Beverage Standards Association (BSA) Welcomes Its 100th Member At Midlands Meeting

The Beverage Standards Association (BSA) welcomed its 100th member - La Cimbali - at its Midlands regional meeting at The Bottle Kiln, West Hallam, Ilkeston on Monday 5 March.

Another new member was also announced - Taylors of Harrogate - which is sponsoring the tea category of the BSA Awards, launched last week in London.

Martyn Herriott, Executive Director, BSA told the well attended meeting "We're delighted to have La Cimbali on board as our 100th member. It shows signs of strength and growth and kudos that the BSA is attracting high calibre companies such as La Cimbali and Taylors of Harrogate, alongside long standing members who have been with the BSA since it started in 1995."

Daniel Clarke from La Cimbali was presented with a special certificate to mark the 100th member. He said "It's good to be part of such a strong and vibrant Association."

John Sutcliffe from Taylors of Harrogate received a certificate for sponsoring the tea category of the BSA Awards. He said "We've been so successful in the retail market, we want to develop the Out of Home business. The BSA is an excellent vehicle for developing in this area. Sponsoring the BSA tea Award increases our awareness in that market."

At the meeting, Martyn Herriott encouraged all 'out of home' cafes (fixed & mobile) and restaurants to enter this year's prestigious Beverage Standards Awards. Rebecca Stone, owner of The Bottle Kiln which in last year's Awards not only achieved 5 cup status, the highest BSA cup grade but also the Best Cappuccino, Latte and Flat White Award, said at the meeting " The BSA Awards have been a framework and opportunity to benchmark the Bottle Kiln business against the best in the industry. The Awards have given me confidence that we have the consistency of products and quality of service which enables us to maintain a 5 cup standard and win the Best Cappuccino, Latte and Flat White Award. "

She went on to say that one of her colleagues was training to be a judge in this year's Awards. "I am going to actively promote the Awards in my area to encourage other Out of Home establishments to enter."

For entry details about the Awards, visit www.beveragestandardsassociation.co.uk

Taylor's Ports

Taylor Fladgate and Yeatman joined together to start making Port wine in 1692. In that time nations have been founded, have grown, crumbled and faded away, wars have been fought but Taylor's Port continues to be made by the same families who created their Port wine dynasty near 320 years ago.

Taylor's 10 Year Old Tawny Port is aged for 10 years in wooden casks and is then carefully bottled. And it should then be carefully drunk, to ensure that the warm, rich tastes of a combination of fruits is not wasted.

My wife and I have a special Christmas tradition. Every year just before Christmas we like to take some Stilton cheese, some mince pies  and some Taylor's 10 Year Old Tawny Port and settle down to some festive feasting whilst watching the 1951 version of Scrooge. Sometimes we also watch the George C. Scott version, filmed in Shrewsbury, too.

If we do not have any Taylor's 10 Year Old Tawny Port to hand, we instead will replace this with an extremely good substitute, some Taylor's Late Bottled  Vintage Port, which being younger that the Taylor's 10 Year old Tawny Port, has a different range of equally appealing fruity flavours, but is a little less well-developed.

This year my wife and I were both suffering from colds. My wife remarked: "Are you starting to feel better?" I had to acknowledge that I was starting to feel a  little warmed and that my cold was now nowhere near as oppressive as it had been, before I had started to drink the Port.

My wife took another sip of her Taylor's, smiled, and said in tones of extreme satisfaction: "No wonder doctors used to prescribe Port!"

Taylor's 10 Year Old Tawny Port costs from £19.99 and is available from E. H. Booths, Majestic, Morrison's, Sainsbury, Selfridges, Teso, Wholefoods Market and Waitrose.

Taylors Late Bottled Vintage Port should cost you from £13.99 a bottle and is widely available.