Local Honey Llandysul

Raw Welsh honey and mead from Afon Mêl, a family-run bee farm and meadery at Cross Inn on the outskirts of New Quay, Ceredigion. Sam Cooper and his family have kept bees here since 1999, and the business has grown to around 500 hives across Wales.

Their Welsh Wildflower honey comes from the cwms and hedgerows around the farm – sycamore, hawthorn, willow, clover, bramble and rosebay willowherb – and is sold runny or set. There is also a set Welsh Mountain honey from knapweed, heather and thistle on the Mid Wales hills, and a borage honey made by bees working borage in Oxfordshire. The honey is never heat-treated or pasteurised.

Mead is the other half of the business: Afon Mêl makes one of the largest ranges of real mead in the UK, from traditional honey meads to fruit and sparkling meads, and its Heather Mead won a Great Taste Golden Fork. They also sell honey preserves, chutneys, mustards and gift hampers.

Visitors can watch live colonies behind glass in the bee exhibition, look round the exhibition meadery, stop at the licensed coffee shop and buy honey and mead in the farm shop. From April to October the shop is open Monday to Saturday, 10am–5pm; from November to March it opens Monday to Friday, 11am–3pm, and the exhibition and café close. The exhibition has a small admission charge and is up a flight of stairs. Honey and mead can also be ordered online for delivery to mainland UK, or for click and collect from the farm.