Mel de Gratallops

The origins of Mel de Gratallops, Gratallops Honey, go back to 2002, when Salvador Sorreche took up bee-keeping as a hobby. An elderly resident of Gratallops, a small village with 150 inhabitants in the heart of the Priorat, gave him two spare hives, and this was how he started out in the world of bee-keeping. The following year he got two more, soon after just over fifty, and with the help and advice of other bee-keepers he decided to turn this hobby into a source of family income. Thanks to a range of support for farmers by the Catalan government, the modern processing facilities were set up and the health permit obtained in order to market the honey. Once everything was ready, they started making natural, artisan honey, installing the hives in different places around the Priorat in the winter months and in the Pyrenees in spring, to make a variety of honey types including rosemary, thyme, lavender, almond blossom, cherry blossom, holm oak and mixed flower, among others. During processing the honey is not heated at all and varieties are not mixed, in order to offer pure honey with all its richness of taste and aroma. Moreover, the bees feed exclusively on the honey they themselves produce, rather than being given glucose to stop them consuming their own honey. Over the years the number of hives has grown to reach 500, and making honey has been complemented with pollination and hive moving services that are highly valued by producers.