Aptos, California — small batch, slow honey

Slow honey
from a fast coast.

Two hives behind the garage, one smoker with a bad hinge, and whatever the coastal scrub gives us that season. We bottle when it’s ready, not when it’s due.

Unfiltered & raw Pour by hand, 40 jars at a time Rain or shine at the Saturday market
Benson, the company bee, riding a wave along the Aptos coast at sunset
The mark, revealed

The line-up

This season’s bottles

Small runs. When a hive finishes early, the jar goes early.

A bee landing its board on the lid of a ribboned Benson's Bees gift jar
Gift jars · ribbon included, bee free

Coastal Wildflower

In the cooler

$16

Spring bloom from the dunes past the fairgrounds. Light, faintly green, finishes clean.

12 oz · raw & unfiltered

Black Sage

Almost gone

$19

Late summer off the hills above Seabright. Small yield, dark pour, smells like the ridge after rain.

12 oz · raw & unfiltered

Comb in Honey

Cut this week

$22

A chunk of fresh comb floating in wildflower. Cut by hand. Best eaten straight from the jar, no judgment.

10 oz · raw & unfiltered

The company

Meet the staff.

There is one employee. He is rotund, unhurried, and knows exactly where the good clover is. The garage, the smoker, and the labels are ours — the actual product is his.

No salary. No benefits. All clover.

  • Coast-adapted. The hives sit a half mile from the water, so the bees work the scrub between the surf spots. It shows in the jar.
  • Single-origin, by sidewalk. Every batch traces back to one hillside and one season. The label says which.
  • Nothing done to it. Strained, never heated past hive temperature, never blended with anything that isn’t our own honey.
Benson carving hard into a turn off the red Aptos cliffs, sun low behind the wave
Benson, on shift

On the word “artisanal”

“We don’t do journeys. We do good ground, patient bees, and a jar you can trace back to a hillside.”
Eric Benson — pours the jars, sweeps the garage, feeds the bee

Where to find us

Come taste before you commit.

Same teal surfboard on the table every week. Yes, you can lick the spoon.

  • Saturday mornings

    Aptos Ko Hala Center market8am–noon · rain holds the line, shine sells out early

    the full cooler

  • Wednesday afternoons

    Capitola Civic Center market2pm–6pm · two blocks off the bridge

    wildflower + comb only

  • First Sunday, monthly

    The garage on Soquel Drivename-brand open house · jars, jars, and more jars

    bring a mug for the mead sample… kidding

Benson riding a teal surfboard across the sand
Yes — that’s the board on our table
← Handover package