Scottish Heather Comb Honey Wins Great Taste Golden Fork Award for Scotland

Following a somewhat staggering and record-breaking 14,205 food and drink entries from 110 countries across the world, Great Taste, the world's largest food and drink accreditation scheme based entirely on taste, has reached its grand finale for 2022.

Announced last night at the Great Taste Golden Forks ceremony held at Southwark Cathedral, the Great Taste Golden Fork trophy for Scotland has been awarded to Heather Hills Farm from Perth and Kinross for its Scottish Heather Comb Honey, described as having “a wonderful deep rich caramel edge that lingers on the palate beautifully” and suggesting flavours of “lavender and subtle fruit alongside pure heather loveliness”.

The Scottish Heather Comb Honey is only available in limited supply after each heather honey harvest season which occurs at the end of November of each year.

You can find Scottish Heather Comb Honey here http://www.heatherhills.co.uk.

Impressing the Great Taste judges with its “rich golden colour, and remarkably floral aroma with the character of sweet alyssum”, the Scottish Heather Comb Honey made an impression at every stage of the blind-tasted judging process across the 90 days.

Rising to the top among hundreds of other entries from Scotland, this “delightful, rich and pleasing” Comb Honey was celebrated as the best tasting product in its region at the highly anticipated ceremony – the culmination of Great Taste – the largest and most trusted food and drink accreditation scheme on the planet - dubbed the 'Oscars' of the food & drink world and attended by food industry experts and influencers.

John Farrand, managing director at the Guild of Fine Food comments: “Unveiling the Great Taste Golden Fork winners is a huge honour. After months of rigorous blind-tasting and judging, it is fantastic to reveal the award-winning products and celebrate the producers' hard work and innovation. It's been an exceptional year for creativity and inspirational food and drink entries. Huge congratulations from all of us at GFF to all the award winners, it really isn't easy to do what you do - I have the utmost admiration for you all. And thank you to everyone who was involved in Great Taste 2022.”   

The Great Taste Golden Fork from Scotland was sponsored by Scotland Food & Drink. Also nominated this year were the Great Taste 3-star Orkney Akvavit from Orkney Gin Company based in the Orkney Islands and Scotch Reserve Pure Royal Filet from St James Smokehouse based in Dumfries and Galloway.

What is Great Taste? 

Recognised as a stamp of excellence and actively sought out by food lovers and retailers alike, Great Taste, organised by the Guild of Fine Food, values taste above all else. All products in the line-up for judging are blind tasted: every product is removed from its packaging so it cannot be identified, before entering a robust, layered judging process. This year, the judging took place over 90 days across two judging locations (Dorset and London).

Great Taste's prestigious judging panel is made up of over 500 food & drink professionals, including critics, chefs, recipe creators, buyers, retailers, journalists, broadcasters, and experts in the field. This experienced panel, each with trusted palates, have together tasted and re-judged the 3-star winning products to crown the Golden Forks trophy winners as well as the Great Taste 2022 Supreme Champion.

This year, food and drink products from 110 different countries were entered into the Great Taste accreditation scheme. Only 5,556 products – that's 39.1% of the total products entered this year – received either a Great Taste 1-, 2- or 3-star award, and of the 2,344 winning companies, 27% are based outside of the UK. 

The full list of this year's winners can be found at www.greattasteawards.co.uk and a wide range of the award-winning products are available to buy in delis, farm shops and independent retail outlets.

Keep up to date on socials: @guildoffinefood #ISpyGreatTaste

Visit – https://gff.co.uk.

Eat Real Snacks Extends Hummus Chips Range With the Launch of New Sea Salt & Balsamic Vinegar Flavour

Highly-popular and award-winning snacks brand, Eat Real, is aiming at increasing and broadening its appeal to a wider snacking audience of foodies, food lovers and flavour explorers by launching its brand-new flavour, Sea Salt & Balsamic Vinegar.

Following the growing movement toward healthier yet still delicious plant-based snacking options, the snack brand intends to accelerate its growth, yet still keeping its pioneering roots at the forefront, through its big bold flavours and 'better for you' credentials.

As with all Eat Real products, Sea Salt & Balsamic Vinegar is vegan in addition to being free from gluten, artificial colours, flavours and ingredients, and containing 30% less fat than regular potato chips.  

The new flavour, currently available as part of the Hummus Chip range, joins other hero flavours including Tomato & Basil and Salted.

The launch coincides with Eat Real's rebrand, that not only reveals new pack designs across the full range but also the revamp of its Hummus Chips selection. Now, five of the Hummus Chips flavours are HFSS compliant thanks to a reduction of their salt content by more than 50%.

Says Eat Real Marketing Director, Helen Pomphrey: “Eat Real has become pioneers in better-for-you thanks to its unusual ingredients layered with bold, unexpected flavours inspired by the combinations you find in your own cooking.  

"Balancing the moreish taste of sea salt with the sweetness of balsamic vinegar, the Sea Salt & Balsamic Vinegar offers a new Eat Real snacking choice that provides maximum snacking satisfaction.

"We've found that Eat Real's flavours are a key driver to consumer purchase, as more people are opting for delicious, yet healthier alternatives.” 

 Eat Real's new packs will be available nationally at stockists including Sainsbury's from September and other retailers including Tesco from October 2022.

Grab bags, Hummus (45g), RRP £1.20. Sharing bags, Hummus (135g), RRP £2.00. 

https://www.eatreal.co.uk.

Warm up the colder evenings with Shwen Shwen Hot Sauces

With Shwen Shwen Sauces you can give a spicy boost to the autumn and colder evenings with some hot chilli sauces from Shwen Shwen.

They are the perfect accompaniment to fish and meat dishes. It's said that once you've tried them, you'll want to add them to very nearly everything!

The Shwen Shwen Hot Sauces are crafted in Kent by chef Maria Bradford. 

Having grown up in Sierra Leone, Maria takes flavour influences from her homeland and incorporates them into her private dining catering business and her range of products. With the heat of scotch bonnet chillies as a base, these sauces are sure to add fire and flavour to any dish.

Shwen Shwen Hot Sauces - £4.00 per 300g jar

Salone Spark - Fire and flavour dance together in this jar, paying homage to Sierra Leone's immensely loved ingredient: chillies.

Salone Fire - Fire and bite in one jar. Flavour that's seriously off the heat scale.

Chef's Tips

Maria recommends mixing her delicious hot sauces with mayo as a dip for chips or crudites, adding to grilled vegetables, spicing up a grilled cheese sandwich, or a versatile condiment for savoury foods.

For those who already have a taste for the hot stuff, a Chilli Sauce Gift Box is a sure way to their heart. Featuring a gorgeous gift box filled with 6 jars of the two best-selling chilli sauces, Salone Spark and Salone Fire.

For further information about the Shwen Shwen products visit www.shwenshwen.com or follow @shwenshwenbymaria

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Babingtons Blends Forest Fruits Tea Is a Fantastic Immune Booster

Babingtons Blends Forest Fruits is a refreshing and healthy herbal tea blend, prepared by mixing strong, fruity flavours of apples, blackberries, raspberries, blackcurrants and strawberries together.

As Autumn comes ever closer and we need to keep our immune system tuned up, this speciality blend is perfectly balanced by the floral hints of elderflower and hibiscus, making it not too sweet.

Beneficial properties: refreshing, purifying and anti inflammatory, filled with antioxidants and helpful vitamins (A,B and C),

Since 1893, Babingtons Tea Rooms which sit at the foot of Rome's iconic Spanish Steps, has been serving fine teas to the world's most discerning tea connoisseurs. That's nearly 130 years of service, so far.

All Babingtons Blends teas are sustainably sourced, hand blended and are 100% natural with no artificial colourings or flavourings. All packaging is biodegradable.

Tea Formats

Pyramids (x 18) from £7.99, Pouches (Loose leaf) from £6.99, Caddies (Loose Leaf) from £11.99, Caddies (Tea Bags) from £12.99

www.babingtonsblends.com

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Organic September

Back in the mid 1970s I was a young foundry technician and an aspiring writer. 

I became interested in the idea of organic vegetable gardening so I requested a patch of unused land in my parent's back garden and decided to grow vegetables using organic fertiliser.

Organic fertilisers were not commonly available then, at least not in the small market town we lived in, but eventually I found a local hardware shop (managed by a very large cat who sat on the counter and who demanded fusses by way of payment) which was selling liquid organic seaweed-based fertiliser and I began to use that to fertilise the vegetables that I had planted. Beans and peas were amongst the two main crops that I first planted.

My mother was very encouraging but my father teased me in good fun about me being a hippy for growing crops organically. but after seeing how well the crops were doing and how good they tasted after they were harvested, he was brought round to the viewpoint that organic was better.

Now, 45 years later, we are participating in Organic September.

Organic fertilisers are now pretty mainstream and although the cat and her pet humans retired long ago, organic fertilisers are readily available, now. In fact the Maxicrop Seaweed fertiliser I used all those years ago is still available. You can buy it on Amazon and at garden centres or visit them at https://www.solabiol.com/en/maxicrop-uk.

But if you don't have the space, time or the ability to grow your own crops using organic methods, buying organic foods to eat is now even easier than it ever has ever been.

From large supermarket chains to speciality farm shops to corner and convenience shops, everyone seems to have some organic food and drinks that are on their shelves.

Organic milks, cheeses, meats, vegan alternatives, coffee, tea, beers, wines, spirits, confectionary, breakfast cereals, vegetables, breads etc, etc, all are available.

And many restaurants, pubs and hotels are striving to offer organic food and drink to their customers.

Over the next month That's Food and Drink, with the assistance of our friends in the organic food PR profession, will be featuring organic produce as part of Organic September. 

That's Food and Drink would like to thank Alexa at Pixabay for the image used to illustrate this feature.

(Alexas_Fotos at Pixaby)

Standing Up for Insect Rights: Nature's Keyworkers Hold Miniature Protest at Organic Farm

Nature's keyworkers held a protest standing up for their insect rights at an organic farm in the North East today, marking the start of Organic September. 

Armed with some mini placards, they gathered at Bays Leap organic farm in Newcastle calling on the new Prime Minister to take action to save nature in their first 100 days in government.

Meanwhile, a Change.org petition launched for Organic September by the Organic Trade Board on behalf of insects is gaining momentum with over 500 signatures, giving wildlife such as earthworms, ladybirds and bees a voice for the first time.

The UK's organic industry is requesting the new PM commits to protecting wildlife in any policies - and represents the UK at the crucially important UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in December.

Farmer Chris McDonald manages Bays Leap dairy farm, where the protest took place, which has been fully certified organic since 2018. Chris explained that his cows graze in the paddocks on forages such as herbal lays. Each year, he works with a local beekeeper to deploy bees onto the fields to help pollinate the flowers including red and white clover, lucerne and natural varieties.

He said: “The human race is here because of nature, let's work with it. We've tried fighting it before and it doesn't like it. If we want harmony, we need to give nature a chance. My forages work in harmony  with the pollinators - they're crucial in the balance of keeping my farm successful.”

The theme for this year's Organic September is “Nature would choose organic”. This reflects that if wildlife such as bees, earthworms and ladybirds had a voice, they would want more farming to be organic, reducing their exposure to chemical fertilisers and pesticides, helping to keep the delicate ecosystem in balance.

Not only are insects a vital part of a balanced ecosystem, providing food for other animals and recycling nutrients, they also play an essential role in our global food system. One in three mouthfuls of food depends on pollinators and without pollinators we wouldn't have potatoes, strawberries, tomatoes, coffee, chocolate or cotton.

Cristina Dimetto, General Manager of the Organic Trade Board (OTB), said: “Organic farming works with nature, not against it, encouraging natural predators like ladybirds and pollinators like bees and butterflies rather than spraying harmful pesticides. As a result, on average, plant, insect and bird life is 50% more abundant on organic farms. There are up to seven times more wild bees in organic grain fields. So if nature did have a voice - it would choose organic. 

“If pesticides were substituted for more sustainable farming practices (like organic), this could slow or reverse the decline in insects. The hope is that even tiny insect-sized steps can make a big difference when it comes to keeping nature's crucial keyworkers thriving.”

For more information visit www.GoOrganicUK.com and to sign the petition head to https://www.change.org/NatureProtest

This post is brought to you at the That's Food and Drink Organic September campaign. Please look out for more features like this one. 

Fitbakes hits the sweet spot for supermarkets ahead of HFSS regulations

Fitbakes, which is one of the UKs top a low sugar indulgent cake brands, has scooped seven new listings at four different retailers ahead of government HFSS regulations, despite being beset by huge supply chain issues and the war in Ukraine.

The brand, launched by leading nutritionist Ella Rauen-Prestes from her own kitchen table in the Cotswolds in 2018, has three new listings in Waitrose, one new listing in Tesco, plus listings in Co-op Midcounties, Holland & Barrett and Selfridges. 

To celebrate these listings, Fitbakes is launching a brand new Birthday Cake flavour of cakes this month, September, which contains sprinkles made with natural ingredients and low sugar white chocolate.

Restrictions on the placement of HFSS products, a key component of the government’s commitment to reduce obesity, come into force next month, in October 2022. 

This will mean HFSS products cannot be placed in key locations in-store, like checkouts, store entrances and aisle ends, to try and cut impulse buys of unhealthy products.

Ella Rauen-Prestes, said: “Over the last few months, we found several supermarkets were keen to list our products, recognising Fitbakes ticks the boxes when it comes to providing indulgent healthier alternatives to consumers. 

"Whilst many big brands might not be ready for the new HFSS regulations, we’re proud Fitbakes has filled the gap in the market for cakes that are indulgent and delicious, yet which are naturally low in sugar and high in protein.”

All of this success comes despite a rocky few months for the company as it was troubled by supplier issues and even feeling the impact of the war in Ukraine.

Ella explained: “We usually buy protein powder for our cakes from Europe but back in April the shipment was in Ukraine and was bombed in Mariupol. The company then couldn’t supply us with any more protein powder so we had to change the recipe at the last minute to employ a different protein. This was tricky in itself as the new ingredient didn’t respond to using eggs quite as well as the original one.

“We have also been hit by the price rises in raw materials like wheat flour and sunflower oil, which then caused the cost of rapeseed oil, which we use, to increase. 

"However, we’ve managed to rise above these challenges and are proud to have these seven new listings in top supermarkets, giving more consumers access to healthy cakes and bars on the go.”

Fitbakes cakes have 95% less sugar, 40% less calories and 200% more protein than leading cake brands, and have no artificial sweeteners, flavourings or colourings. 

To learn more please visit https://www.fitbakes.co.uk. 

NICE Wine Are Hoping to Bring Some Wine Cheer to London

NICE wine (www.nice-drinks.co.uk) are hoping to bring some cheer to London tomorrow, they will be sending out the NICE Club Dance Mob on Thursday, 1st September to give away £10,000 worth of wine at five locations around London. 

Led by comedian, Katerina Robinson AKA London's answer to Samantha Jones, the dancers and Katerina will be donning NICE wine's classic uniform, the pink jumpsuit, they'll be dancing their way around Leicester Square (11:30am), Oxford Circus (12pm) (near big Topshop, RIP), St Paul's Cathedral (1:30pm), Stratford Westfield (4:30pm) and Liverpool Street (6pm). 

Look out for the signature pink outfits, pink NICE megaphone, playing some classic disco songs, and some very nice comments coming your way. Scan the NICE QR code for a free delivery of a box of three cans of red, white and rosé NICE wine, if you enjoy the wine, you'll also receive 25% your first order. A teaser of the

The London-based start-up makes great tasting wine from wineries they love. The female-led team is innovating with formats, hoping to make wine more inclusive and less intimidating. Whether you're after a perfectly portioned canned wine for the train even a stocking filler, or boxed wine for your summer celebrations or Christmas parties, they make it for whenever you want it.

THE WINES

NICE Sauvignon Blanc (11.5% ABV)

o   Dry, crisp, with a wink of peach: a classic French white from the Cotes de Gascogne region

NICE Pale Rosé (12% ABV) 

o   A crisp, dry and proudly pale rosé from just outside Montpellier

NICE Malbec (13.5% ABV)

o   Juicy, darkly fruity and smoothly Argentinian, this medium bodied wine hails from Mendoza in the foothills of the Andes

WINE, IN A CAN

NICE are now putting their favourite Sauvignon Blanc, Pale Rosé and Argentinian Malbec in 250ml cans (RRP £3). Each of the wines is vegan and the cans are light, fast-chilling and 100% recyclable, forever. Prefer to shop indie? NICE is the fastest growing canned wine brand in the UK and the largest independent brand in still canned wine, find it at over 4000 outlets around the country. 

NICE BOXED WINE

Find the NICE trio in a new Boxed Wine format (RRP £21.50); equal to three bottles, nine cans, or 18 small glasses of wine, which lasts longer in a box (as it won't oxidise and go iffy) staying fresh for six weeks after opening. The box and bag are fully recyclable, so pop it in the recycling and give it the chance of a brand-new life.

Find NICE at Sainsbury's, Ocado, Amazon and WHSmith, as well as sports stadiums, music venues, airlines, theatres, cinemas, and restaurants.