The standard New York City rooftops offer stunning views, luxury lounges, and intimate spaces. Little Opus at the Muse Hotel offered something sweeter.
In partnership with Alvèole, an urban beekeeping company that transforms rooftops into living ecosystems through managed hives and immersive experiences, the hotel launched a “hive-to-glass” journey honoring urban biodiversity and nature in Times Square.
For a busy city like New York, the hive-to-glass experience invites you to slow down and indulge. Guests entered, embracing themselves for the full-on bee experience. The experience featured a full-on honey fest, including candle-making, honey tasting, meeting the bees, and most importantly, a queen bee reveal. Guests also had the chance to guess the name of the queen bee before her big reveal (Bee-Anna was my guess!)
Queen bee name submission station at The Muse Hotel x Little Opus Event in New York City | Photo by The Knockturnal
Throughout every station, we’ve spent most of our time over at the honey-tasting table to learn more about the different variations on display for us. Will Duncan, Urban beekeeper at Alvéole, said, “The difference in color and flavor of honey is determined by when the bees that made the honey collected that nectar.” The sweeter honey was light and refreshing during our tasting. The darker honey had a much richer, more grounded taste. Duncan also adds, “So nectar that is available in the Springtime, there is a certain group of flowers that are blooming and creating nectar, which creates lighter, sweeter honey, and then later in the year, makes a different color and flavor.” He concludes.
So, as a reminder to us all, when shopping for honey, lighter is sweeter springtime honey, and later in the year is darker autumn honey!