Drum roll please

I've been looking at sales figure for 2014 and thought this would be a good opportunity to give a little mention/fanfare to some of our best sellers. This is a highly unscientifically researched list as it includes all sales from 1st Jan - 31st Dec and is not weighted in any way to take account of new products introduced during the year, or seasonal lines. I think there are also some spurious sales which skew the results (like the French Sticks being used in buffets in great quantities). So any shopkeepers out there might not want to use this as a buying guide. But for those who want to give a little round of applause to our caveat-ed 2014 best sellers, here they are...

Most Popular Bread: French Stick, followed very closely (57 fewer) by the small white farmhouse (sliced).

Most in Demand Breakfast Cereal: Midfields Granola, original granola. Although by weight we sold more of the wheat free version as we have that in 500g and 1kg bags. See, this research lark is highly dubious!

Most Purchased Cake / Biscuit: In a packet the Gingerbread man was the best selling, from our counter, the Marathon Flapjack won. I might need to develop a cross between those two items. It's bound to be a runaway success! (sorry)  "Run Run as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the marathon gingerbread man".

Most Favoured Chutney / Pickle / Mustard: Raydale Preserves Goats' Cheese Lover's Chutney / Biona Cornichons / Tracklements Strong English Mustard (closely followed by German Mustard which actually sold more online). We've seen a huge increase in sales of Strong English Mustard recently. I've no idea why, but according to Tracklements we aren't the only shop to notice.

Most Appropriated Coffee: Beanberry Coffee Company Yirgacheffe Coffee Beans. A really problematic category to study "properly" as our coffee beans are freshly roasted and therefore not all of them are available at all times of the year.

Most Requisitioned Cooking Sauce: Anila's Spicy Medium Curry Sauce continues to outsell all the other curry sauces, and all the pasta sauces as well. Always has done.

Most Sought After Confectionery: Licorice Log. I'm pleased to see RJs are still doing well here. The bags of licorice were the first line we carried to sell 100 units, way back in 2007.

Most Crowd Pleasing Crackers: Stockan's Thin triangular oatcakes. Also, the cheapest item in this list at just 65p per pack. They have to sell well to pay the rent on their tiny bit of shop!

Most Popular Crisps/Nuts: Tomato & Basil Pastinos, which was a surprise to me. I would have said Piper's Anglesey Sea Salt crisps would have been the best seller in this category, but they weren't even second; that was a tie between the Lemon Pastinos and Piper's sea salt and cider vinegar crisps.

... Cheese: Snowdonia Cheese Company Black Bomber (beating the second place cheese by more than 67kg).

... Ice Cream: Salcombe Dairy Madagascan Vanilla.

... Jam / Marmalade / Honey:  Susie's Strawberry Jam and Susie's Three Fruit Marmalade / Berkshire Honey. The honey statistics are really unfair as months go by when I don't have some of our honey varieties whilst I wait for the weather to warm up and the bees to produce more.

... Milk: Semi-skimmed one litre. The second most popular milk was the one litre non-homogenised organic milk. But it was more than one thousand units behind, so not exactly a close contest! I suspect that this year we might sell more of the non-homogensised full fat milk as customers are seeking it out for toddlers and to make their own cheeses.

... Oil/Vinegar: Not a level playing field. Technically the best selling oil was coconut oil. But we only have two varieties of that and more than a dozen different plain extra virgin olive oils (and plenty of flavoured ones as well).  So I'm also going to declare Zaytoun's Palestinian Extra Virgin Olive Oil a winner as well. Even though it was actually 4th after coconut oil, rapeseed oil (which we had 2 versions of) and ghee (we only have one variety).

Similarly, the best selling vinegar was Raw Health Apple Cider Vinegar with Mother, but that is used in far more ways than any of our balsamics, and we only offer one cider vinegar.

... Olives/Antipasti: Our best selling product in a jar was the Sun dried tomato meze from Olive Branch. The versatility of this product sort of gives it a head start in the sales figures. Antipasti, dip, sandwich filling, pasta sauce, salad dressing.... I'm not exactly comparing like with like so it's hard for a jar of olives to compete.

... Pasta: A tie! We sold exactly the same quantity of two pastas last year. Both were penne! Seggiano organic penne rigate and Biona wholemeal penne.

... Prepared Meal: In first place the single portion Cottage Pie. In second place the twin portion Cottage Pie. That's a good cottage pie!



... Soft Drink: Luscombe Farm's Wild Elderflower Bubbly (by one single bottle!), in second place was Whole Earth Sparkling Cranberry.

... Soup: Amy's Kitchen organic Rustic Italian vegetable soup sold one more unit than Mouthful's fresh Chicken and Corn Soup (but we only stock the fresh soup in the winter so really the chicken soup is the winner here).

 ... Tea: Another definitive winner. Darvilles of Windsor's 25 English Breakfast tea bags were in first place, with Darville's 50 English Breakfast tea bags in second place. Same tea, different packaging. So I can confidently say my customers love Darville's English Breakfast!

Maybe one day I can have a little awards ceremony. I'll need to think of more synonyms for popular before that.

Great Taste Awards 2014

The Guild of Fine Food hold an annual event described as the ‘Oscars’ of the food world and the ‘epicurean equivalent of the Booker prize’: The Great Taste Awards. Thousands of food producers enter their products, which are blind tasted by a team of more than 400 judges over 50 days. This year there were 10 000 products entered and just 34% of those were awarded one, two, or three stars.

Every year I scour the results, looking for names I recognise. Because I know most of our product producers personally, I love to see their names on the list as I know what a big deal this event is for them. To win a star means their product has been independently recognised as tasting great.  And to win the top accolade of three stars, well that is pretty much as good as it gets!

For the last seven years I have been writing a blog post to list all our winners (you can still read them all: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 (part one and part two) and 2013). As much as I love seeing more and more of the products we stock being given Great Taste Awards, my job of list making gets harder each year! This year I started early and pinned a few winners every day to our 2014 Great Taste Award Winners pinterest board. But it has still taken me until November to write the full list, and it is basically just a list, but even so took me an entire day to write. But here it its. More than seventy award winning products I believe! Well done everyone!

 *** 3 stars
 
Out of 10,000 products entered this year and just 123 were awarded the highest accolade of three stars.

One of these went to the Blaisdon Red Plum Jam from The Artisan Kitchen. Here are some of judges' the comments:

• Lovely deep ruby colour and sheen, a good set, and fruity aroma. A delicious jam with deep dark flavours and a hint of tartness.
• Nice to find a jam that tastes of fruit not sugar.
• It was very well cooked, the aroma was fresh. A jam with a variety of uses.
• This is an old fashioned fruit jam, the plum comes through uncluttered with additives or over powering sugar. 
• Flies the flag for doing the simple things very, very well. 
• There's a lovely set to this jam and the plum flavours carry great balancing acidity and tartness.
• A well made jam with a distinct, pronounced plum flavour.

Sarah also received four one star and three two star awards for her other preserves, including the Blood Orange Marmalade we also stock.

Wedderspoon Organic also received three gold stars this year. For their incredible Wild Rata Honey. Judges' comments included:

• An utterly gorgeous honey
• This honey tastes amazing!
• Winnie the Pooh would choose this honey for his pot. it is delicious, smooth, sweet, floral with a little pine-iness on the back taste giving it a clean bright flavour

Wedderspoon Organic also received a gold star for their raw manuka honey.

The coconut kitchen were awarded a fantastic three stars for their Easy Thai Green Curry Paste. Judges' comments included:

• It has a good deep flavour profile.
• Great umami hit of fish sauce that has been balanced against the other flavours very well.

Wessex Mill achieved a clutch of awards again this year, including three stars for their mixed grain bread flour, four two star awards and four one star awards which included: Wessex Cobber bread flour, half & half bread flour, wholemeal bead flour, six seed bread flour, plain flour, strong white bread flour, self raising flour and French bread flour.

Azada were awarded three stars for their virgin almond oil for the second consecutive year! 

** 2 stars

There were 697 two star awards given out this year. This included Mike's Smokehouse Manuka Smoked Salmon which we've been stocking since we opened and it's still a favourite.

Olive Branch's Sweet Olive, Fig and Almond relish was awarded two gold stars. The unique product is similar to a sweet chutney, and pairs particularly well with goats cheese. It can also be used as a luxury topping for ice cream or over Greek yogurt as a snack. Olive Branch were also awarded a gold star for their red wine vinegar with orange honey and their red wine vinegar with thyne honey. 

Our newest tea blender, Tea Huggers,  received an amazing two gold stars for no less than three products! Good Morning Tea, Good Night Tea and Skinny Fit Tea. A great start from a new start up.

Teapigs' were awarded two stars for their  rooibos creme caramel tea and one star each for chamomile flowers tea, tung ting oolong tea, liquorice and peppermint leaves tea and jasmine pearl tea.

Like Teapigs, Tracklements come away from the awards each year with a collection! This year they received two stars for their chilli jam (again), and one star each for fig relish, strong English mustard, strong horseradish & cream, beetroot & horseradish relish and apricot and ginger chutney.

* 1 star

Brand new business, fairly local to us in Eton, BakedIn entered their Chocolate Brownie Kit and Carrot Cake Kit. Both were awarded gold stars.

Other products which are new to us also won gold stars; sweet chilli popcorn from Popcorn Kitchen.  Turron de Guirlache from el Lobo, English Truffle Oil from The Truffle Hunter and Pineapple Fruit Crisps from Nim's.

Along with lots of old favourites, most of which are available in our online deli.
Anila's Tamarind and Date Chutney.
Real Organic Food's Korma Curry Sauce.
Luscombe's Wild Elderflower Bubbly.
Granny's Secret Wild Apple Juice.
Pukka Herbs' Three Fennel Tea.
Grumpy Mule organic EthiopianYirgacheffe coffee.
Meridian 100% peanut butter and smooth cashew butter.
Stokes were awarded a gold star for the real mayo, real tomato ketchup and real brown sauce.
Piper's Chorizo Crisps.
Azada Olive oil and lemon and base olive oil which are included in our olive oil gift boxes, both were awarded one star.
Oro Bailen extra virgin olive oi.
Biona raw virgin Coconut Oil.
Dressing number 3 (sweet honey paired with tangy wholegrain mustard) and dressing number 14 (a delicious, spicy dressing for salad, pasta or fish) from the French Dressing Company.
Iliko's clotted cream caramel sauce.
Cartwright & Butler Butter Thins.
Peppersmith's Lemon Peppermints (which also won a gold star in 2012).

In our fridge, our Spanish chorizo from Brindisa was also awarded a star as was Colston Bassett Stilton, Barkham Blue, Rosethorn Blue and Cornish Blue, Shemin's medium curry paste, Tim's Dairy Greek Yoghurt and Tom's Pies; Chicken, Ham Hock and Leek. Along with Mike's Smoked Duck and  Smoked Salmon Pate which complete yet another hat-trick for the smokehouse.

Even our Christmas turkey producer, Copas, was awarded gold stars, one for their organic turkey and one for their free-range chicken. Loseley bakery, who make quiche for us throughout the year, were award a gold star for their Stollen, which we will have for Christmas, and Lewis and Cooper's Plum Puddings (which we also have each Christmas) won another gold star.

Thanks to all our producers for creating such delicious foods for us to sell and enjoy!

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!

The list goes on

Still plenty of Great Taste Awards to mention....

Our new supplier Bim's Kitchen received a Gold Star for each of their African Bean & Nut Curry Sauce, Baobab Chilli Jam and Spicy African Ketchup. Mike's smokehouse's brand new smoked tomatoes were also awarded a gold star.

Bessant and Drury were given gold awards for both their lemon and strawberry frozen desserts, when blind tasted with dairy ice creams. An amazing achievement for a dairy free ice-cream.

Susie's Preserves' Raspberry Jam, Henshelwoods' Raspberry and Orange Jam, and seville marmalade with whiskey won gold stars.

Teapigs were awarded a collection of stars, including one each for Darjeeling Earl Grey, Jasmine Pearl Green Tea, Mao Feng Green Tea and Chamomile Flowers. Yogi Tea's Choco Tea also won an award. As did a number of teas from Pukka Herbs, and Campbell's Perfect Tea, again! The coffee award winners included another coffee from Grumpy Mule (who also won a three star award and about half a dozen two stars!).

Gold star were also give to Oliflix Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Anila's Hot Mango Pickle, Stokes Real Tomato Ketchup, Tracklements apricot & ginger chutney, and their fabulous onion marmalade.

Pipers Crisps were awarded a gold star for both their sea salt crisps and sweet chilli crisps. Olives Et Al also won awards for lots of their olives and their Dukkah.

A collection of awards went to local chocolateir L' Auberge du Chocolat and local flour mill Wessex Mill.

Our roast ham from Dorset Farms Ham received a gold star. As did Midfields Granola and Chocolate Peppermint Creams from Summerdown.

Lewis & Cooper's Handmade Luxury Fruit Cake again won a gold star, and again will be stocked by us at Christmas. As will the Copas Sage and Onion stuffing which also won an award (to accompany their 3 star winning turkeys)

I think that is everyone, if I've missed you out, do let me know. This year's list of winners didn't include the product names, so its been a lengthy process checking producer names and product descriptions to try to work out what has won. Please forgive any errors or omissions.

Great Taste Awards 2012

It's time for the Olympics of the food world! The Great Taste Awards results have been announced and yet again, the products available at Tastes Delicatessen have collected lots of awards!

This year 8,807 food and drink products (from more than 2500 producers) were blind-tasted over the course of 45 days by 350 experts. 123 products were awarded three stars, and 50 of those were selected as the Top 50 Foods and Drinks available in Great Britain.

You can read about who won awards in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 in my previous blog posts.

And here are this year's winners.

*** 3 Stars, "Wow you must taste this"
Barkham Blue Cheese, Teapigs' Liquorice and Mint tea and Tracklements' Strong Horseradish & Cream were all awarded three stars and included in the Top 50 Foods list.

Wessex Mill Flour and Copas Turkey were also awarded three stars.

** 2 Stars, "Faultless"
631 products were awarded two stars and included Teapigs Peppermint Leaves and Pure Lemongrass tea, along with Imporient's earl grey.

Oro Bailen Extra Virgin Olive Oil was awarded two stars, continuing their success of gold at The Mario Solinas Extra Virgin Olive Oil Quality Awards.

Tracklements' added to their collection of awards with two stars for their Fig Relish as did Olives et al with their Pistou Olives. Peppersmith won their first award, for their delicious Lemon Peppermints.

Two stars were also award to Salcombe diary Rum and Raisin Ice Cream and Mike's Smokehouse Smoked Salmon Pate - Hot roasted smoked salmon mixed with yoghurt and creme fraiche to maintain a 'homemade' feel to the result.

I'll be back next week with the results of the one star awards!

Top 50 Foods in Britain

The annual Great Taste Awards are the biggest independent award scheme for local, regional and speciality foods in Britain and has been since 1994. Over 350 professional foodies take part in 45 days of judging, deciding which foods deserve one-star, two-star or the ultimate three-star awards. This year, for the first time, the results include a list of top 50 greatest food and drink available in Britain.

Included in the list you will find our most local, and much loved, cheese; the Barkham Blue from Two Hoots Cheese, Berkshire, along with Strong Horseradish & Cream from The Tracklement Company and Liquorice & Peppermint Tea from Teapigs. Well done everyone!

Great Taste Awards 2011

It's that time of year again, when food producers hear the results of their "oscars"; The Great Taste Awards.

Once again, it has been a great year for the products available at Tastes Delicatessen! You can read about who won awards in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 in my previous blog posts. And here are this year's winners.

......drum roll....

Three Stars
7482 products were entered, 114 of which were awarded the much coveted "wow you've got to try this" three stars. This included Lewis & Cooper's delicious Handmade Plum Pudding (which will be making a repeat appearance at Tastes this Christmas), Salcombe Dairy Stem Ginger Ice Cream which has been popular here all summer long (although I suspect would be more popular had we actually experienced some summer sunshine) and Beet It Beetroot juice by James White Drinks Ltd. In the herbal infusions category both Three Fennel Organic Herbal Tea from Pukka Herbs and Teapigs Pure Lemongrass tea were awarded three stars.

Two Stars
608 products were awarded two stars and this included:
Luscombe's Organic Hot Ginger Beer.
Teapigs Tung Ting Oolong Tea, Darjeeling Earl Grey, Liquorice and Mint AND Peppermint Leaves teas.
Pukka Three Ginger Organic Herbal Tea.
Wessex Cobber Bread Flour from Wessex Mill.
Lewis & Cooper Handmade Luxury Fruit Cake.

One Star
Teapigs were awarded even more awards, with one star for English Breakfast, Mao Feng Green Tea, Green tea with Mint, Jasmine Pearl Green Tea, Chamomile Flowers and Rooibos Creme Caramel.
Other award winners include:
Pukka's Detox Organic Herbal Tea.
Campbell's Single Estate Loose Tea.
Luscombe Farm Organic Sicilian Lemonade.
Olives Et Al Kiln Roasted Harrisa Almonds and Captain Tiptoes Chilli Harissa Nuts.
Brindisa Tortas de Aceite Traditional.
Gluten Free Plain White Flour from Doves Farm.
Chocolate Peppermint Creams from Summerdown Farms.
Strawberry with Balsamic Jam from Henshelwood's Fine Foods.
Jules & Sharpie's hot mint jelly.
Rhubarb Chutney from local preserver Susie.
Raydale Preserves Goats Cheese Lovers Fig & Honey Chutney and Strong Cheese Lovers Tomato & Chilli Chutney.
Tracklements Strong Horseradish & Cream, and Chilli Jam.
Copas Traditional Gravy with Cracked Black Pepper.
Mike's Smokehouse Smoked Duck.
Fish4Ever Anchovies in Organic Olive Oil.
Ortiz Bonito del Norte.
Tim's Dairy Greek Style Natural Yoghurt.
Mouthful Foods Pea & Mint Soup.

Happy Birthday Chilli Jam

To celebrate the tenth birthday of Tracklements Chilli Jam it is being produced in beautiful heart shaped glass jars. Each jar is 100g larger than the standard jar (40% larger), but costs less than 40% more. So in effect the lovely jar which can be re-used for all sorts of things, doesn't cost any more (and did I mention it was beautiful?). Happy Birthday Chilli Jam.

Cucumber & Pepper Relish

We have another special offer this week. 100g jars of Tracklements' Cucumber and Pepper Relish for 50p. Sweet and sour and perfect with barbecued burgers. We've only 24 jars, so the offer will expire once they have all gone. Those who know this relish will probably want the full-sized jars anyway. But for anyone new to Cucumber and Pepper relish, this is an ideal opportunity to give it a try.

Onion Update

Our guess the number of onions competition has now closed. Thanks to everyone for their interest and participation.

There were 22 onions in the giant jar of Tracklements Onion Marmalade. We had guesses ranging from 6 to 562 and lots in between. For those of you interested in these sort of things; the most common answer was 38, the middle answer was 48 (with half the entrants thinking there were more than 48 and half thinking there were less). But most importantly, one person was exactly right with 22.

In The News!

Our "Guess the Number of Onions" competition made the local paper. You can
read the article online, but need to scroll to the bottom of the page.

Great Taste Awards 2009

Once again it is award season for foods. And with even more blind tasters than ever the great taste awards announced their winners at last night's ceremony. Booja Booja won one of only 83 three star awards (there were 4873 entries) for their Hunky Punky Chcolate Ice Cream. Anyone who has tried it will know why!

Luscombe were awarded two stars for Organic Sicilian Lemonade as was our (new this summer) honeycomb ice cream from Salcombe Dairy. Olives et al won two stars for their sunshine olives (which we sell loose), and a star for their bags of dangerously moresish Harrisa almonds.

Both versions of our fabulous Spanish Olive Oil biscuits (Torta de Aceite Sugar) were also entered and awarded two stars for biscuits flavoured with spices and biscuits flavoured with nuts. Our favourite smoked salmon pate from Mike's smokehouse was awarded two stars, as was their manuka smoked salmon. El Lagar Del Soto, produced by Jacoliva, Spain, was awarded 2 stars in the single estate extra virgin olive oil category and Nunez de Pado was awarded one.

Pukka Herbs clocked up some more awards with their refresh, detox, cleanse and harmonise teas. In the same category Teapigs won a star for their liquorice and peppermint tea.

Tracklements were awarded a star for their organic rosemary jelly and their chilli jam. Karimix were award a gold star for their Tamarind Chutney. Lizi Shaw was awarded a gold star for her organic granola. Lewis & Cooper Handmade Luxury Fruit Cake and gluten free plum pudding were also awarded gold stars.

I'm pleased to see Pollen Organics won awards for their pesto, as I was thinking of offering that as an alternative to the Italian Basil pesto we currently sell. Their chilli and ginger salsa also won an award last year and the salad dressings we currently sell have proved to be a real hit with our customers.

Onion Marmalde - available in Eton for 2 years!

It was June 2007 before we started stocking an old favourite of mine: Onion Marmalade. I don't know why it took so long, but seem to remember being in a rush to get my first order as I had run out at home!

Tracklements have been making outstanding products in Wiltshire since 1970 and took their name from the term used to describe condiments other than salt and pepper. They aim to be the best on the market, as good as the very best home-made products and use only natural ingredients and traditional methods.

Their Onion Marmalade is deliciously sweet and sticky. It's quite impossible to have just a small amount. Each jar is just crammed with long thin, slivers of onion, and no matter how small a spoon you intend to take, once you’ve dipped in, it just keeps on coming.

I tend to use Onion Marmalade for "dolloping"; in a sandwich with some farmhouse cheddar, on a crispbread with some chicken liver pate or on the side of a plate of egg and chips (once you've tried it there is no going back to ketchup). The people at Tracklements suggest putting it on sausages for their last 5 minutes in the oven and have now produced a recipe card showing how to turn it into gravy. Mmmmm

How to Cheat at Cooking

Whenever Delia Smith, "the nation's favourite cook", launches a new book you can expect a great deal of media attention. Her latest book and television series: "How to Cheat at Cooking" is no exception, generating both acclaim and impassioned debate about the ingredients used and the recipes themselves. Frozen mashed potato and tinned mince aside, a common challenge facing Delia's fans this time around is the difficulty in obtaining the ingredients featured in the book. Many are not carried by the major super markets. This is where we come in!

On hearing what would be in the new book, and realising that many of the items were already being sold at Tastes (and not in the major supermarkets), I set out to source a few more of the high quality and hard to find items. Whilst the series runs on the television and until the end of 2008 at least, Tastes will be able to offer more than thirty of the specialist ingredients used in Delia's book. Many of these are old favourites of ours, some are making a special appearance and will only remain on sale if sales are sufficient.

So if you are hunting high and low for any of these, pop along to Eton:
Vietnamese Spring Roll Wrappers (traditionally made with rice flour so naturally wheat free and essential for making spring rolls at home).
Smoked Spanish Paprika
Tracklements chilli jam
Baked Aubergines
Peraud fish soup
English Provender Company Very Lazy Caramelised Red Onions
Green and Black's Chocolate
Antipasto in a jar (olives, mushrooms and artichoke hearts)
Mother's Garden extra virgin olive oil
Nabisco Premium Saltine crackers from the US
Seasoned Pioneer Spice Blends (we carry the 10 Delia used plus a lot more).
Sapori di Napoli and Martelli Italian pasta
Jars of chillies
Coco Lopez creamed coconut (a sweetened coconut milk designed for making pina colada)

Great Taste Awards 2007

The judging for the Great Taste Awards has been completed and this year's winners have been announced. More than 4500 foods were entered. Each one was blind tasted (some by me!) and judged on its own merits. Fewer awards have been given than in previous years, so it is especially nice to see so many familiar names among the award winners. My local preservers did very well! This was the first time Suzanne had entered and she won awards for both her Hot Banana Chutney and Red Onion Marmalade! And Susie added to the award she won for her Mango Chutney last year, with an award for her very popular Fig Chutney. And the other Susie, won awards for her crumbly vanilla fudge, very cherry fudge and brown sugar maple pecan fudge (I didn't even know she had entered!). John and Mary's Sweet Redcurrant Vinegar was also awarded.

Jules and Sharpie, who have collected numerous awards over the past few years, won some more this year: for their Hot Redcurrant Jelly, Hot Pear Chutney and Hot mmmmarmalade. Tracklements also added to their collection with awards for their Thai Jelly, Spiced Honey Mustard, Horseraddish & Cream, and my favourite, their Onion Marmalade. Stokes, makers of fantastic mayonnaise won an award for their Herb Mayonnaise. Shropshire Fine Herbs won awards for their oatmeal biscuits for cheese and Piper's won awards for both Anglesey sea salt and Sea salt and Somerset cider vinegar crisps. Pukka Teas won awards for their revitalise, refresh, relax and clarity herbal teas and Luscombe for their Organic Sicilian Lemonade. The Nunez de Prado Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Spain also won an award, as did many other Spanish foods including the Date and Walnut bars, 1000 flower mountain honey and creamy Marcona almonds. RJ’s natural licorice was the only winner in the liquorice category.

Even the chilled and frozen foods were judged at the Great Taste Awards and many of our producers excelled. Alder Tree for their Christmas ice cream (which isn't a flavour I stock, but will certainly try now as everything I've tasted of theirs has been fantastic). The Dairy House won two awards for their yoghurts, Trioni for their Strawberry milkshake and Patchwork for their handmade pates. Mike's Smokehouse won another award for their Hot Roast Salmon.

Anila did amazingly well and won two of only forty-six 3 star awards; for her spicy mild and spicy korma curry sauces. Honeybuns won another of the 3 star awards for their deliciously Moorish Almondi cookie.

The regional, national, international and 2007 Supreme Champion will all be announced in September. Here's hoping some of the wonderful producers we stock collect some more prizes.