Great Taste, the world’s most coveted blind-tasted food awards, which celebrates the very best in food and drink, has announced the Great Taste stars of 2016. Out of 10,000 products to be judged, Wee Sweetie the small batch producer of natural, handmade confectionery situated in Dumfries and Galloway was awarded a 2-star Great Taste Award for their Naked Fudge, with the judges comments being: “Proper, traditional, not-mucked-about-with, as-it-should-be, delicious fudge! In a world of matcha and salted caramel, it is a treat to taste something that relies on the quality of the raw ingredients. Simple ingredients cooked well! We could have eaten a lot more. Well done! A super fudge with honest natural flavours. Not overly sweet. Melts in the mouth. Buttery and creamy, it does not catch the back of the throat with heavy sugar; it’s just delicious!”
Judged by over 500 of the most demanding palates, belonging to food critics, chefs, cooks, restaurateurs and producers as well as a whole host of food writers and journalists, Great Taste is widely acknowledged as the most respected food accreditation scheme for artisan and speciality food producers. As well as a badge of honour, the unmistakable black and gold Great Taste label is a signpost to a wonderful tasting product, which has been discovered through hours and hours of blind tasting by hundreds of judges.
Donna Bradley who single-handedly runs Wee Sweetie from her mother’s home kitchen decided to enter the Awards for the first time this year following overwhelming positive feedback from customers and as a means to help grow her list of Dumfries and Galloway stockists. “From the hundreds of sweeties that I make I decided to enter my Naked Fudge into the Awards. I spent a long time perfecting my recipe, my Naked Fudge is the base from which all of my other flavours are created by adding ingredients so to me it made most sense to put it forward for judging. For a lone sweetie maker using local ingredients in her Mammy’s kitchen to receive 2-stars from such a prestigious organisation is a huge achievement: I’m absolutely delighted!”
Recognised as a stamp of excellence among consumers and retailers alike, Great Taste values taste above all else, with no regard for branding and packaging. Whether it is bread, honey, salami or cereal being judged, all products are removed from their wrapper, jar, box, or bottle before being tasted. The judges then savour, confer and re-taste to decide which products are worthy of a1-, 2-, or 3-star award.
There were 10,000 Great Taste entries this year and of those products, 141 have been awarded a 3-star, 878 received a 2-star and 2,520 were awarded a 1-star accolade. The panel of judges included: TV chef and author, Valentine Warner, MasterChef judge and restaurant critic, Charles Champion, fifth generation baker, Tom Herbert from Hobbs House Bakery, and Great British Bake Off winner Frances Quinn; food buyers from Harrods, Selfridges, Fortnum & Mason, Harvey Nichols and Waitrose chefs including James Golding, cheif director of THE PIG Hotels, and Kevin Gratton, chief director of HIX Restaurants.
For more information, stockist enquiries or to place an order please contact Donna Bradley at [email protected]
