FOR the second year running a North Wales brewery has won a prestigious UK-wide award.
The Great Orme Brewery is now the proud owner of two gold stars awarded for its Celtic ale in this year’s Guild of Fine Foods Great Taste Awards.
The awards is the acknowledged benchmark for specialty food and drink, described as the ‘Oscars’ of the food world and the ‘epicurean equivalent of the Booker prize’.
This recognition follows on from last year’s triumph when the brewery won one gold star for the light coloured ale.
“It is wonderful that the product had gone from one star to two stars, it proves that our consistency is good,” said Jonathan Hughes, brewery owner.
“This two star award is the same as silver, so there is only one more category to go until we hit gold – it is very special indeed.”
Guild of Fine Foods Great Taste Awards gold star winners have to fight through several rounds of judging, carried out over 50 days, from May until July, and includes 405 judges, 38 of which are specially trained coordinating food writers.
John Farrand, managing director of The Guild of Fine Food and organiser of Great Taste said it had been a ‘bumper’ year for entrants.
“When we opened the Great Taste entry process for 2013 we knew that the immediate number of entries looked promising.
“In fact more than 2,109 food and drink businesses have entered just under 10,000 products – an increase of almost exactly 20 per cent.
“In a difficult trading climate and when new product development could have understandably slowed, it’s good to see that British food and drink companies continue to innovate and create new products and, in addition, that long-established businesses continue to flourish.
“We applaud this commitment to the speciality food sector.”
After winning this two star award, the brewery is able to offer its customers a guarantee that the Celtica has a reliable seal of approval – based upon great taste and not marketing.
Jonathan added: “We have a few new products coming through next year, including the Atlantis, which we are hoping to enter into next year’s awards.
“Let’s see what we can do.”
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