It's that time of year again when my inbox fills with excited notes from
award winning food producers! The winners of the
Great Taste Awards 2013 have been announced. Of course our fantastic producers have done fantastically well!
*** 3 stars
Nearly 10,000 products were entered this year and just 125 were awarded the highest accolade of three stars.
This included Salcombe Dairy's blackcurrant sorbet. Salcombe Dairy also won three stars for their fig and sherry frozen yoghurt which I didn't even know existed. I have, of course, added that to our next order! They also won one star for our best selling ice cream; Madagascan vanilla.
Azada were awarded three stars for both their
virgin hazelnut oil and their
virgin almond oil (and one star for
virgin walnut oil).
Teapigs won three stars for second year running for their
liquorice and peppermint tea.
** 2 stars
Newcomer,
Granny's Secret, was awarded two stars for their
100% apricot fruit spread and for their
sour cherries. They also received one star for their
apricot juice and one star for
ayvar, a roasted red pepper dip/spread.
Oro Bailen extra virgin olive oil was again awarded two stars.
Wessex Mill achieved a lot of two star awards. For
Wessex Cobber bread flour and
mixed grain bread flour and
pasta & pizza flour and sunflower bread flour and half & half bread flour (and if that wasn't enough, one star for
strong white bread flour).
Doves Farm were also awarded two stars for their gluten & wheat free plain white flour.
Once again
Tracklements have a collection of two star award winning products. This year, that includes
chilli jam,
strong horseradish & cream, and new product a
beetroot & horseradish relish. They were also awarded one star for each of their
roasted cherry tomato relish (another new addition) and
fig relish.
Teapigs' chamomile flowers tea was awarded two stars this year (one star last year and the year before) and
pure lemongrass tea, was also awarded two stars (as last year).
Teapigs' also received one star for their
green tea with mint which we have added to our selection this year.
Bessant and Drury's Lemon Ice-Cream was awarded two stars as was
Grumpy Mule Panama diamond mountain coffee.
Two of our favourite blue cheeses were also given two stars; the very traditional Colston Bassett Blue Stilton and the very new (and local to us) Rosethorn Blue.
* 1 star
Lots of stars went to relatively new producers this year. Including
Artisan Malt Vinegar, Nim's Apple Crisps,
Love pickle (Extra Hot), Avlaki's 'Agatherí Groves' oil and Olive Branch's
Sun Dried Tomato Paste.
Olive Branch were also awarded a gold star for their
olive oil.
Bim's Kitchen (new in 2012) won again. This time their
African Tomato & Cashew Nut Curry sauce picked up a gold star.
African Bean & Nut Curry Sauce,
Baobab Chilli Jam and
Spicy African Ketchup all received gold stars last year.
Peppersmith won their first award, for their delicious
Lemon Peppermints last year and this year were awarded one star for their Tingz.
Luscombe have been winning awards for their
Organic Sicilian Lemonade since I started following the winners back in 2007. They won another gold star this year.
Mike's Smokehouse (another perennial winner) won a hatrick of awards, for Manuka Salmon Pate, Manuka Smoked Duck and Manuka Smoked Chicken.
Pipers Crisps were awarded a gold star for both their
Anglesey sea salt crisps (again!) and their
Burrow Hill cider vinegar & sea salt crisps.
Gold stars were also given to
Navarrico's delicious giant chickpeas (
Garbanzo), The Bay Tree's
Marinated Miniature Figs, Brindisa's Tortas de Aceite, with almonds, We Are Tea's
| Moroccan Mint | Tea and Copas free range bronze turkeys. | |
If you are
really interested, you can read about who won awards in
2007,
2008,
2009, 2010,
2011 and 2012 (
part one and
part two) in my previous blog posts.
Well done everyone! I knew your products were great and now I have proof!
