Cloister Honey, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, started with a simple Christmas gift. It was 2007 and founders Joanne de la Rionda and Randall York were working in the finance and banking industry. Joanne thought a honeybee hive would make the perfect hobby for husband Randall, a science and environmental enthusiast. Fortunately for them, the bee market did much better than banking the next few years. So well in fact, that Joanne and Randall quit their day jobs and started splitting up the hives, multiplying them each year.
With all that honey came lots of opportunities for delicious recipes. Joanne started to create and experiment in their kitchen with multiple spices, styles, textures, and infusions. Her culinary creations led them to receive top awards from Southern Living, Our State Magazine, and Charlotte Magazine. When Joanne and Randall aren't attending gourmet food markets and tradeshows, they're in Charlotte running Cloister Honey.
Cloister Honey is dedicated to preserving the incredible flavor and healthful benefits of natural honey. They attend to the hives, observe the behavior of the bees, follow a time-sensitive harvesting process and carefully transfer the honey from the hive to the bottle. This labor of love is entirely different from what happens with mass-produced, supermarket honey. We’re certain you will taste the difference.
