Hot honey is the sweet and spicy flavor on everyone's lips, from pizza to cocktails. Here's why it's America's newest food obsession. (2024)

It's being drizzled on pizzas, added to chicken sandwiches, and even mixed into cocktails.

The ingredient is "basically all over menus right now," Lizzy Freier, director of menu research and insights at restaurant analytics company Technomic, said during a panel at the National Restaurant Show in May.

The condiment's origins saw it being swirled on pepperoni pizza. But it's popular to pair with chicken, too: Sweetgreen has a hot honey chicken protein bowl, Cava sells harissa honey chicken, and KFC serves Sriracha honey nuggets.

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You can mix it with desserts or alcohol. At Starbucks' upmarket Reserve locations, you can get hot honey in an affogato or espresso martini.

Hot honey is the sweet and spicy flavor on everyone's lips, from pizza to cocktails. Here's why it's America's newest food obsession. (1)

Mike's Hot Honey was inspired by a college student's travels around Brazil

Hot honey isn't a brand-new flavor, but it's only recently that it's become super popular.

Brooklyn pizzeria Roberta's started selling its famous Bee Sting pizza topped with spicy soppressata salami and honey back in 2009, according to The New York Times.

But it was Mike's Hot Honey that really brought the ingredient to the masses.

Hot honey is the sweet and spicy flavor on everyone's lips, from pizza to cocktails. Here's why it's America's newest food obsession. (2)

It all dates back to the year 2003, when Mike Kurtz was a college student studying Portuguese in Brazil.

"On a weekend trip to a national park, I hiked into a little valley with some friends and there I found a tiny pizzeria that had jars of honey with whole chili peppers steeping in it for drizzling on pizza," Kurtz told Business Insider in an interview at the National Restaurant Show. "I just was blown away by the flavor and I kept on thinking about it."

So Kurtz started experimenting with chili-infused honey in his college apartment, where he created Mike's Hot Honey in 2004.

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"And for six years it was just a hobby," Kurtz said. "I was making it for myself, for friends and family."

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Fast forward to 2010, and Kurtz introduced his concoction to Paul Giannone of Paulie Gee's while working as an apprentice at the Brooklyn pizzeria.

"He tried it, he loved it on the pizza," Kurtz told BI. Paulie Gee's began drizzling the honey on its pepperoni pizzas.

"People started asking me where they could buy bottles and I started selling it off the bar there in November 2010," Kurtz said.

Over the years, he started working with other restaurants and specialty retailers. Whole Foods was the first large grocery store to start selling the honey in 2014.

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Now, Mike's Hot Honey is available in between 30,000 and 40,000 retail stores and more than 3,000 restaurants, Kurtz said. The business's revenue is roughly 60% retail and 40% food service, he said.

Hot honey has seemingly endless applications

Hot honey is "kind of like a peanut butter and jelly thing," Matt Wessel, owner of the Milwaukee Pretzel Company, which sells a hot honey mustard, told BI over the phone. "It's just one of those things that when you pair them together, it makes a lot of sense … It's a really palatable food pairing."

Hot honey feeds into the "swicy" trend for sweet and spicy food. And its versatility means it can be used in seemingly endless combinations, encouraging chefs to get creative in the kitchen.

"Because honey is so versatile as a sweetener, but also as a topping … it's a great base to add the heat to," Wessel said. "It can be used in so many different applications." Across restaurants, grocery store shelves, and home kitchens, hot honey is being added to tacos, chicken waffles, potato chips, and ice cream.

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Hot honey is the sweet and spicy flavor on everyone's lips, from pizza to cocktails. Here's why it's America's newest food obsession. (3)

"Hot honey has become the new American flavor," said Jacob Hadjigeorgis, owner of Maison Pickle, a bar and restaurant in Manhattan that started serving a hot honey chicken French toast in 2019. He told BI over email that it was the US's answer to other cuisines' sweet and spicy sauces.

At Zalat Pizza, a Dallas-based pizza chain, there's been a recent rise in sales of its pizza with salami, bacon-onion jam, and hot honey, first added to its menu in 2022, CEO Khanh Nguyen told BI via email.

Customers can also pay $2 to add a swirl of hot honey to Zalat's other pizzas, which Nguyen said was especially popular with its pepperoni and mixed meat pizzas.

Hot honey is the sweet and spicy flavor on everyone's lips, from pizza to cocktails. Here's why it's America's newest food obsession. (4)

Zalat Pizza

UK canned and bottled cocktail company Tom Savano Cocktails has been experimenting with hot honey in the drinks department. It launched a hot honey margarita earlier this month — it also sells a spicy mezcal margarita with Scotch Bonnet chilies and agave.

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Sweet cocktails are always in demand, and spicy flavors are very popular at the moment. "So you throw anything spicy and sweet together and that was always going to be a home run," founder James Kerslake told BI over the phone. The company developed two versions of the cocktail for consumer testing, and ended up deciding on the spicier version, even though Kerslake acknowledged it may polarize people with a low-spice tolerance.

Cooking magazines and TikTokers alike have been scrambling to find new ways to incorporate hot honey into dishes. But as for Kurtz, the man behind the best-known hot honey brand, his favorite ways to serve it are drizzled on a pepperoni pizza, used as a glaze for salmon, and paired with goats' cheese.

Hot honey is the sweet and spicy flavor on everyone's lips, from pizza to cocktails. Here's why it's America's newest food obsession. (2024)

FAQs

What is the deal with hot honey? ›

This is where you infuse honey with pepperoncini peppers, creating a perfectly sweet and spicy condiment. The origins beyond Italy haven't been well documented but there has seemingly been a surge in popularity of hot honey around the world in recent years as it has become a trendy culinary condiment.

Where did hot honey on pizza come from? ›

Mike Kurtz first tasted hot honey on a pizza in Brazil in his early 20s and started making his own chili-infused honey in his Brooklyn apartment. He brought samples to Brooklyn pizzeria Paulie Gee's and soon turned owner Paul Giannone onto the idea of drizzling his pies with hot honey.

Is Mike's hot honey healthy? ›

Mike's Hot Honey is all natural, gluten-free, paleo-friendly and contains no artificial sugar or preservatives.

Who has the hot honey pepperoni pizza? ›

New Hot Honey Pizza & Wings from Pizza Hut deliver an all-new blend of sweet & heat. Our habanero-infused honey sauce brings a spicy new twist to a Double Pepperoni Pizza or some crispy, fried wings. It's the perfect addition when you want to level up on pizza night.

What does hot honey do to your body? ›

It has strong antibacterial effects, it helps heal wounds and inflammation of the upper respiratory tract and calms the mind.

Is it OK to drink hot honey? ›

Exposing honey to very high temperatures can potentially lead to the breakdown of some of its natural sugars and other compounds, which may affect its flavour and nutritional properties. Additionally, consuming extremely hot liquids can be harmful to your mouth and throat.

Do you need to refrigerate Mike's hot honey? ›

Do I need to refrigerate my Mike's Hot Honey after opening? No. Mike's Hot Honey is best stored at room temperature before and after opening.

Why is Mike's Hot honey so good? ›

The moral of the story: Mike's Hot Honey makes everything taste so. Much. Better. Made with only three ingredients — New York wildflower honey, chiles, and vinegar — Mike's Hot Honey has a nice sweet-to-heat ratio.

Is Mikes Hot honey made with real honey? ›

Mike's Hot Honey, 12 oz Squeeze Bottle (3 Pack), Honey with a Kick, Sweetness & Heat, 100% Pure Honey, Gluten-Free & Paleo.

Does hot honey taste good on pizza? ›

I love to heat up my pepperoni pizzas. Yes, the pepperoni itself has some spiciness, but this recipe has some options to take it to another level. You can sprinkle on some red pepper flakes, but the real heat secret is AR's Hot-Mild Southern Honey. I drizzle a little of this on for a sweet heat that can't be beat.

What state puts honey on pizza? ›

Still, those of us in the Mile High State have our delicacy: Mountain Pie is a unique type of pizza, also known as a Colorado-style pizza, with a thick, hand-rolled edge crust made with honey instead of sugar.

What hot honey does MOD pizza use? ›

A little bit of sweet. And a whole lot of flavor. That's what you'll get from Mike's Hot Honey — the delicious chili pepper-infused honey now available at MOD! Our team of food experts are always looking for new and interesting seasonal toppings – ingredients that take your pizza experience to the next level.

What is the problem with heating honey? ›

As per the National Center for Biotechnology, heating honey causes adverse effects. Cooking honey lowers its quality, and it loses essential enzymes and nutrients. In fact, heated honey has high chances of affecting the body and can be fatal as well.

Why do companies heat honey? ›

The heat has the dual effect of removing crystallization in natural honey, and to reduce the viscosity. Both of these things are required to provide a product that can be cleaned and further processed for creamed honey or just filled into jars as liquid honey.

When did hot honey become a thing? ›

December 2004. After months of experimentation with chili pepper-honey infusions, Mike settles on a recipe for his original honey infused with chili peppers and gives out jars to friends and family as holiday gifts, dubbing it Mike's Hot Honey.

Is hot honey any good? ›

The best hot honey is just spicy enough to give your fried chicken or pizza some mouth-tingly heat, but not so hot that you don't want to keep coming back for more. It's a seamless blend of spice and sweetness—with just a touch of fruity flavor from the chili pepper.

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