Great Taste Awards Revisited

When I wrote my blog entry about the 2012 Great Taste Awards I intended to add a photo collage of all the winners we stock. I realised it might take me a while, so I published the post with the intention of returning to it later to add the photographs. Twelve months, and forty blog posts, later, and I've still not produced the collage. So I wrote a post about the 2013 award winners. And again I thought a nice collage would be a good idea. For a couple of weeks I really thought I would return to it and add photographs. I really did! But it gradually dawned on me that was not going to happen. I then had another idea. Pinterest! I could make a pinterest board of all our award winners. It still took ages to gather together the images, but I didn't have to worry about the sizes and layout. So here it is, our Great Taste Award Winners 2013!

Great Taste Awards 2013

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!

It's Official: we sell some of the best cheese in the world!

The 2012 World Cheese Awards were apparently the closest contest ever, with judges needing to sample two cheeses again before deciding on the world champion (well that's what they said anyway!). Two thousand seven hundred cheeses were judged. A world champion was selected, along with 15 other cheeses to make up the list of the world's top 16 cheeses.

In that list there were two British cheeses (along with 4 Swiss cheeses, 3 Spanish, 3 from the USA, 2 French, 1 Italian and 1 from the Netherlands). Incredibly BOTH of the British cheeses were made in Berkshire (and are obviously stocked by Tastes)! We couldn't be more proud to be stockists of Barkham Blue from Two Hoots Cheese near Wokingham and Spenwood from Village Maid Cheese nearer Reading. Well done cheese-makers!

County Delicacies Closed

Just heard that another of the independent delis in Berkshire has closed. Sadly County Delicacies in Reading shut its doors for the last time last Thursday. If anyone East of Reading is looking for their fix of Barkham Blue, or Wigmore or something else delicious, do pop into Tastes in Eton (or give us a call). If you are missing something we don't currently stock we'll do our best to source it for you.

British Cheese Awards 2009

It is that time of year again. The Great British Cheese Festival begins today along with British Cheese Week. And last night the winners of the coveted British Cheese Awards were announced at the National Museum Cardiff.

Our local cheese makers did well again. Although not best at show, Wigmore won silver in the "soft white cheese" category and Spenwood (also made by Anne and Andy Wigmore) won bronze in the "modern British" category.

Best "semi-soft cheese" was this year won by Rachel, from White Lake Cheeses. This is one of our favourite goats' cheeses. With a washed rind and lovely texture, Rachel is one of our regulars. It also won a gold medal in the "rind washed semi-soft cheese" category. Another of our favourite goats' milk cheeses also won gold in the "other cooking cheeses" category; the delicious Rosary Goats Cheese (on the left in the photo). The ash coated version (which we have when we can get it) won gold in the "cheeseboard" category and pepper coated won silver in the "flavour added category". In the same category our other fresh cheese the Gruth Dhu (or Black Crowdie) from Scotland won Bronze.

Saint Giles and Olde Winchester both won bronze in the "modern British category".

I've been studying the winners and will be introducing a few more as guest cheeses over the next few months.

British Cheese Awards 2008

Last week saw the announcement of the winners of the British Cheese Awards 2008. It has been a mixed blessing. The wonderful (and local to us) Barkham Blue, made by Sandy and Andy Rose near Wokingham, won no less than three major awards:
Best Blue Cheese
Best English Cheese
Supreme Champion

No mean feet as it was up against over 900 cheeses from all around the British Isles. We knew it was a wonderful cheese. A sweet, spicy blue, deliciously creamy and moreish. The trouble is that now everyone else knows how great it is and we can't get hold of any!

Another of our local specials, the Wigmore, made by Sandy Rose's cousin Anne, at Village Maid Dairies won best soft white. A good day for Berkshire cheese makers! Not such a good day for Berkshire delicatessens now facing a shortage of their favourites!

A full list of the winners can be found at:
http://www.thecheeseweb.com/contentok.php?id=278

and an article on the BBC web site:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/7649621.stm