What started as a niche topping for pizza obsessives has now blown up into a cult condiment. Hot honey – that irresistible blend of sweet and spicy – now dubbed ‘Swicy’ is the new food craze that seems to be on everyone’s lips – from home cooks, to retailers and restaurants adding the sweet heat to their menus. And while this buzzworthy combo has been around for years in places like Brazil and the US, the UK is finally catching up, thanks to brands like The WilderBee Hot Honey.

A Trend That’s Heating Up:

Hot honey has been around forever in some form or another (you can thank ancient South American cuisine for the original concept), but the modern revival started in the US about 20 years ago, with Mike’s Hot Honey credited for bringing it to the states after spotting the chilli-honey combo in Brazil. Fast forward to today, and it’s everywhere – drizzled on pizza, fried chicken, cocktails, and even over ice cream.

In the UK, hot honey’s rise is impossible to ignore. Not long ago, you’d struggle to find it outside of niche delis or foodie Instagram accounts. Now, it’s hitting supermarket shelves, restaurant menus, and Michelin-starred kitchens. TikTok videos tagged #hothoney have racked up over 500 million views in the last year alone, and Google searches for “hot honey” in the UK have surged by 300% since 2021. Market analysts predict the UK’s hot honey market will continue to grow by over 25% annually through 2025 – proof that this isn’t just a passing fad.

The WilderKitchen: The UK’s Original Hot Honey

Before the UK was putting hot honey on everything, London eco-chef Dan Shearman of The WilderKitchen was ahead of the curve. After trying it on pizza in New York back in 2014, Dan knew his fellow Brits would love it too. So, he started selling his own Hot Honey creation straight from the hatch of his London Food Truck. A few years later, Dan bottled it up and started selling to indie retailers to test the waters. Enter WilderBee Hot Honey – a sweet, fiery, sustainable game-changer of a condiment.

This isn’t just any hot honey – WilderBee Hot Honey takes it to another level, using bee-friendly honey from ethically managed hives, infusing their products with sustainably grown chillies from Rwanda where they ensure the farmers are paid well above fair wages, offer free education for their children and plant crops to aid carbon sequestration, and bottle in 100% post consumer recycled plastic – for a hot honey that is sweet, spicy, and sustainable!

And they didn’t stop there. In 2022, they innovated further, introducing the Great Taste Award winning ‘WilderBee Gochujang Hot Honey’, a Korean-inspired twist, followed by their Thai-style ‘WilderBee Sriracha Hot Honey’ in 2023. Both have been huge hits, earning awards, major stockists, and a legion of devoted hot honey fans.

The Shops, The Chefs, and The Hype:

If you’ve tried hot honey in the UK, chances are it was The WilderKitchen’s. Their products are everywhere – Marks & Spencer, Co-op, Whole Foods, Booths, Harrods, and Harvey Nichols all stock them. They’ve also partnered with restaurants like Honest Burgers, Byron Burger, and Tom Kerridge’s Michelin-starred ‘Hand & Flowers’ where it’s featured on the cocktail menu – as well as producing unique white label Hot Honey for national food brands looking to cash in on the craze.

Food critic Tom Parker-Bowles himself has recently given WilderBee Hot Honey his seal of approval, calling it ‘floral and fruity, with a chilli kick that’s just the right level of ferocious.’ If it’s good enough for the son of the Queen, then it’s good enough for your toast.

More Than Just a Trend:

Food trends come and go but hot honey feels different. It’s versatile enough to work in sweet and savoury dishes, has a natural ‘wow’ factor, and taps into that ongoing love for fusion flavours. Forbes recently called it, ‘a bridge between culinary traditions.’ ‘highlighting its unique ability to blend sweet heat into everyday cooking. As more chefs, home cooks, and retailers embrace it, hot honey is shifting from trend to kitchen staple’.

What’s Next for The WilderKitchen?:

In just under three years of launching into national retail and restaurants, The WilderKitchen has gone from being a cool indie brand on Instagram to organically turning over £1 million in 2025, and with new supermarket listings and national food service clients landing this year, the growth is set to continue,

“Hot honey is no longer just a trend – it’s becoming a kitchen staple,” says Dan Shearman, founder of The WilderKitchen. “It started out as a hobby with me lugging huge buckets of honey up and down the Northern Line in the early days, and now I get to see our hot honey on menus at national restaurants and on supermarket shelves. It’s been a wild ride, but seeing how much people love it makes those past hot, sticky commutes all worth it.”

So whether you’re drizzling it on pizza, spicing up roasted veg, fried chicken, ice cream, or adding it to your next cocktail, one thing’s clear: hot honey isn’t going anywhere.