Apiarista Bee Farm

Apiarista offers you an authentic bee farm experience in our own unique fresh way. Friendly service, the sweetest raw honey and an educational farmyard environment is what locals, families and travelers come to enjoy. Escape for a while to our cozy and tranquil place, where the kettle whistles the coffee beans into a special brew just for you. 

We offer some of the finest raw honey from an organic origin. When you buy from us you know what you get: honey straight from a bee farm, unfiltered and unprocessed. Raw honey has been extracted from the comb via spinning the comb in a centrifuge. This then flows to a settling tank where the honey and the wax separate naturally over a few days. Thereafter, the honey goes to a bottling tank from where it is bottled. This is “raw honey”. No heating or filtering…you may find pieces of wax and propolis in the honey, plus all the other goodness that goes with raw honey. The extracted comb, which is built into wooden frames, is reused in the hives for the bees to put into action again over the next season.

Organic Origin – we are not “organic certified” and will never be. This would amount to just another cost between farmer and consumer. We do mention, ethically, that most of our honey comes from an organic origin. A very small minority does not – this we do handle separately and label as such. Our honey is also local, most coming from within a 200 km radius around Port Elizabeth from various indigenous rural areas. Raw honey is what we do best, please expect nothing less. Everyone can benefit from our ridiculously affordable honey.

The shop started like most things: small. First as an equipment shop to supply other beekeepers with basic equipment and clothing and then came the idea of having some type of coffee shop alongside it. The idea was like looking at a  book with only a single word on the cover; you think you know what’s inside the book by reading the title, but will never be exactly sure until you pick it up. Picking it up you feel some weight to it and you think ‘really’? Then you open it up and you start to read and listen, learn, grow and you realise this book has got no end to it and the Author is taking you on a beautiful journey filled with sweetness and pain for your benefit.

​​Sprouted from small steps, the shop was remodelled and re-built in 2016 to start adding some coffee to its services. To ‘growslow’ was our motto and still is, not rushing ahead in the book but to listen to what the Author is pointing out. While the coffee shop was busy finding its roots, it slowly involved in a farm yard that grew from hearts that wanted to give something back to people, an atmosphere for all to enjoy and to learn something. A place where there is no fee to enter, accessible to all and for the coffee the customers can even pay what they feel they can afford on the day. Time went by and ideas came together with learnt knowledge, ideas that we can’t take the credit for! They are loved and used by our visitors… some free or at a little fee.

From behind the scenes: Apiarista is situated on a working bee farm and uniquely partly visible to the public for a real bee farm experience. The managers xander, janice and their seasonal helpers, thank every single client – from all walks of life – for all your support. We do our best to bring you a place of real rest. The Owner our God, thank you for a daily journey with your Spirit and that we have the freedom + simplicity through your Son Jesus Christ, showing us the cost of a Christ-centered instead of a self/social-centered faith.