Last week Managing Director, Stuart, spent the day at the Guild of Fine Food as a judge for the Great Taste Awards.  The awards, which are widely regarded as the ‘Oscars’ of the food world had over 12,500 entries this year, each of which is tasted by an experienced panel of judges over a run of 70 days.  Stuart explains;

“The judging was held at the Guild of Fine Food’s London office, fittingly just a stones-throw from the world-famous Borough Market, packed full of some of the best culinary food & drink from around the world.

The day began with an introduction from John Farrand, who explained the importance of the awards and ran through what we should all be looking for in the products we were tasting and explained the meaning of each star:

1 star: Simply Delicious. A food that delivers fantastic flavour – approximately 25% of entries will achieve this rating each year.
2 stars: Outstanding.  Above & beyond delicious – less than 10%of entries will receive this rating.
3 stars: Exquisite.  Extraordinarily tasty foods – around 2% of products are awarded 3-stars each year.  Don’t leave the shop without buying it!

We were split into tables of 3-4, each with a co-ordinator who would lead & write up our comments along with a couple of fellow judges.  In my afternoon session I was lucky enough to judge alongside Linda Farrand, co-founder of the Guild of Fine Foods & Great Taste Awards and endless in her knowledge when it comes to food & drink.

Each session lasts a couple of hours and we tasted a minimum of 20 products per session, ranging from bacon & sausage rolls to ice cream & honey, drinks and oils as well as what seemed like an endless supply of cakes to name just a few of the hugely varying products!

I was really impressed with how thorough and also how fair the judging process was.  Every product is tasted blind, with the entrant supplying details on what the product is and a brief description.  The products are also mixed, so we were never tasting one product directly against a similar product.  Although for the majority of products it is immediately obvious what they are, we had great fun guessing others and unveiling hot foods from under their foil, before hearing the full description, which at times was quite a surprise!

For everything judged, we would be looking at the appearance & presentation, the smell and of course the taste.  From here judges’ comments are collated and we would make a decision on whether each of us felt the product was 1, 2 or 3 star, or perhaps if there could be some tweaks which would push it up to star level if it was not quite there yet.

Should a product be judged as not achieving a star, it would be re-tasted by another table so as there is no ‘one strike and you are out’ as such.  Those products deemed to be a two or three star product would be tasted by many tables, ensuring that they really are up to the outstanding standard that the Great Taste Awards aim to recognise – I’m hopeful that we may have found & tasted a few 2 & 3 star products during the day and will be waiting eagerly to see the results!

Another element which makes these awards special is the variety of judges that take part on any one day.  To be in a room judging alongside people from all across the food & drink industry, all of whom are clearly extremely passionate about all things food & drink but equally are all excited to learn from one another and discover new food & drink was a real pleasure.  This ranged from food writers, journalists & marketeers, to producers, retailers & wholesalers such as Curd & Cure, as well as the founders themselves and many long-standing judges, with all of us bringing our own thoughts and ideas to add in to the Great Taste mix. A real privilege to have been a part of this year’s awards and I look forward to judging again in coming years.”

The Great Taste Awards are announced in August 2019 with one supreme champion being crowned in September. To find out more about the Great Taste Awards visit www.greattasteawards.co.uk

We’re proud to stock a wide range of star-winning products from producers including:
Olive Branch, Flower & White, Kentish Oils, Kentish Condiments, Kent Crisps, Creative Nature, Global Harvest, La Tua Pasta, Mustchup, The Great British Biscotti Co, Joe’s Tea Co and The Yorkshire Provender