Taken from JRE #1925 w/Sonny from Best Ever Food Review Show:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/12Vs2dMqloii7bsxOJugex?si=06f820d7e8414e9c

At some point we should talk about the mad honey.

Yeah, yeah, well that's how you and I got in touch recently.

Yeah, you saw us talking about mad honey on the show and you reached out and said I'm actually right now harvesting mad honey.

You sent me a photo of you actually doing it right there.

I'm gonna grab some from my bag right now.

Now this looks like store-bought honey because there's a label on there.

What that truly is, is I transferred the honey to this grocery store bottle, so if I went through customs, I wouldn't have any issues.

But that is the same honey I showed you in the video.

So, if you look at it, you can open it up, you'll see a couple things.

You'll see it's a little bit more liquidy than typical honey, typical golden, you know, in the bottle shaped like a bear honey.

And this is supposed to be the honey that makes you trip balls?

A little bit of buildup, a little bit of backstory.

These, the honey, I think, I just think we should explain where the honey comes from.

There's different places around the world.

Do you have a video of you doing it yet or is it not released yet?

we can find a video of them harvesting mad honey because it's really fascinating how they have to do it

Yes So it was about maybe a 12-hour drive from the capital of Kathmandu that we went to this village of maybe 500 people and we joined these these guys as they collected the honey, and they don't have like honey boxes the honey is on the mountain sides And they basically risk their lives taking these ladders They have these ladders these rope ladders and the reason they need rope ladders is because they need to be able to hike sometimes up to several hours to go to where the honey is.

The honey's not conveniently located it's located wherever the hell the bees put it.

And so they they take these rolled up ladders and they they string it on the cliff, they climb the ladders or descend from the ladders, and then they have to carefully use these long sticks to cut the honeycomb off of the mountainside.

Before doing that, they put some pegs into the honeycomb.

So this is like a big, flat, protruding honeycomb coming from the mountainside.

And then eventually they cut it off and they lower it down the people on the bottom then collect the honey and they can start to process it what so There's a couple things that are interesting here.

1 is like the collection process, which is dangerous and just kind of unbelievable I mean 1 of the scariest you see all these bees here I Had to wear the bee hat everyone nobody messes around everyone wears the bee hat as soon as they get the smoke going these bees go insane and you see thousands of bees Stinging the shit out of everything and everyone trying to get it through people's clothing and you know when bees sting their stinger comes out Right, so it's all just a Kamikaze mission

for all these different bees and So all these people are getting stung

the guy my guide who wasn't used to being there got about 4 bees Inside the hat and that's never what you want and so Their solution was that to that was to reach to his hat inside the net and pinch the bees inside Rather than trying to get them out.

They just killed him inside And so when they they got the honey, for example, you can see here.

They're dumping out of the basket There's gonna be tons of bees and honey mixed together when I flew my drone there I landed the drone and it was wet with bee body parts.

I must have shredded a thousand bees just with my drone.

And before you go there, Before you put the smoke, the honeycomb is black because it's completely covered by the bees.

But after the smoke comes up, it reveals the actual yellow honeycomb underneath.

So the smoke is to try to calm down these bees, right?

They start fires at the base of the cliff?

They know how to start a fire and basically put it into a makeshift backpack and then carry it up.

So they're carrying smoke on their back and then dumping it at the base of the cliff and then the smoke goes up and then the bees go insane from there

is it because the bees know Are they accustomed to people trying to steal their honey?

I do think it puts them in a defensive mode, but also just like a lot of insects don't like smoke.

So it's like they know they have to leave because they're smoke, but they want to protect the hives at all costs.

The other aspect is the the hallucinogenic Light-headed effects that are purported to come from eating the honey.

The bees collect I forget if it's nectar or pollen from certain types of flowers that grow there locally and these flowers have some kind of chemicals inside it's a creates a neurotoxic effect in your brain when you eat it.

So I interviewed a villager, this is why I want to build up a little bit so you can see how gung-ho about trying the honey you still are, but I think we should still absolutely do it together.

I went to a villager there, I was thinking everyone's just going to be jacked up on honey all the time and it's a great time.

And so I talked to this guy, he was the 1 who owned the cliff where the honey is, and I said, how often do you do it?

He goes, I did it 20 years ago, that's the last time.

I said, can you walk me through the experience?

He said, I took a lot and I couldn't walk for 24 hours.

I've heard similar stories from people while I was there.

And it seemed interesting because at least in the village I went to, I know it's different in different parts of Nepal but at least where I went people seemed like I've done it and I'm good and They didn't really want to do it much more.

Well, there's a big market in places like Japan and especially Korea.

They said where People want to buy the honey and eat the honey, which is interesting because I looked it up and it's actually illegal in Korea, it said.

So this brings me to, that day I tried a bit.

And I got scared about trying too much because we still had to hike an hour out of there, then a 3 hour drive.

But my brother, my brother joined me, My brother Scott joined me at a hotel in St Cloud recently about a week and a half ago and he knew I had the honey because I talked about bringing it here And he's like I want to try the honey And he's a bit of a hater and he's like it's fucking honey.

And I gotta go to bed because I got work to do the next day and saw me in his room across from mine in The hotel and I give him a couple spoons and I'm like you should just do a couple spoons wait 30 minutes and see how You feel he goes.

If I want more, I'll take it So while I'm still there he takes more maybe 5 6 spoons Then I go.

Let me know actually I said, why don't you text me?

The effects During the evening and I'll know what to expect when I do it.

So here's what he said I've got his text right here feels good warm warm breath He goes on Totally legit.

All right hater vibes gone My body's on fire in a very positive way.

I brought this spoon because I want I needed like a measurement system, right?

That was accurate I'm like, I need to know exactly which spoon you used.

I don't know if you want to share this plastic spoon.

I also brought these these are a little bit deeper, okay?

think I should use a regular spoon this other 1 I'm gonna use the spoon that was used

okay, you just so you got to mix it up first

I mixed it up before coming here, but it separates.

It definitely feels different than regular honey,

I think I took too much yeah Let's find out so

You don't want to leave me alone to try things on my own time.

Because right away I feel it in the back of my throat.

Like I want to cough on it to clear my throat.

It's not hot like hot peppers, but it's got like that feeling like you're reacting to it, almost like a hot pepper a little bit

like a whoo yeah yeah like I want to cough when I have it mmm sorry so I'm told at least by this guy in the mountain in Nepal don't drink any water he's like you're just gonna want to drink more and more water and look I don't know what this is like a redneck like mountain bro speak bro science but he said if you sorry yeah I'm feeling it at least here in my throat I'm feeling it

over he So this guy said if you drink water you're just gonna want to keep drinking more and more water and you'll never stop drinking water and you'll make you more sick.

So my brother felt hung over the next day.

He said that so what happens is it can lower your blood pressure and and I think that's what makes it difficult to move and to walk.

So your next question might be why the fuck do people want to take this?

I don't know I couldn't figure it out and so I think maybe in the right dose Like too much of anything is bad.

You know when you watch the news and they're like, hey, kids are doing this and they shouldn't be.

And you're like, fuck, you didn't get high from cough syrup?

And I did it and it was like the worst 24 hours of my life.

I think a little bit of honey in your tea at night might calm you down, it might be soothing.

But to me it's unclear why people are into it.

There's not 1 and then there's no There's no way of figuring out like how potent, you know It's not like when you buy marijuana edibles, you can figure out how many milligrams are you really well at least it's

a rough estimate right here It says mad honey has been commonly used as an aphrodisiac no sexual stimulant in alternative therapy for gastrointestinal disorders peptic ulcer disease dyspepsia and gastritis and for hypertension for a long time see what the recommended dose of Mad honey is so they're selling a bunch of mad honey online, but is that real or is a lot of it phony baloney?

It's hard to say and you know, that's the trouble I had even when I was there and luckily I had a fixer a local producer who I could really Trust and he said it's a real deal, and I trust him as soon as I tried it I felt something like you know I felt it in my throat I felt did you feel your face get a little bit warm or flush no no I mean you didn't take enough maybe hopefully but hopefully

Matt honey, and that's as 1 to 3 tablespoons Mmm, but and then please read carefully each of us is unique our body chemistry Genetics tolerance lifestyle and environment makes us all very different for every person.

Finding the appropriate mad honey amount is a personal, individual process, and as such, there is no one-size-fits-all dose.

I don't know what I'm going to do with it.

Maybe I'll find this perfect ratio and it'll be the perfect sleeping aid.

But I do think there's probably a lot of bullshit online, because how hard would it be to take this, mix it with 10 gallons of honey, and be like, yeah, it's mad honey.

Yeah, our friend the beekeeper, Erica, what's her last name?

We had a local beekeeper on recently it was really fascinating very interesting conversation and she was saying that a lot of honey that you buy particularly honey from overseas is not really honey it's like partly honey but they mix it in with corn syrup and oh

I think Thompson just like maple syrup I think most of the honey in the US is that like corn syrup


Speaker 0: The Jirogan Experience

Speaker 1: At some point we should talk about the mad honey.

Speaker 0: Yeah, yeah, well that's how you and I got in touch recently. Right. Yeah, you saw us talking about mad honey on the show and you reached out and said I'm actually right now harvesting mad honey. Yes. You sent me a photo of you actually doing it right there.

Speaker 1: I'm gonna grab some from my bag right now.

Speaker 0: Okay. And this mad honey you were in Tibet? Is that where you get it from?

Speaker 1: This was in Nepal. Nepal. Very close to Tibet. This is it. Now this looks like store-bought honey because there's a label on there.

What that truly is, is I transferred the honey to this grocery store bottle, so if I went through customs, I wouldn't have any issues. Good move. But that is the same honey I showed you in the video. So, if you look at it, you can open it up, you'll see a couple things. You'll see it's a little bit more liquidy than typical honey, typical golden, you know, in the bottle shaped like a bear honey.

Speaker 0: And this is supposed to be the honey that makes you trip balls? Yeah. Does it?

Speaker 1: So I think we should try it in a moment.

Speaker 0: In a moment? Are you willing to try it? Yeah, I'll try it right now.

Speaker 1: Don't try it right

Speaker 0: now. Okay.

Speaker 1: Okay, hold on. A little bit of buildup, a little bit of backstory. Sorry, I'm very controlling.

Speaker 0: It's okay.

Speaker 1: So you see it's soupy, you see it's red. Yes. I went to Nepal. Some people know how this works already. These, the honey, I think, I just think we should explain where the honey comes from.

Right, yeah. The honey comes from these cliffs. There's different places around the world.

Speaker 0: Do you have a video of you doing it yet or is it not released yet?

Speaker 1: Not really, so

Speaker 0: we can find a video of them harvesting mad honey because it's really fascinating how they have to do it

Speaker 1: Yes So it was about maybe a 12-hour drive from the capital of Kathmandu that we went to this village of maybe 500 people and we joined these these guys as they collected the honey, and they don't have like honey boxes the honey is on the mountain sides And they basically risk their lives taking these ladders They have these ladders these rope ladders and the reason they need rope ladders is because they need to be able to hike sometimes up to several hours to go to where the honey is. The honey's not conveniently located it's located wherever the hell the bees put it.

Speaker 0: Keep playing it, Jeremy.

Speaker 1: And so they they take these rolled up ladders and they they string it on the cliff, they climb the ladders or descend from the ladders, and then they have to carefully use these long sticks to cut the honeycomb off of the mountainside. Before doing that, they put some pegs into the honeycomb. So this is like a big, flat, protruding honeycomb coming from the mountainside. And then eventually they cut it off and they lower it down the people on the bottom then collect the honey and they can start to process it what so There's a couple things that are interesting here. 1 is like the collection process, which is dangerous and just kind of unbelievable I mean 1 of the scariest you see all these bees here I Had to wear the bee hat everyone nobody messes around everyone wears the bee hat as soon as they get the smoke going these bees go insane and you see thousands of bees Stinging the shit out of everything and everyone trying to get it through people's clothing and you know when bees sting their stinger comes out Right, so it's all just a Kamikaze mission

Speaker 0: for all these different bees and So all these people are getting stung

Speaker 1: so they had the appropriate clothing

Speaker 0: But their hands

Speaker 1: the guy my guide who wasn't used to being there got about 4 bees Inside the hat and that's never what you want and so Their solution was that to that was to reach to his hat inside the net and pinch the bees inside Rather than trying to get them out. They just killed him inside And so when they they got the honey, for example, you can see here. They're dumping out of the basket There's gonna be tons of bees and honey mixed together when I flew my drone there I landed the drone and it was wet with bee body parts. I must have shredded a thousand bees just with my drone. Wow.

So they are on the defense. And before you go there, Before you put the smoke, the honeycomb is black because it's completely covered by the bees. But after the smoke comes up, it reveals the actual yellow honeycomb underneath. So that's 1 interesting aspect to this.

Speaker 0: So the smoke is to try to calm down these bees, right?

Speaker 1: To repel them, to make

Speaker 0: them leave. So how do they do that? They start fires at the base of the cliff?

Speaker 1: Yes. And these guys are so badass. They know how to start a fire and basically put it into a makeshift backpack and then carry it up. Oh, boy. So they're carrying smoke on their back and then dumping it at the base of the cliff and then the smoke goes up and then the bees go insane from there

Speaker 0: is it because the bees know Are they accustomed to people trying to steal their honey?

Speaker 1: I do think it puts them in a defensive mode, but also just like a lot of insects don't like smoke. So it's like they know they have to leave because they're smoke, but they want to protect the hives at all costs. So That's 1 aspect. The other aspect is the the hallucinogenic Light-headed effects that are purported to come from eating the honey. So how does that happen?

The bees collect I forget if it's nectar or pollen from certain types of flowers that grow there locally and these flowers have some kind of chemicals inside it's a creates a neurotoxic effect in your brain when you eat it. So I interviewed a villager, this is why I want to build up a little bit so you can see how gung-ho about trying the honey you still are, but I think we should still absolutely do it together. I went to a villager there, I was thinking everyone's just going to be jacked up on honey all the time and it's a great time. And so I talked to this guy, he was the 1 who owned the cliff where the honey is, and I said, how often do you do it? He goes, I did it 20 years ago, that's the last time.

I said, can you walk me through the experience? He said, I took a lot and I couldn't walk for 24 hours. I said, oh, you couldn't walk. Okay. That's pretty extreme.

I've heard similar stories from people while I was there. And it seemed interesting because at least in the village I went to, I know it's different in different parts of Nepal but at least where I went people seemed like I've done it and I'm good and They didn't really want to do it much more. So why are they collecting it? Well, there's a big market in places like Japan and especially Korea. They said where People want to buy the honey and eat the honey, which is interesting because I looked it up and it's actually illegal in Korea, it said.

So this brings me to, that day I tried a bit. I tried about a spoon. And I got scared about trying too much because we still had to hike an hour out of there, then a 3 hour drive. I'm like, I need to use my legs. But my brother, my brother joined me, My brother Scott joined me at a hotel in St Cloud recently about a week and a half ago and he knew I had the honey because I talked about bringing it here And he's like I want to try the honey And he's a bit of a hater and he's like it's fucking honey.

What's gonna happen? And I gotta go to bed because I got work to do the next day and saw me in his room across from mine in The hotel and I give him a couple spoons and I'm like you should just do a couple spoons wait 30 minutes and see how You feel he goes. Yeah. No, just give me more. You're going to sleep soon.

Just give me more. If I want more, I'll take it So while I'm still there he takes more maybe 5 6 spoons Then I go. All right. I gotta go to bed. Have a good time.

Let me know actually I said, why don't you text me? The effects During the evening and I'll know what to expect when I do it. So here's what he said I've got his text right here feels good warm warm breath He goes on Totally legit. All right hater vibes gone My body's on fire in a very positive way. It's weird.

My scalp feels hot. My muscles tingle. So far, good. Might get nauseous. Take less.

I can't tell. Not good. Regret. Very bad. Just don't.

Stupid. I keep hoping I'm done. I'm so sick. At 540 AM. I should maybe eat a banana.

So. That's my brother.

Speaker 0: So how much in total did you take

Speaker 1: 6 spoons? 6 of this spoon. I brought this spoon because I want I needed like a measurement system, right? That was accurate I'm like, I need to know exactly which spoon you used.

Speaker 0: A basic plastic ice cream spoon.

Speaker 1: Yeah. And so this is not a deep, big spoon. This is not a tablespoon.

Speaker 0: You took 6 of those.

Speaker 1: Yeah, about 6. So I think we should try it out. And maybe we start-

Speaker 0: It sounds like shit. Sounds terrible.

Speaker 1: No, but if you do too much, it's shit. Are you sure? We got to find out, Joe.

Speaker 0: But do we have to find out here?

Speaker 1: How long does it take? I think we'll feel- The show will

Speaker 0: be over before we really feel it.

Speaker 1: How much time do we have left?

Speaker 0: I don't know. As long as

Speaker 1: we want, really. Why not try a little bit?

Speaker 0: Okay, let's try a little bit.

Speaker 1: Try a little bit. I don't know if you want to share this plastic spoon. I also brought these these are a little bit deeper, okay? This is what I

Speaker 0: think I should use a regular spoon this other 1 I'm gonna use the spoon that was used

Speaker 1: okay, you just so you got to mix it up first

Speaker 0: Okay,

Speaker 1: Mix it up real good. I mixed it up before coming here, but it separates. I'm not sure what's separating in there.

Speaker 0: It's very liquidy. It's very different than honey. Like regular honey. I'm just gonna have a little bit. Does it

Speaker 1: smell like honey?

Speaker 0: Yeah. It tastes like honey too. Do a whole spoon. No, I'm going to do a half spoon.

Speaker 1: Okay. You got plans tonight?

Speaker 0: Yeah, I got a show I got to do. I can't have fake legs. My legs aren't moving. Fake legs.

Speaker 1: Wow, it feels weird. Don't drink any water. I'll take a little bit too.

Speaker 0: It definitely feels different than regular honey,

Speaker 1: I think I took too much yeah Let's find out so

Speaker 0: You want to put the lid on

Speaker 1: it sure? I'll leave this 1 here for you. Thank you. You can try it on your own time. The first thing I experienced.

Speaker 0: You don't want to leave me alone to try things on my own time. I've gone down dark roads. Do

Speaker 1: you feel anything? Because right away I feel it in the back of my throat. Yeah I feel it in the

Speaker 0: back of my throat.

Speaker 1: Itchy. Like I want to cough on it to clear my throat.

Speaker 0: Yeah it's it's almost got like a... It's not hot like hot peppers, but it's got like that feeling like you're reacting to it, almost like a hot pepper a little bit

Speaker 1: like a whoo yeah yeah like I want to cough when I have it mmm sorry so I'm told at least by this guy in the mountain in Nepal don't drink any water he's like you're just gonna want to drink more and more water and look I don't know what this is like a redneck like mountain bro speak bro science but he said if you sorry yeah I'm feeling it at least here in my throat I'm feeling it

Speaker 0: how did your brother feel after was all

Speaker 1: over he So this guy said if you drink water you're just gonna want to keep drinking more and more water and you'll never stop drinking water and you'll make you more sick. I don't know. So my brother felt hung over the next day. He felt stiff. He said that so what happens is it can lower your blood pressure and and I think that's what makes it difficult to move and to walk.

So your next question might be why the fuck do people want to take this? Right. I don't know I couldn't figure it out and so I think maybe in the right dose Like too much of anything is bad. A little bit of cough syrup, great. The whole bottle, I did that 1 time.

Huge mistake. You know when you watch the news and they're like, hey, kids are doing this and they shouldn't be. And you're like, fuck, you didn't get high from cough syrup?

Speaker 0: I was

Speaker 1: like, I'm gonna do that. And I did it and it was like the worst 24 hours of my life. I think a little bit of honey in your tea at night might calm you down, it might be soothing. I'm not sure. But to me it's unclear why people are into it.

Folks in Korea seem to like it a lot. At least that's what I learned in Nepal.

Speaker 0: So they, what's the recommended dose?

Speaker 1: Yeah that's the tricky part. There's not 1. There's not 1 and then there's no There's no way of figuring out like how potent, you know It's not like when you buy marijuana edibles, you can figure out how many milligrams are you really well at least it's

Speaker 0: a rough estimate right here It says mad honey has been commonly used as an aphrodisiac no sexual stimulant in alternative therapy for gastrointestinal disorders peptic ulcer disease dyspepsia and gastritis and for hypertension for a long time see what the recommended dose of Mad honey is so they're selling a bunch of mad honey online, but is that real or is a lot of it phony baloney?

Speaker 1: It's hard to say and you know, that's the trouble I had even when I was there and luckily I had a fixer a local producer who I could really Trust and he said it's a real deal, and I trust him as soon as I tried it I felt something like you know I felt it in my throat I felt did you feel your face get a little bit warm or flush no no I mean you didn't take enough maybe hopefully but hopefully

Speaker 0: Matt honey, and that's as 1 to 3 tablespoons Mmm, but and then please read carefully each of us is unique our body chemistry Genetics tolerance lifestyle and environment makes us all very different for every person. Finding the appropriate mad honey amount is a personal, individual process, and as such, there is no one-size-fits-all dose. It's like edibles. Yeah, like edibles. Jamie can eat edibles all day long.

I could probably have the whole jar.

Speaker 1: Yeah, you should try it.

Speaker 0: I don't think so. I'm going

Speaker 1: to leave it here. I have 2 jars. I have 1 in my suitcase. I don't know what I'm going to do with it. Maybe I'll find this perfect ratio and it'll be the perfect sleeping aid.

But I do think there's probably a lot of bullshit online, because how hard would it be to take this, mix it with 10 gallons of honey, and be like, yeah, it's mad honey. Whatever, put a little red dye in there.

Speaker 0: Yeah, our friend the beekeeper, Erica, what's her last name? Sorry, no worries. We had a local beekeeper on recently it was really fascinating very interesting conversation and she was saying that a lot of honey that you buy particularly honey from overseas is not really honey it's like partly honey but they mix it in with corn syrup and oh

Speaker 1: I think Thompson just like maple syrup I think most of the honey in the US is that like corn syrup

Speaker 0: most of it Really?

Speaker 1: I think so, but I'm based on fucking nothing. That's just my intuition

Speaker 0: She said you have to buy local honey by local honey from local beekeepers.

Speaker 1: I totally

Speaker 0: agree do it. Yeah

Speaker 1: Yeah, so, that's it. But you feel good now, right?

Speaker 0: Yeah, I feel fine. Is there

Speaker 1: a time where you would try more to see what it did?

Speaker 0: Yeah, I'll try more of this, you know, if I get out of this, okay.

Speaker 1: Oh, I think you'll be fine. I think you just kind of taste it a little bit.

Speaker 0: Yeah. So, you know, I'll try

Speaker 1: a full tablespoon. For me, when I had it in the mountain I didn't hallucinate but I lights seemed a bit more vivid and like if I looked at lights like the lights behind you and looked away they were still kind of in my vision.

Speaker 0: It's just fascinating that the locals are like, yeah, I did it 20 years ago, I'm good.

Speaker 1: Yeah, well, right, and that's what made me even more apprehensive about trying it. Yeah. So.

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Joe Tries Mad Honey - The Hallucinogenic Honey from the Himalayas