I have a friend in Michigan who is an expert as well as a collector of honey. He says for optimum health effects you should eat honey that comes from near where you live... I guess the closer the better. He had honey from all over the world. He had this stuff from Ireland it was difficult to believe it was even honey! It was black (looked like roof tar) and really bitter. The best I ever tasted was from western Michigan where there are lots of apple and cherry trees... He used to buy 5 gal buckets and I traded veggies from my organic garden.