Costco Is Selling A Bucket Of Honey At A Suspiciously Low Price

You might go to Costco for the food court and cheap rotisserie chickens, but you'll stay for the bulk buys. Well, you will if you're feeding an army, which is approximately how many people it would take to consume a 60-pound bucket of honey. (It's a literal honey bucket, not a porta-john, although it wouldn't be surprising if Costco sold those, too.)

The real shocker isn't that the big-box store carries such a thing, but the fact that its $115 price tag comes out to about $1.92 per pound. For comparison, a 16-ounce jar of standard supermarket honey might be around $6. Buying 60 pounds at that price would cost $360, which is 213% more than what Costco is charging. One beekeeper, commenting on Reddit, expressed their suspicion that the honey may be fake at this price, but it comes from the Sioux Honey cooperative, which is a reputable brand. Another Redditor quipped, "This is probably what's in the little curated glass jars sold roadside here as 'local honey' for $20."

But a bargain's no bargain if you can't use it up before it goes bad. In this case, though, that truism really doesn't apply since honey never expires, not even when opened. Jars of honey unearthed from ancient Egyptian tombs have been sampled by archaeologists without any harm, so if you finish up that bucket's worth within the next millennium or so, you should be okay. Even if the honey starts to crystallize, this can be easily remedied by zapping it in the microwave — a portion at a time, of course, not the entire 60 pounds.

What you can do with all that honey

If you can never resist a good bargain, believe me, I feel you. I'm constantly playing freezer Jenga to wedge in one more on-sale item I simply couldn't resist. If I had a Costco card, I might even be tempted by what would undoubtedly be a lifetime's supply of honey. After all, there's a lot you can do with it. 

Starting with our recipes here at The Takeout, you can make classic hush puppies with lemon honey butter, salty honey butter corn muffins, or Chinese takeout-style honey garlic crispy beef. Honey can also be used to sweeten a classic bee's knees cocktail, coffee, or tea. Add a sweet drizzle for a gourmet touch on a tomato sandwich or a peanut butter one — I grew up eating PB&Hs rather than PB&Js.

Even if you get sick of eating honey-flavored everything, the rest of the bucket needn't go to waste. You won't be able to bathe in it — 60 pounds is only five gallons, while the average bathtub holds about 70 gallons – but you can add a few spoonfuls to the water to help soften your skin. It also works as an all-natural cough syrup, although you might want to make it a bit less syrupy by diluting it with water.

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