Taste of future at honey lab
Honey business Comvita has opened an experiential store that taps into shoppers’ senses to give them a better understanding of bees and honey.
After eight months of planning, design and construction, the Wellness Lab opened to the public last week at Comvita’s original shop beneath New Zealand Trade and Enterprise’s offices on Quay St, Auckland.
The store flips the traditional bricks-and-mortar retail model on its head by creating a space that is less about selling products and more about raising awareness of bees and honey through an immersive sensory experience that is educational and enjoyable.
A main feature of the store is a 180-degree theatre where customers can book a spot on a 45-minute tasting experience, hosted by beekeeper and beebreeder Noelani Waters.
The guided tasting educates visitors on the history of honey, how it is made and the properties of different types of honey, by stimulating customers’ smell, touch, sight, hearing and taste.
The experience was developed with help from Professor Charles Spence, a gastrophysicist whose previous work includes collaborations with British celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal.
Comvita’s global head of marketing, David Bathgate, said the theatre experience costs $20 per person, with 100 per cent of that going to a nominated charity.
Sessions will be held at 11am and 1pm and bookings can be made online.
He said the store would be made available to outside groups, from beekeepers to mindfulness coaches, and he hoped it would become a community hub.
The store’s facade, featuring brass panels and rendered earth, was designed to resemble a glowing beehive, he said.
‘‘What we wanted to do was to create intrigue rather than obvious messaging.’’
Inside, no products are on display. Instead, walls are lined with 140 beakers filled with various types of honey.
‘‘We wanted people to engage with the ingredients . . . and not be distracted by looking at product packaging,’’ Bathgate said.
Three large glass bulbs feature where customers can smell ma¯ nuka, honey and bee product propolis, and the humming sound of a beehive plays over speakers. The ceiling is adorned with recycled plastic mesh made by Wellington firm Kaynemaile and fashioned into a honeycomb shape. Customers are invited to use an in-store augmented reality app that superimposes a threedimensional native bush setting over the store interior.
Two Wellness Labs were planned for China within the next 12 months, followed by one in the United States, Bathgate said.
The Wellness Lab concept was born about eight months ago, in partnership with design agency Blur the Lines, with construction beginning in December.
Comvita also launched its unique ma¯nuka factor 25-plus honey last week alongside an online guided meditation that incorporates tasting of the honey.
The Wellness Lab required a ‘‘significant investment’’ but the company would not disclose how much was spent on it.