Luxury food producers scoop top awards

by Mike Pryce - 14/08/2009

"LUXURY food producers from Herefordshire & Worcester have scooped awards in a major fine foods competition. "

Herefordshire farmer William Chase, founder and former owner of the award-winning Tyrrells Potato Chips, hit gold again, this time with his locally-brewed liqueurs.

His new venture Chase Distillery, based on the family farm near Preston Wynne, has won the top award in the Guild of Fine Foods’ Great Taste Awards 2009, known as the Oscars of the fine food world.

Chase Distillery’s elderflower liqueur was awarded three gold stars, the highest possible award, by a panel of eight expert judges.

The company also picked up several other awards, including a two-star gold for its raspberry liqueur and two one-star awards for potato vodka and blackcurrant liqueur.
Mr Chase said: “It’s great to have Chase liqueurs endorsed.

“It’s not only the fruit, but our naturally-sweet, smooth potato vodka that makes them so good.”
Mr Chase founded Tyrrells in 2002, selling the company last year for £30 million.

He then set up a high-tech vodka distillery which currently produces more than 3,500 bottles a year from home-grown traditional potato varieties.

His former company also fared well at the Great Taste Awards, picking up four one-star awards and two stars for its beetroot chips.

There was also a plateful of awards for other food producers from Worcestershire and Herefordshire.

Worcester butchers H Dayus from St John’s collected a gold star for its ham and egg pie; the Handmade Scotch Egg Company from Bishop’s Frome won two one-star awards for its scrumpy scotch egg and blackwatch scotch egg; Churchfields Farmhouse Ice Cream from Salwarop, near Droitwich, scored a gold star for its rum and raisin ice cream; Lightwood Cheese of Lower Broadheath received a gold star for its chaser cheese; Kit’s Kitchen from Egdon, near Worcester, got one star for its barbecue sauce and Pixley Berries (Juice) Ltd of Pixley, near Ledbury, hit the two-star jackpot with its blackcurrant cordial.

The competition is nationally recognised as the independent benchmark for fine foods, and each gold winner will have been blind tasted by a minimum of eight experts.
This year, out of a total of 4,873 entries, 1,030 products were awarded gold.

The national awards ceremony will take place in September, when a judging panel will taste all the regional winners live in front of a packed crowd to decide which entry is to be crowned Supreme Champion 2009.

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