That's Christmas 365: Turkey Top of the Festive Shop

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Tom Parker Creamery CEO Rob Yates Comments on the Government's Milkshake Tax

Tom Parker Creamery CEO Rob Yates comments to That's Food and Drink on the Government's Milkshake Tax:

“The Government's milkshake tax is a wake-up call for Big Food. 

"While they will scramble to dodge the tax by pumping products full of artificial sweeteners, we've spent years doing the opposite, championing genuinely natural ingredients that prioritise health.

“The biggest issue right now is lack of clarity. Without firm guidelines, we'll see the same playbook we saw with the soft drink levy: reformulation with synthetic sweeteners simply to meet thresholds, not improve health outcomes. That isn't progress: it's a loophole.”

“Consumers deserve better than ultra-processed shortcuts. A touch of natural sugar is not the villain here.  What worries us far more are artificial replacements that many families simply don't want in their food.

“Milk is already nutritious: protein, calcium, vitamins - we've known this forever. Many milkshakes get part of their sweetness naturally from lactose, so the proposed lactose allowance is a sensible recognition of that.

“But we need clearer guidance, fast. Without it, the big players will reshape the dairy aisle based on spreadsheets, not public health.

“At Tom Parker, we've always taken a different approach. Our flavours come from real British free-range whole milk and carefully sourced natural ingredients - fruit purées, cacao, botanicals - and minimal added sugar. No synthetic sweeteners. No artificial shortcuts.

“As an independent dairy, we've invested in natural recipe development for years.  Not because we were forced to, but because we believe families should have access to food that's both delicious and genuinely better made. That supports public health, British farming, and a more honest food industry.

“We'll continue to prioritise transparency, responsible innovation and products people can genuinely trust. Natural isn't a buzzword for us - it's been our business model from day one.”

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From a Royal Commission to Grand Designs: Kenton Jones Showcases Welsh Timber Craft in Luxury Bespoke Kitchens and Modular Homes

Kenton Jones, the family-run maker of handcrafted kitchens and timber interiors, is entering a new chapter as its work in both bespoke joinery and modular homes gains national attention.

Founded in 1977, the company designs and builds every kitchen, pantry, utility room and fitted furniture piece in its Welshpool workshop. It serves homes across Mid Wales, Shropshire and Cheshire from its Welshpool and Shrewsbury showrooms. 

The focus has remained constant for almost five decades: made to measure design, carefully selected timber and traditional joinery all carried out by an in-house team.

“Long before sustainability became a buzzword, we were drying our own timber and buying from local forests because it felt like the right way to work,” Executive Director Kenton Jones told That's Food and Drink. “That mindset has quietly shaped everything we do.”

Welsh timber homes on screen

The combined work of Kenton Jones and its modular homes arm, Unnos Systems, has recently reached national television audiences.

In the most recent series of Channel 4’s Grand Designs, a modular family home in Southwater, West Sussex, designed and built in the Welshpool factory, was highlighted for being delivered on time, on budget and to a high standard of quality.

Presenter Kevin McCloud described the Southwater modular home as “the first project to deliver all three, on time, on budget, and with high quality.” He also commented: “It’s all about containing costs, having it prefabricated in a factory in Wales, brought in on lorries, costing exactly what you thought it would. That is the future of Grand Designs. It’s the future of self-build.”

Another Kenton Jones/Unnos Systems project was featured in Channel 5’s Build Your Dream Home in the Country, in the episode “Island Home”, which followed their timber house manufactured in Wales and transported to the Outer Hebrides for assembly in a remote coastal landscape.

From kitchens to complete modular homes

Alongside its kitchens and interiors, Kenton Jones has grown Unnos Systems to deliver complete modular homes using the same workshop, the same craftspeople and the same supply of homegrown timber.

Modules are designed digitally, built and finished under factory conditions in Mid Wales, then delivered to sites Worldwide. The aim is to combine the precision and calm of a joinery workshop with the demands of architecture grade buildings, so that the interiors feel as considered as the structure that surrounds them.

“Modular homes felt more like a return to our roots than a new venture,” says Kenton. “We have always combined design, structure and joinery. The difference now is the scale of the projects and the tools we have available”

A royal commission that helped shape the business

Earlier in its history, the company was commissioned to design and install a bespoke kitchen at Highgrove House for the then Prince of Wales, now King Charles III. 

Crafted from locally sourced oak and designed around the character of the house, the project reinforced the company’s belief in provenance, proportion and quiet, enduring detail.

That commission helped shape what is now known as the Highgrove collection, a family of kitchens that celebrates natural timber, simple lines and British craftsmanship rather than short-lived trends.

Kitchens and homes for discerning homeowners

Today, Kenton Jones works with discerning homeowners, architects, interior designers and self-build clients who want a single workshop to handle both interiors and, through Unnos Systems, the fabric of the building itself.

Within the main business, the Artisan, Bauhaus, Hygge and Highgrove kitchen collections offer different design languages, from classic in-frame Shaker to contemporary handleless schemes and Scandi-inspired simplicity. 

Each project begins with a detailed design consultation and is then built and installed by the company’s own teams so that cabinetry, flooring and furniture sit comfortably within the architecture of the home.

For professional clients like architects, developers, main contractors, public-estate teams, project management and cost consultancies and engineering practices, Unnos Systems provides fully finished timber modules with joinery-grade interiors and a short on-site programme, well suited to sensitive landscapes, tight access or exposed locations.

“Most of our clients are making once-in-a-generation decisions about their home,” pointed out Kenton. “Our job is to steady that process, ask the right questions and make sure every decision still feels sound twenty years from now."

Kenton Jones he company is led by Executive Director Kenton Jones, the second generation of the founding family, and is known for its focus on timber, craftsmanship and long term design.

Website: https://kentonjones.com

Beyond the Bottle: Compass Box in Talks to Take First Ever Art Exhibition on Tour

Compass Box's Chief Marketing Officer Racheal Vaughan Jones attended the opening of the exhibition on the 3rd December and told That's Food and Drink: “Compass Box has always been about pushing boundaries, not just of flavour but of art and design, approaching whiskymaking as a creative pursuit that is about more than just the liquid in the bottle. 

"The response to this has been so fantastic there's potentially an opportunity for us to take Imaginarium on tour. Our exhibition here in Miami has been a way of bringing partners together old and new, and has ignited our creativity even further. Here's to the next twenty five years and many, many more exciting collaborations.”

Housed within the halls of The Wolfsonian–FIU, Imaginarium is less an exhibit than an invitation to step inside a living mythology. Here, the labels that once sat neatly on shelves erupt into their own worlds; whispered backstories become tactile cinematic environments; and the long-running creative alchemy between CompassBox and legendary design studio Stranger & Stranger finally takes physical form.

For two decades, these two renegade forces have shaped some of the most unforgettable bottles in modern whisky, blending surrealism, craftsmanship, and a wink of mischief into designs that collectors chase and critics dissect. Now, the partnership gets its most ambitious canvas yet.

Inside Imaginarium, the whiskies come to life. The Entertainer becomes a flamboyant theater of curiosity. Rogues' Banquet sprawls into an opulent feast of color and narrative. Phenomenology materializes as a philosophical riddle made visible. And the hedonistic universe behind the Hedonism series unfurls like a dream.

The effect is something between a mind palace and a feverish cabinet of curiosities - an ode to the imagination that has defined Compass Box since its founding.

“We invented the word whiskymaker because blending alone couldn't explain what we were doing,” says Angela D'Orazio, the brand's new Creative Director of Whiskymaking. “Stranger & Stranger helped us build entire worlds. Now, for the first time, we're opening the doors and letting people walk directly into them.”

Ivan Wilson-Bell, Group CEO and Managing Director at Stranger & Stranger, reflects on the collaboration as a creative saga still unfolding. “Each label we craft with Compass Box is its own universe. This exhibition is the first time all those universes collide. It feels like a celebration of everything we've imagined together.”

Compass Box is also releasing a one-off blend -  Confluence, the very first whisky created by D'Orazio in her new role. Described as a Scotch meeting Swedish whisky in a symbolic fusion of D'Orazio's heritage - bottled with artwork by acclaimed landscape artist Mary West. It will anchor a Bonhams auction running from now until the 10 December, offering eight rare lots in total, with proceeds supporting The Wolfsonian–FIU. 

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