasting, choose a middle-elevation floral jar. It is familiar without being ordinary, and it works equally well with apples, bread, cheese, or a spoon passed around the table.
Available sizes:
There is one traditional honey we keep apart from the rest because it suits an occasion table particularly well: Premium Gourmet Honey, available in a 23.5 oz jar for $25.
It is thick and deep yellow, with a creamy rather than runny texture and a buttery finish. This is the jar to choose when the honey will be placed in the middle of the table, passed around, and noticed rather than used only as a quiet ingredient in the kitchen.
Best for:
Single-harvest honey is the small variation on the tradition. It comes from one harvest, one place, and one moment, so it gives the person opening the jar a clearer sense of where it came from.
One batch is called smoky. It is not flavored. A forest fire burned near the hives in mid-2024, and the bees later carried the smoke into the honey. Deliberately smoking a hive ruins the honey, so this is not something made on purpose. It happened once, and it is unlikely to happen the same way again.
The smoky honey is 19.4 oz, or 550 g, and costs $20.
Best for:
Serve it with something simple. The point is to notice the honey itself rather than burying it under a complicated recipe.
Our infusions contain honey plus one or more natural, delicious ingredients, and nothing else. There is no sugar and no preservative. Honey preserves itself; the added ingredients are selected for their flavor and traditional health associations, as well as the pleasure they bring to the tasting.
The range changes with the season, but it can include cinnamon, orange, lemon zest, roses, cocoa, cacao and chile, ginger, turmeric, coffee, chamomile, lavender, ancho chili, jalapeño, and hot peppers.
Cinnamon and honey are an especially natural pairing for this time of year. Lemon honey brings a bright citrus note, while lavender is the flavor that surprises visitors who think they already know what honey can taste like. Some customers also value these ingredients for their traditional wellness associations, but the honeys are made to be enjoyed for their flavor first.
Small infusion jars are 7.5 oz for $12. Ginger, ancho chili, hot pepper, and jalapeño are also available in 23.5 oz bottles priced from $18 to $20.
Stingless bees produce only about a litre per hive every year or two, compared with around fifty-odd litres from a regular hive. That is why stingless bee honey comes in 10 ml jars and costs $10.
The honey is lighter and more acidic than most visitors expect. In Panama, it also carries a history: people in the region have used it medicinally for generations, and its production connects to native communities.
The small size is part of the meaning. This is not a jar to buy because it is large or economical. It is a specialty to try because it is rare, local, and made in a very different way from conventional honey.
Best for:
Creamed honey is whipped until it becomes pale and spreadable. The process changes the texture without adding anything, so the result is better on toast than in a spoon or a cup of tea.
A 7.5 oz jar costs $10.
For a gift, provenance matters as much as presentation. A jar of Chiriquí honey with its elevation and harvest information on the label gives the recipient something to taste and something to ask about.
The Butterfly Bottle is one of our most distinctive gifts: a 28 oz premium honey bottle priced at $25 and presented in a beautiful butterfly bottle. It turns the honey itself into part of the celebration—generous, elegant, and memorable on a holiday table. It arrives ready to give, without needing elaborate packaging.
For a gift that invites tasting and discovery, we also offer a 12 × 45 ml honey gift box. The collection gives the recipient twelve small jars to explore, compare, and share, making it a thoughtful way to present the variety of Chiriquí honey in one beautiful box.
Two infusions also carry a story worth repeating when you hand them over. The cocoa and cacao-with-chile honeys use Panamanian cacao harvested by women of the Ngäbe-Buglé community. The coffee infusion is made with coffee we grow ourselves, in a way that keeps the bees working through it.
If you need gift wrapping or special boxing, ask before ordering. It is not listed as a standard gift-set option, but the shop can confirm what is possible for your order.
We are in Boquete, about seven hours by road from Panama City. If you are ordering for Panama City, you can first support Chabad Boquete, who send our kosher honeys and infusions to the city.
If you are in Boquete, come and browse the Honey Emporium at our farm, then enjoy the butterflies at the same time. If you are ordering for another location, use our online shop and we can ship through local carriers. It is an easy way to choose your honey in person when you are nearby, or arrange delivery when you are elsewhere in Panama.
Shipping starts at $6 anywhere in the country, regardless of how much you order. That makes a box of several jars more practical than ordering one at a time. The source article’ s current shop examples show the same $6 starting rate for one jar and six jars, but confirm the final amount at checkout before publishing or ordering.
Delivery generally takes one to two working days, depending on the carrier. Working days matter, so a weekend should be treated as additional time rather than assumed delivery time.
For a Rosh Hashanah table, order early enough to allow for the carrier’ s schedule. If timing is important, message us on WhatsApp before anything is sent so we can confirm the carrier and expected delivery date.
Typical ordering steps:
For a traditional table, choose the middle-elevation floral honey or the Premium Gourmet Honey. The traditional jar is balanced and familiar; the Premium Gourmet is thicker, deeper in color, and more buttery.
If you would rather bring something that nobody else at the table has tasted, choose the smoky single-harvest honey.
Yes. All of our honeys and infusions are kosher, including the traditional honeys, specialty honeys, and infused varieties.
The traditional honeys and the single-harvest honey are listed as raw in the shop. Check the product listing for the specific jar you are ordering, especially when buying an infusion or specialty product.
Yes. Crystallization is one of the normal things real honey does. Over time, glucose can settle out and form crystals, which does not mean the honey has gone bad.
To return it to a more fluid texture, stand the jar in warm water and give it time. Avoid overheating it.
Yes. Multiple jars are practical for this time of year, particularly because shipping is based on a flat starting rate rather than multiplied in a simple one-jar-at-a-time way. Confirm the final shipping cost at checkout.
For a varied gift, pair a traditional honey with an infusion, creamed honey, or the small stingless bee honey.
The online shop covers Panama. For delivery outside the country, write to us and we will look at the request case by case.
Yes. If you are in Boquete, you can browse the Honey Emporium at our farm, enjoy the butterflies, and taste before choosing. The honey tasting runs for one hour, costs $15 per person, and covers twenty-odd honeys. It is a useful way to decide what to bring when you want the choice to be based on taste rather than a label alone.
