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We start with exceptional NZ honey
Sourced from local apiarists who get a fair price. New Zealand produces some of the best honey in the world — that's the foundation everything else is built on.
Live brand
NZ's original hot honey.
Chilli-infused, honey-based sauces made in Auckland from locally sourced NZ honey. No refined sugar. No additives. Just the perfect mix of sweet and heat.
Why we built it
NZ produces world-class honey. Most of it ends up on toast.
It started with a lockdown and a failed business idea we'd rather not talk about.
We're an Auckland-based duo — big on enthusiasm, short on food industry experience. The kind of people who watch too many food documentaries and think "how hard can it be?" As it turns out: quite hard. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.
Somewhere between watching international food trends and staring at New Zealand's world-class honey, a question nagged at us. Why hadn't anyone made a honey-based hot sauce here? We produce some of the best honey on the planet. The heat trend was everywhere. The gap seemed obvious.
We soon found out why the gap existed. The balance between heat and sweetness is unforgiving. Get it wrong and you've got something nobody wants on their food. We tested nine chilli varieties. We inflicted months of trials on patient friends, long-suffering family and unsuspecting barbecue guests. Slowly, we found the mix.
Six months in, we took a leap of faith — a full factory production run with exactly one wholesale order to fill. We genuinely didn't know how long it would take to move the stock. We believed in the product and hoped someone else would too.
They did. People who knew far more about food than we did believed in it. We were back in the factory a few months later. Sweet Sting OG had found its people.
From that one bottle, we started thinking bigger. And somewhere along the way we found the real purpose underneath it all: New Zealand produces extraordinary honey, and most of it ends up on toast. We're here to change that.
What it is
A honey-based sauce range with a genuine point of view.
Sweet Sting started with one product — OG, the original hot honey — and grew into a range of condiments that share the same philosophy: start with exceptional NZ honey, add something interesting, and skip everything unnecessary.
Goes on pizza, cheese boards, BBQs, sandwiches, chicken wings, marinades — anything that wants a bit of sweet heat.
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Local NZ honeyEvery bottle starts with honey sourced from New Zealand apiarists. We pay fair prices for exceptional produce.
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Nine chillies testedMonths of trials across nine varieties to find the perfect heat-to-flavour balance. Not a shortcut in sight.
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Made in AucklandSmall batch, locally produced. We know exactly where every ingredient comes from.
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Nothing it doesn't needNo refined sugar, no artificial additives, no preservatives. Honey handles all of that on its own.
The mission
Make honey more interesting. Keep it honest.
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We tested nine chilli varieties
Months of trial and error to find the exact mix of heat and flavour. Not too aggressive, not too subtle. The balance that makes you reach for it again.
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Small batch, made in Auckland
Every bottle is produced locally. We know where the ingredients come from and we keep it that way.
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No additives needed
Honey is the preservative, the sweetener and the star. No refined sugar, no artificial additives, no preservatives — honey just doesn't need them.
Who it's for
Anyone who thinks food should be more interesting.
Sweet Sting is for people who cook with curiosity. Who pick up a sauce because it sounds interesting and put it on things the label didn't suggest. Pizza, wings, cheese, stir-fries, straight off the spoon — we've heard it all and we're not judging.
It's also for people who care about what's actually in the bottle — and want to support NZ producers while they're at it.
Where to find it
Online, and in stockists across NZ, Australia and the United States.
Order direct from sweetsting.co.nz or find Sweet Sting at stockists around New Zealand, Australia and the United States. If you're a retailer or distributor, we'd love to talk.