There’s been a lot of recent buzz about Björn’s Colorado Honey, a local company founded by beekeeper Pontus Jakobsson and his wife, Lara Boudreaux, in 2013. Jakobsson grew up around bees; his father and grandfather (the company’s namesake) both plied the trade in his home country of Sweden. Before 2020, you’d have to comb local farmers’ markets to track down a jar of Björn’s, but over the past six years, the couple has opened retail stores in seven cities.

In chic, yellow-accented and natural-wood-filled spaces, they offer clover, wildflower, and orchard honey from their Boulder, Weld, and Larimer county apiaries; European-made, bee-based skincare products that Jakobsson’s family has sold for decades in Sweden; bee-themed mugs and other kitchenware; and several honeys from beekeeper friends in other states.

5280 May 2026
More From The Issue

With the recent addition of the company’s first cafe, in DIA’s Concourse C, Björn’s now has more than 90 employees, but Jakobsson and one other beekeeper still do most of the hive maintenance and honey harvesting.

Here’s how the company expanded from a backyard operation to a statewide brand.

How Björn’s Colorado Honey Grew From a Farmers’ Market Stand to DIA

A beekeeper tending his hives
Pontus Jakobsson tending his hives. Photo courtesy of Lara Boudreaux

2012: Jakobsson and Boudreaux get married, and Jakobsson moves to Boulder (where Boudreaux has lived since 2007).

2013: Jakobsson launches Björn’s Colorado Honey in the spring and sells the inaugural harvest at the Louisville Farmers Market in May.

2017: Jakobsson and Boudreaux welcome their daughter, Ester Jakobsson, to the hive.

Lara Boudreaux and Pontus Jakobsson with their daughter, Ester
Lara Boudreaux and Pontus Jakobsson with their daughter, Ester. Photo courtesy of Eliza Earle

2020: The first of an eventual four Björn’s kiosks opens at DIA in February, followed by the brand’s first retail brick-and-mortar in Breckenridge in December. Over the next six years, Björn’s will add locations in Steamboat Springs, Littleton, Golden, Vail, Boulder, and Fort Collins.

2021: Jakobsson takes on a beekeeping apprentice, Sawyer Gilsdorf, who is now a full-time employee. Jakobsson and Boudreaux move their business from their Boulder home to a new, larger production facility on a Brighton farmstead.

2026: Björn’s opens its first beverage cafe at DIA, where travelers can pick up hostess gifts—from beeswax candles to wildflower seed packets—as well as drinks sweetened with its honey. The Denver Fog has Earl Grey tea and lavender honey, while the Pooh, created for kids, is simply steamed milk and clover blossom honey.

Read More: The Best Farmers’ Markets in Metro Denver and Beyond