La Compagnie du Miel – Honey from Madagascar with a conscience
La Compagnie du Miel is a French-Madagascan honey producer founded in 2017 that brings 5 rare varietal honeys from Madagascar to Europe: Niaouli, Lychee, Eucalyptus, Mokarana, and a rainforest wildflower honey. Behind the project are 4 founders and around 500 local beekeepers who are working together to provide a social perspective for one of the world's largest islands.
La Compagnie du Miel brings rare honey from Madagascar to Europe. This social project supports small-scale beekeepers, preserves biodiversity, and guarantees pure, high-quality honey. Since 2017, the range has included Niaouli, Lychee, Eucalyptus, Mokarana, and rainforest honey – five characters, each with an aroma you will never find in a Central European breakfast honey.
An assortment like a small island getaway. Those who spoon their way through the jars taste a cross-section of Madagascar's flora – home to over 200,000 plant and animal species, about 95 percent of which are found nowhere else.
2016, three Frenchmen meet a Madagascan ecologist
The story begins in 2013, when Gaël Hankenne lands in Madagascar after several years with Doctors Without Borders and decides to stay. Olivier Carbon, whose main profession is in microfinance, has known the "Big Island" for over 10 years and visits regularly.
Then, in 2016, the decisive meeting: Gaël and Olivier meet Haingo Rakotobe, a Madagascan ecology consultant with profound knowledge of the island's plant and bee life. Conversations about beekeeping turn into an idea, and the idea into a plan. Thibaut Lugagne Delpon, who spent 4 years on the island building a network of inclusive businesses, joins them as the fourth partner.
La Compagnie du Miel is officially founded in 2017. While Gaël and Haingo train beekeepers and coordinate the harvest on-site, Olivier and Thibaut take care of the brand, sales, and financing from Paris. An island romance has turned into a small producer that now works with around 500 Madagascan beekeepers and manages over 5,700 beehives.
"Madagascar is one of the last countries where beekeeping can still develop without the constraints we know from Europe," says Haingo. The island is home to one of the world's richest bee pastures, and industrial agriculture has barely reached it so far – a rare gift that the four guard very consciously.
5 varietal honeys and a gift set for tasting
The range includes 5 monofloral varietal honeys plus a wildflower honey – a cross-section of Madagascar's most important bee plants. Each honey comes from a different region of the island and is harvested at different times of the year.
The Niaouli honey is the award-winning character – complex, powerful, floral, with hints of coffee, mango, lemongrass, vanilla, and licorice. The Lychee honey opens up a floral bouquet with fine notes of rose and strawberry. The Eucalyptus honey surprises with notes of salted butter caramel.
The Coastal Blossom honey (Mokarana) is sweet, mild, and has a fine citrus bite from the endemic Mokarana tree. The Rainforest honey is the only wildflower honey in the range, fresh and multi-floral, with each harvest being slightly different. If you want to try them all, go for the honey gift set with 3 × 40 g – Niaouli, Mokarana, and Rainforest in the black tasting box.
Training, pre-financing, geolocation
Instead of buying anonymous mass-produced goods, La Compagnie du Miel selects partner villages with a high density of honey-bearing plants and continuously trains the beekeepers there.
The hives are pre-financed, and the honey is purchased at agreed fixed prices. To ensure the monofloral honeys are truly pure, precise geolocation is recorded for every beehive – only those located within the correct radius during the respective flowering time supply the individual jars. This creates complete traceability and a high quality standard.
"Honey becomes a livelihood here," explains Olivier. And indeed, a small-scale Madagascan beekeeper with 20 hives lives above the poverty line; with 50 hives, they join the middle class. This makes the project a quiet contribution against deforestation and migration – the bees' pollination work also improves the fruit quality in orchards, which in turn motivates the entire village community.
Gold medal 2020, silver medal 2021 – Concours Épicures
Recognition followed quickly. In 2020, the Lychee honey won the gold medal at the Concours Épicures, one of the most prestigious awards for delicatessen products in France. In 2021, the Niaouli honey followed up with the silver medal in the same competition – listed as "Miel de niaouli, Compagnie du Miel" in the category of sweet spreads and honeys.
Parisian top-tier gastronomy has long since discovered these honeys – Michelin-starred restaurants and fine food shops appreciate the varietal purity and the unusual flavor profile. The honeys are also finding growing numbers of fans in Germany and Switzerland, especially among cheese sommeliers and pastry professionals.
What convinces the competition juries is the aroma combined with the clean botanical origin of each honey. The exact geolocation of the hives allows for verification of which blossoms the nectar comes from for every single jar – a quality feature that is rare in the honey world and is increasingly opening doors for Compagnie du Miel. Hats off.
Discover the tasting set to get started
If you aren't familiar with La Compagnie du Miel yet, we recommend the 3 × 40 g honey tasting set as a first step. Three small jars side-by-side, a slice of brioche, and a piece of ripe cheese – and you have a little Madagascar tasting at your kitchen table that tells you more about the island than any travel magazine.
If you like it strong, go straight for the Niaouli or the Eucalyptus – these two complex characters pair wonderfully with ripe Comté, Roquefort, or a grilled fish. If you are looking more for a mild breakfast honey, you will be well served with the Lychee or the Coastal Blossom honey – both go well with brioche, yogurt, and Earl Grey tea.
The honeys are also a good choice as a gift: the black tasting set for connoisseurs, a single jar of Niaouli for cheese lovers, the Eucalyptus for amateur pastry chefs. For your next invitation, three small bowls with three different honeys, alongside a few cheese cubes and bread, make an excellent aperitif – a conversation starter that enriches any evening.
If you would like to get to know other special honeys from our range, take a look at our honey category – there you will find other producers who work with similar dedication. Let yourself be surprised by how differently honey can taste when it comes from good hands. "We are happy about everyone who embarks on this journey – in the end, honey always tells a story about the place where it was created," emphasizes Gaël from the headquarters in Antananarivo.
