The elegant honey brand Truth Honey was founded in Fairburn, Georgia in 2017 by Dior and her brother Reggie due to the limited number of urban beekeepers, a desire to bring more flavor and variation into honey-based products, and to educate their local community about agriculture and the enduring benefits of bees.
As their company began to flourish and gained recognition, Truth Honey’s mission to provide knowledge about agriculture, sustainability, and entrepreneurship has become even more impactful. Featuring a certified curriculum available for students of all ages, their non-profit Honey Bee program allows for scholars to receive the necessary education about why bees are vital to our ecosystem. Because of their philanthropic work, Truth Honey was also honored with the Blue-Ribbon Award by Fulton County for demonstrating excellence and creating change in the community.
Along with their laudable non-profit efforts, Truth Honey offers a wide range of delectable and all-natural honey products. With hand-crafted signature flavors such as turmeric, lemon ginger, bourbon, coffee, peppermint, and more, Dior and Reggie are revealing how versatile honey can truly be. Other crowd pleasing favorites include the honey liqueurs which are infused with palatable spices and fruits, and the Wellness Honey & Pure Stamina line that was created for optimal health.
After forming a lasting impression at the 2022 Peachtree Village International Film Festival with festival goers who delighted in Truth Honey’s luscious and unique product line, Dior spoke with JARO about the specific health advantages of the Wellness Honey, being a Black woman beekeeper in a male-dominated space, the gratifying entrepreneurial journey, and more.
Your honeys are delicious and rich with flavor. What is the process behind creating the perfect batch of honey?
We get a lot of questions about how we make our honey, and I always say that it’s hand-crafted with love, because that’s really what it is. Our goal was to change the way that consumers view and purchase honey. When you come to our table, I wanted to create this atmosphere with an experience leaving you with a lasting impression while at the same time saying “This is the Truth Honey. So that’s really how we create it. It’s really made with love. Everything we craft our goal is for our consumers to say it’s an experience in their mouth when they taste the honey.
Your Wellness Honey drinks in particular seem to have incredible health benefits. Can you share your own journey towards creating them and how drinking them has impacted your own health?
My brother and I created the The Wellness Honey drinks because I actually had a car accident and I needed energy, I needed to stabilize my blood pressure and cholesterol. I also was just going through a lot of stages in my life. My brother created a drink that had all the great benefits and at the same time it was so tart and nasty; I was like, “Nobody’s going to buy this!” My brother said “Well, just make it the way you need to.” And so I redid it. I needed to rejuvenate my body while boosting my immune system, especially with all the things that are going on. And so when I created those, I began to see a change in my body health-wise with the inflammation, stabilizing blood pressure and cholesterol while detoxifying the liver. I knew I had to let people try it, I needed to get other reviews, and I got their praise reports saying my blood pressure has never been low like this before. Now it’s stabilized.” Even Monica Kaufman Pearson would say, “Oh my goodness, I was drinking your rejuvenate wellness drink when my knees were hurting, and no sooner than getting into my system, I started feeling better.”
Which products are some of your most popular, and what’s your personal favorite?
All of them are really good––it really depends on the person. Our signature line is made up of turmeric ginger, lemon ginger, peppermint, bourbon, and rum. My favorite honey that I always use is the Rejuvenate honey and the Turmeric Ginger honey. The jerk glaze and the honey mesquite bourbon glaze, those are really, really great. We can use those on our meats and vegetables and salads and fruits. I really love the jerk glaze and everyone that tastes it does too.
What is the most challenging and rewarding aspect about being a beekeeper?
Well the first thing is that we’re making a change in the community by saving the honey bees, which is saving our ecosystem because we need the bees to pollinate. So saving the bees period is the best thing. Another rewarding aspect is going into the schools, teaching our future about agriculture as sustainability along with making the community aware of the benefits of honey. When our consumers come to our table, we want them to have a smile on their face. It’s always the reaction for me when people taste Truth Honey. It shows us that we are on the right path.
The challenging part for me as a female beekeeper and adjusting to a male-dominant industry. So sometimes as a Black female breaking into these industries, people want to downplay the work that goes into beekeeping or say things like “Oh, you’re not a beekeeper. You don’t look like a beekeeper, you’re not a farmer.” So it’s that part of not necessarily proving people wrong, it’s just creating that path for other females or children that look like me to know that you don’t have to fit the norm or be in a box to become an entrepreneur or do the things that you want to do. On my journey I have learned that my presence speaks when entering into a room and now I create my own table and atmosphere to succeed.
Getting started in a new business can be the hardest part. With a business that’s new, there are always challenges, ups and downs. You have to make sure that whatever business you are starting that it’s a need and not just want, and it’s something that’s sustainable. You must do your research. When we started Truth, before we launched we learned everything about honey and we are continuously learning. And when we did it and we realized okay, wait a minute, it’s so much more to honey.
What advice would you offer to other Black women who may aspire to be beekeepers or entrepreneurs in general?
If anybody wants to get into beekeeping, I would say to make sure that this is your passion, something that you love to do. Sometimes we work a job but it’s not our passion, so it seems like a boring job. I work at Truth Honey, but it’s a passion. This is like my ministry where I’m speaking to people and I’m doing things and I’m telling them about health benefits. So it doesn’t ever seem like a job because I love what I do. However, we also need to understand that when we are creating a product or becoming an entrepreneur, whether it’s in beekeeping, whether it’s in the medical field, engineering, or anything else, always strive to be the leading expert in your field.
Go into it confidently and make sure that you do your research because you do need to stay above and ahead of the power curve, there’s so many different ideas when you are creating that you don’t want to get lost in the mix. I know a lot of people say, “Do you have education?” Yes, I have a master’s degree, and starting my doctorate’s degree. It is imperative to create a path where plan B is not an option. Just do it. Don’t be scared, walk in your truth. That’s my saying, always. Walk in your truth. No matter what your story is or how you started, it’s always how you finish. So it’s going to be bumps and bruises along the way, but just remember that your truth can be an inspiration to somebody else. So always walk in your truth.
By walking in your truth, is that how the name Truth Honey was created?
Yes. When we started my brother said “let’s call the company Truth.” And I said okay, Truth Honey. He said, “But we’re going to turn the R backwards.” We turned the R backwards because we know that’s a conversation piece. So that’s part of marketing and branding. On the spiritual side of things the word of the Lord is the Truth. When you speak your truth, you know your truth, you’re going to walk in it. And so we speak the truth, and that’s just how we operate. When we first started, we sowed a seed at Bountiful Blessing Church Ministries where the Pastor is Dr. Charles E. Davis. That was our first soft launch. So we sowed a seed and we launched there, and from there we’ve just been blessed going forward. Truth is the truth. It’s going to make you talk the truth, speak the truth, and walk the truth.
Looking towards the future, what are you most excited about for Truth Honey and the company’s growth? Any new product lines in the works?
I’m so excited about the growth of Truth Honey. We keep continuously growing. I know at the Peachtree International Film Festival, we had a glimpse of our Luxe King and Luxe Queen Fedora line. We are also doing a full launch of our honey bee scrubs. I also see a documentary on the horizon lolol.
To stay up to date with Truth Honey, follow them on Instagram at @thepageoftruthhoney, and visit truthhoney.com to shop their entire selection of gourmet honey product offerings.
