The cheese, produced in a small creamery in Portadown by Mark Wright and his team from milk sourced from the family’s multi-award winning dairy farm at Tandragee, is sold in delis and farm shops across Northern Ireland as well as the food hall at Fortnum and Mason in London.

The Virtual Cheese Award for the best in Northern Ireland is the latest in a host of endorsements for the Armagh cheese since the launch of the brand in 2016.

Mark, who set up the cheese business with late brother Dean, said: “We are thrilled to receive this important recognition which is a tremendous endorsement of the quality and taste of our Triple Rose cheese. The award will be enormously beneficial to our marketing endeavours as we seek to build further sales especially in Great Britain and the Republic, our most important external markets.”

Triple Rose is described by Mark as “a circular, white mould, single herd, full–flavoured cheese”.

“Its decadent richness is balanced by salty, lemony notes. It is made from pasteurised cow’s milk with added cream,” he said.

The initial Triple Rose cheese was developed by the company with help from the Food Technology Centre at the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise at Loughry, near Cookstown and was launched at the Balmoral Show in 2018, winning the ‘Best New Product’ award.

The soft, triple cream cheese also won two Gold Stars in the 2019 Great Taste Awards and was a finalist in the 2018 Great British Cheese Awards. It has also proved a winner with judges at the Blas na hEireann Awards, the Irish National Food Awards.

The post Ballylisk artisan cheese wins UK award for quality and taste first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

Food producers from the region are celebrating after earning a total of 215 star ratings in the Great Taste Awards – an increase on the 172 awarded last year.

It turned out to be a double celebration for small batch ice cream makers Morelli’s which went on to win the Great Taste Golden Fork from Northern Ireland for their Morelli’s Caramelised Hazelnut Ice Cream after all 3-star winners were rejudged for the Great Taste Golden Fork Reception at Harrogate on October 17.

Out of 218 Great Taste 3-star award-winning products to be re-judged to find the Golden Fork Trophy winners and the Great Taste Supreme Champion 2021, this rich and smooth ice cream with a deep bosky hazelnut flavour was one of 13 products to pick up the coveted trophy for their respective country or region.

Innovative products

Northern Ireland is punching well above its weight when it comes to innovative food and drink products – out of the 5,383 products worldwide to receive a Great Taste 1-, 2- or 3-star accolade from the largest and most trusted food and drink awards on the planet, 215 are based in Northern Ireland.

These include the likes of Craigavon-based Hannan Meats for its Great Taste 3-star award-winning Sugar Pit Bacon Rack, a French trimmed pork loin traditionally hand cured and sweetened with a blend of three sugars; Lisdergan Butchery’s Great Taste 3-star award-winning Murley Mountain Rack of Lamb, produced in Omagh; and Great Taste 3-star Millbay Oysters from Rooney Fish in Newry, Down.

Northern Ireland can now boast seven 3-star winners. The Guild of Fine Foods, which operates the awards, says three stars are only awarded to ‘extraordinarily tasty foods – less than 2% of products are awarded a 3-star each year – don’t leave the shop without buying it!’

This year, the region also has 27 2-star winners – an accolade branded by the Guild of Fine Foods as “above and beyond delicious – less than 10% of entries will achieve this rating”.

Meanwhile, 181 products won 1-star awards, described as “food that delivers fantastic flavour”.

Finest food and drink

Following 86 socially-distanced judging days in London and Dorset, Great Taste unearthed the very finest food and drink from every nook and corner of the UK and beyond.

Food critics, chefs, restaurateurs, retail buyers, cooks, producers and a host of food writers, journalists and social media influencers were among the 355 esteemed palates to have rigorously blind tasted and judged the 14,113 entries from 108 countries, while providing detailed written feedback for the producer.

Among the celebrity judges were investigative journalist and food writer Joanna Blythman, writer, stylist and voice of modern vegetarian cooking, Anna Jones, author Olia Hercules, presenter, author and tutor Xanthe Clay, MasterChef 2018 champion and restaurateur Kenny Tutt, baker and author Steven Lamb, baker and author Martha Collison, Kavi Thakrar from Dishoom, as well as food buyers from Selfridges, Fortnum & Mason and Partridges.

It means every Great Taste award-winning product will now be able to display the unmistakable black and gold logo, a stamp of excellence that is recognised by retailers and consumers alike.

For the full story on the Great Taste Award winners, click HERE.

Caption: Morelli’s Ice Cream managing director Arnaldo Morelli 

The post All the winners at the Great Taste Awards 2021 first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.