Cheshire success at Great Taste Awards #Blog
Taste Cheshire
22nd August 2014
Cheshire food and drink producers were celebrating this week after scooping around 50 gold stars between them in this year’s Great Taste Awards.
Organised by the Guild of Fine Food, Great Taste is widely acknowledged as the most respected food accreditation scheme for artisan and speciality food producers and has even been described as the ‘Oscars’ of the food world. Winners are entitled to include the Great Taste logo on their packaging which is a sign you can trust when buying food and drink in your local, quality retailer.
The Great Taste Awards is run annually by the Guild of Fine Foods and is decided by a team of over 400 judges, comprising of food critics, chefs, cooks, members of the Women’s Institute, producers and a host of food writers and journalists in a number of blind tasting sessions. Each product is judged solely on taste without being influenced by clever branding or smart packaging and the panel taste, confer and re-taste before making the decision on whether a product should be a Great Taste 1-, 2- or 3-star winner.
This year, judges spent hours tasting a total of 10,000 different products. Of those, only 153 have been awarded a prestigious Great Taste 3-star rating.
Nelstrops Family Millers based in Stockport was the only Cheshire producer to be awarded 3 gold stars. They won the top accolade for two of their products ‘Wheat and Barley flour with Poppy, Millet, Sunflower seeds and Rye’ and ‘Wheat flour with Toasted malted wheat flakes, Kibbled wheat and malted Barley flour’, which was described by the judges as “nutty, complex and full flavoured flour”. Alexander Nelstrop commented that “although we have been supplying craft bakers for 190 years, we have only very recently started making our flours available to home bakers and are at the start of our journey in this regard. We are very pleased that our flours have been recognised so highly by Great Taste.
Four Cheshire producers came away with an impressive Great Taste 2-star rating: Mrs Darlington & Daughter’sfor their ‘Lemon & Lime curd’, Christine’s Preserves for ‘Raspberry Vodka Liqueur’, ‘Lemon & Lime Marmalade’ by Galore! Foods based in Bollington and ‘Seville Orange Marmalade’ handmade in small batches at Kenyon Hall Farm, Warrington – who also picked up 1-star awards for their ‘Courgette Pickle’ and ‘Lemon Delight Marmalade’.
Single Gold stars were awarded to a wide range of other Cheshire producers including Mornflake cereals who gained six for their oat granola, muesli and oat bran cereal range. Macclesfield’s Spanish Passion Foods and Wines Ltd won five 1-star ratings for their products. Also from Macclesfield, The Pate & Wine Company won gold stars for ‘Cheshire chicken liver, English butter, fresh thyme-sage, French brandy’ and ‘Locally smoked Cheshire trout and horseradish’ pates. Sweet Emily Puddings and Preserves won for their home grown rhubarb and vanilla jam.
Other single gold stars were awarded to Knutsford’s ‘Pudology’ for gluten free chocolate coconut and vanilla ganache and ‘The Sauce Queen’ for her ‘Private Peppered Reserve’ sauce. Sam’s Chilli Preserves, based in Bowden picked up a gold star for both ‘Hot’ and ‘Extra Hot Orange Chilli’ jams which are available every Sunday at Altrincham Market.
Delamere Dairy won single gold stars for their goats’ butter and their Cheddar style goat’s cheese whilstSnugbury’s ice cream won for their Crème Brulee flavour. ‘So Baby Organics’ from Tattenhall picked up three 1-star awards for their handmade organic baby food. Chester based Quinteassential Fine Teas were awarded gold stars for three of their fantastic loose leaf blends ‘Tales of the Orient’, ‘Cleanse’ and ‘White Elixir’.
Now top producers from all over the country will have to wait with baited breath to see if they are in with a chance of the top awards in each region to be announced at the Great Taste Golden Fork Awards Dinner in London on September 8th.