BRINGING YOU THE best for over 30 years
SMILEY HONEY • SINCE 1989
Every jar of Smiley Honey has a story behind it.
That story begins with Donald Smiley, a Gulf County beekeeper who discovered beekeeping later in life and often said it felt like falling in love all over again. What started with a few hives soon grew into one of the area's best-known Tupelo honey operations. At its peak, Donald managed several thousand colonies along the Apalachicola River, producing the exceptional Tupelo Honey that would make the Smiley Honey name famous accross the nation - and world.
His story was even featured in Holley Bishop's book, Robbing the Bees, where readers can catch a glimpse of the early days of Smiley Honey and the people who helped shape the legend of Gulf Coast Tupelo Honey.
When Donald retired in 2012, the bottling business continued, but the beekeeping operation eventually passed into other hands.
In 2022, we had the opportunity to bring it all back together.
My we acquired not only the Smiley Honey bottling operation but also the original beekeeping operation, the extraction equipment, and the bee yards, reuniting the business once again under one roof.
Today, we're proud to carry Smiley's legacy forward.
Our bees work the same river systems and Tupelo swamps of Gulf County, Florida, where Smiley Honey built its reputation, establishing Smiley Honey as the nation's foremost Tupelo Honey producers and the largest and most respected in Gulf Country. We manage our own hives, harvest our own Tupelo Honey, extract it ourselves, and bottle it right here at home. It's something very few honey companies in America can honestly say.
While Tupelo Honey remains at the heart of everything we do, our passion for exceptional honey doesn't stop there. We also offer a carefully curated collection of remarkable honey varietals from around the world. These are honeys that simply can't be produced in Florida, and every one is personally selected through trusted relationships with fellow beekeepers who share our commitment to quality, authenticity, and responsible beekeeping.
Whether it comes from our own hives or from one of our trusted partners, every jar carrying the Smiley Honey name has earned its place.
We believe honey should taste like the place it came from—not like a factory.
Thank you for letting us share our passion with you.
See you around the bee yard.
Will
Owner & Beekeeper
• MAKE HONEY & BEE HAPPY •
Raw and unfiltered honey is a remarkable gift from nature. It's packed with beneficial enzymes, pollen, vitamins, and minerals, all preserved through minimal processing. Our all-natural, raw honey is about as close as you can get to reaching into a beehive and scooping up a handful of golden goodness.
Whether you enjoy raw honey daily for its health and nutritional benefits or seek that unique flavor for your premium recipes, Smiley Honey offers exactly what you need. Our all-natural, raw, cold-extracted and unfiltered honey is the perfect choice.
WELCOME TO WEWAHITCHKA
• THE LAND OF LAKES AND HONEY •
Nestled in the Florida panhandle, about an hour east of Panama City, lies our quaint town of Wewahitchka. This peaceful spot is known for two things: the stunning Dead Lakes and the delightful tupelo honey.
Interestingly, these two are closely connected. Tupelo trees, which thrive in wet conditions, grow abundantly in the lakes, rivers, and wetlands throughout this region of Florida. Each year, around mid-April, the tupelo trees burst into bloom, and bees gather the nectar from these blossoms to create exceptional honey. One of our customers once described it as the "food of the gods," and we couldn’t agree more.
Thank you
If you've made it this far, I'd simply like to say thank you.
Smiley Honey isn't a large corporation with layers of management and marketing departments. We're a family of beekeepers based here in Wewahitchka, Florida, and every order you place genuinely makes a difference to our business.
Whether we're working our hives along the Apalachicola River, harvesting our famous Tupelo Honey, bottling honey, or carefully packing your order, everything we do has one goal: to share exceptional honey with people who appreciate the difference.
We're incredibly proud to produce one of America's finest natural treasures—authentic Gulf Coast Tupelo Honey. And for the remarkable honey varietals that can't be produced here in Florida, we travel the world through trusted relationships with fellow beekeepers who share our passion for quality, authenticity, and responsible beekeeping.
Every jar we sell is one we'd proudly place on our own family's table.
Our promise is simple:
- Produce the very best honey we can.
- Treat every customer the way we'd want to be treated.
- Never compromise on quality.
Whether you're enjoying a spoonful in your morning coffee, drizzling it over warm biscuits, sending it as a gift, or continuing a family tradition around the breakfast table, we're honored that Smiley Honey is a small part of those moments.
Thank you for putting your trust in us.
We don't take it for granted.
Warm regards,
Will Oosthuizen
Owner & Beekeeper
Smiley Honey