• Australian Rare honey is being billed as a healthier alternative to fine wine 

Harrods Food Hall is abuzz with high society shoppers swarming to buy honey on sale at a stinging price… £750 a jar!

The amber nectar is in a hexagonal glass jar with a bespoke timber lid, 22-carat gold lettering, a hand-blown glass dipper and even a certificate inside a gold ring to prove its authenticity.

It has been created with the help of a ‘honey sommelier’ and is sold exclusively at the London store.

Billed as a healthier alternative to fine wines and with a price to match, the makers of ‘Australian Rare’ boast it is produced by the ‘world’s healthiest bees’.

It is said to contain powerful medicinal properties and there are ‘complex’ tasting notes.

So tempting a target might it be for shoplifters in the food hall, the jars are kept under lock and key, watched by immaculately dressed security guards, with only the boxes they are sold in on display.

One Harrods employee told The Mail on Sunday that wealthy Britons and shoppers from the Middle East have flocked to buy the Jarrah honey, with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and low glycaemic index properties.

Rick Bains, the British co-founder of Australian Rare, made one of his regular visits to Harrods yesterday to check with staff and ensure that his honey was being displayed correctly.

He said: ‘We’re trying to reimagine honey and reimagine luxury gifting by creating the best honey in the world, and Harrods was the best place to showcase that. It’s not only some of the best-tasting honey in the world, it’s the best medicinal honey, it’s exceptional.’

He said he works with 40 beekeepers in South-West Australia, a biodiversity hotspot where more than 8,000 rare species of wildflowers bloom, to produce just 888 jars weighing 250g each.

While ‘The Supreme’ Jarrah honey costs £750, shoppers can also buy ‘The Exotic’ for £600 and ‘The Jewel’ for £500 – each with its own distinct colour and flavour and coming from different species of eucalyptus trees.

The suggested pairings for each honey range from creamy brie and fig to cheddar and green apple.

Mr Bains said: ‘We spent tens of thousands on scientific research and laboratory testing so that we can identify the pollen source in each drop. It is at least 20 times rarer than Manuka honey.

‘I’m so proud to see it being sold in Harrods – I almost have to pinch myself.’