U of G students' Hot Honey is a combination of heat and sweet

The Hot Honey project began in 2023, as a way of using leftover ingredients and limiting waste. (CTV News/Tyler Kelaher)

Food science students at the University of Guelph are bottling up tasty honey with a kick.

Co-op students at the Guelph Food Innovation Centre (GFIC) combined hot peppers and honey to create their very own Hot Honey.

“There’s kind of that initial hit of sweetness and then that little burn at the end,” said Hannah Ferouz, a food science major at the University of Guelph.

Ferouz said the group harvested leviathan, beast, red magma, and scotch brain peppers from the Bovey Teaching Greenhouse on campus.

The honey is sourced from the university’s Honey Bee Research Centre.

The ingredients are combined with salt and vinegar, pasteurized, then bottled.

“You can put it on vanilla ice cream, you can put it on salads, in sandwiches, charcuterie boards,” Ferouz said.

Since 2018, co-op students at GFIC have been making Cannon Fire hot sauce. The Hot Honey project began last year, as a way of using leftover ingredients and limiting waste.

A total of 180 bottles of Hot Honey were produced for the 2023 Fair November Craft Show held on the U of G campus.

U of G Food Science Club president, Abbey Chan, remembers last year’s supply selling out fast.

“It was sold out after the first production last year,” Chan told CTV News. “They had to make the emergency second batch and that sold out as well.”

This year the group upgraded to 300 bottles to keep up with demand.

The students who harvested the ingredients, mixed the honey, and marketed the product say the project offers valuable hands-on experience.

“It’s a great way for so many students to be involved, not only hands on in the production facilities, but to gain some leadership experience and product development experience,” Chan said.

“I think it compliments what they’re learning in the classroom,” said Robert Swan, a pilot plant technician at U of G.

Hot Honey will be sold for $10 per bottle at Fair November from Nov. 14-17.