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Carla Marina Marchese is the co-founder of the The American Honey Tasting Society (AHTS) and is a member of the Italian National Register of Experts in the Sensory Analysis of Honey, 
where she received her formal training. She is the co-author, with Kim Flottum (editor of Bee Culture Magazine) of The Honey Connoisseur. Marina has led guided honey tasting and cheese pairing classes at 
Murray's Cheese Shop, EATALY, 92Y, the Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD), ICC and Culinary Institute at Greystone with the National Honey Board as well as numerous corporate consulting clients.  
With 17 years experience as a beekeeper she has written about honey for national magazines including Bee Culture, Edible Nutmeg, American Mead Maker, Cheese Connoisseur and Culture: The Magazine of Cheese.
Her personal web site is Honeysommelier.com

Marina Marchese is the designer and beekeeper behind the beloved brand Red Bee Honey, and the author of Honeybee: Lessons from An Accidental Beekeeper and co-author of The Honey Connoisseur: Selecting, Tasting, and Pairing Honey. She is a Member – Italian National Registry of Experts in the Sensory Analysis of Honey and founder of The American Honey Tasting Society.

After graduating from The School of Visual Arts, Marina’s illustrations were featured in Victoria Magazine, Macy’s, and Woman’s Wear Daily launching an international design career that sent her between NYC and Shanghai. In 2000 Marina was invited to visit a neighbor’s apiary where her first taste of fresh honey from the beehive would change the course of her life. She quit
her job, built a beehive, and acquired some Italian honeybees to become a full-time beekeeper. It was on a visit to Montalcino, Italy, “The City of Honey”, that Marina became passionate about the diverse flavor profiles of varietal honey determined by the type of nectar gathered by the honeybees.


Compelled by the philosophy of terroir, Marina studied wine tasting in order to transfer those skills to honey tasting which lead her to curate a collection of single-origin seasonal honeys under her own Red Bee Brand. Her best selling memoir, Honeybee Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper, chronicles Marina’s entrepreneurial journey into the world of beekeeping. Marina’s Red Bee Apiary has been featured on ABC-TV’s The Chew, On the Road with Edible Nutmeg and The Splendid Table. Red Bee Honey is the proud recipient of the Slow Food Snail of Approval.