Oct 2020, Written by Helen Tarver

Winning a star or three at the Great Taste Awards from the Guild of Fine Food is a high point for many artisan makers. These awards are the world’s largest, and most trusted, food and drink awards, now into their 26^th year.

Judged by over 500 industry experts, the only thing that counts is how the product tastes.  No one sees the packaging or knows what brand it is they’re trying. From the initial entries, only 10,000 make it through to the final judging days.

This year the Guild had to work out how to socially distance the judges along with all other COVID safe requirements for handling food and drink. But they got there, and the Guild announced the winners in September.

We have a winner

In fact, across the Melted Inside community of artisan makers, we are happy to have lots of this year’s winning products and producers. The nerve-wracking wait is over for them, and the celebrations have begun.

But how does it feel, whether you’ve clocked up several awards over the years, or these are your first? We asked some of the winners in our community to tell us more.

Mike Norton - Hogg Norton Fruit Liqueurs – holders of four One Star Great Taste Awards

Now in their second award-winning year, Hogg Norton has had a number of their fruit liqueurs awarded stars. If you think you don’t like liqueurs, we recommend giving these a go as they just might change your mind. With no additives or preservatives, you get the full, natural flavour of the fruit coming through. Perfect for sipping, or enjoy mixed with fizz from champagne to tonic water.

Here’s what Mike had to say about the awards.

Why did you first enter the Great Taste Awards?

We knew our products were good (we are biased) and we had been receiving great feedback from our customers for a long time. When we started to look at getting into retail outlets and prestigious events such as RHS Chelsea, we looked around to see what organisations we wanted to be affiliated with. We were looking for ones which fitted into what we do as a company and with our products.

We had heard a lot about the Great Taste Awards and seen the logos on some very well established brands and some great products. We looked at the Guild of Fine Food (the Great Taste Awards organisers) and decided this was a great fit.

We wanted our products to be judged by leading judges and with an international field of products.  Great Taste had over 40,000 products entered into their awards and only around 5,000 of those win awards, so we knew this was a real test of the quality of our products. This was in 2019, and we were so proud to have won awards for the Strawberry, Raspberry and Blackberry liqueurs.

In 2019 you won awards on three products. And you won again this year. What keeps you entering?

Having the Great Taste logo on our products and being able to show that our products are among some of the best products in the world is a major achievement. It demonstrates to suppliers, retailers and customers our level of quality, and this is what we are proud of.

In your view, what do the awards stand for?

We have always stayed true to our belief in quality, and we only use natural ingredients, with no colours, additives or preservatives used in any of our products.  Winning these awards shows that our products are up there with the best.  It also demonstrates to our customers that we are also consistent in the quality of what we produce.

Which product were you particularly pleased to have recognised by the judges?

The Strawberry Liqueur, as this was the very first flavour we did. We’re very proud of all the others but to win one on the first product we did made us especially proud.

Your Sloe Liqueur got an award this year, why should people give this one a try?

In our opinion, we knew the Sloe Liqueur tasted amazing, and this is one that should be tried. You get the full bittersweetness of the sloe with a slight almond taste, and this is just an amazing taste in the mouth. It’s great on its own or mixed with any spirits such as gin, vodka, whisky or rum. On these cold winter nights, it gives a great warming feeling. You’ll find all four of Hogg Norton’s award-winning flavours on their stall, along with Gooseberry and Spiced Plum.