A very good loaf, in a very bad bag
Melipsa began with an irritation. Our founder, Lynne, had spent the better part of two days on a sourdough — feeding, folding, proving, waiting — and then wrapped the finished loaf in the same supermarket plastic bag she would have used for a pack of rolls. By the next morning the crust she had worked hardest on had gone soft and leathery.
The alternatives were not much better. Paper kept the crust crisp and turned the crumb to dust by day two. A tea towel did roughly nothing. The bread bin was full of other things. And the bags sold online as “beeswax” turned out, more often than not, to be lined with a clear plastic film.
So we made the thing we wanted: a properly waxed cotton bag, cut big enough for a real boule, made pleasant enough to leave out on the worktop, and sold with the knowledge you actually need to keep bread well.
Engineered perfection, borrowed from the hive
Melipsa takes its name from the Greek mélissa, honeybee. Long before us, the honeybee solved the problem we set out to: hold the most, waste the least, keep what is precious fresh. She builds in hexagons — nature’s strongest, most efficient form — sealing each cell in wax to guard the harvest within.
We took our name, and our method, from her. Every Melipsa bag is lined with natural beeswax — what bees have trusted for millions of years to keep food fresh. It is not a decorative story we attached afterwards; it is the reason the product works.
Fresh by design.
Meet Lynne
Melipsa is run by its founder. Lynne designs the products, writes the recipes, checks the samples and answers the questions — and if something has gone wrong with an order, it is Lynne who sorts it out.
“I wanted something that treated a homemade loaf with a bit of respect — and that looked good enough to leave out on the worktop instead of hiding in a cupboard.”
— Lynne, founder of Melipsa
Three things we will not do
Call plastic beeswax
A great many bags sold as beeswax are lined with TPU film. Ours are waxed, you can see the wax, and we will always say plainly which is which.
Promise a number of days
How long a loaf keeps depends on the bread, the kitchen and the weather. We will tell you what the bag does and let you judge the rest.
Photograph something you are not buying
Every picture on this site is of the product as it ships — the same bags, the same book, the same box.
The range will grow slowly, on purpose
The bread bags are a first release. Over time Melipsa will add a small number of carefully considered kitchen pieces built on the same idea — keeping good food fresh, without wrapping it in plastic. Each one has to earn its place in the box before it earns a place in your kitchen.
Two bags, a recipe book, one box
The complete Melipsa set — beeswax-lined, generously sized, and boxed ready to give.
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