Honey Honey!
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Our Empressive Honey Bees took up residence in the Centennial Garden at The Fairmont Empress in May 2011, after Executive Chef Kamal Silva pioneered the project to promote sustainable living. We welcomed ten hives containing 400,000 honey bees, and by the final harvest in August 2011, the number of honey bees had doubled to 800,000 and produced over 1,300 pounds of honey. During the 2012 summer season our onsite honey bees doubled in numbers again to over 1.6 million, this time producing almost 3,000 pounds of honey. The hives are provided by apiarist John Gibeau of the Honey Bee Centre in Surrey, BC.
Our Empress Honey is highlighted in many dishes in our restaurants, used during our famous Afternoon Tea and is available for purchase in the Fairmont store. Looking for new ways to utilize our honey, we also partnered with Hoyne Brewery to create a refreshingly light honey beer with a hint of citrus. The Hoyne Summer Haze Honey Hefe is available exclusively in The Bengal Lounge.
Today, Chef and his team designed a very special VIP guest room welcome amenity for some special guests inside an edible chocolate basket and include:
- House-made peanut butter with honey & chocolate
- White chocolate honey truffle
- Truffle oil and honey popcorn
- Jar of Empress honey
- Honey mint lip balm
- White chocolate lattice
- Story card on sustainable honey