Tasteofthelakes.com wins Great Taste Award

Tasteofthelakes.com and The Old Smokehouse are celebrating after winning a prestigious Great Taste Award. We have been presented with a 2008 Gold 1 Star award for our Smoked Cumbrian, free range Saddleback Back Bacon.

This product along with our Pancetta, Ham and Sausages is now produced and smoked from pigs reared specially for at The Old Smokehouse on Brougham Farm (directly behind the smokehouse). The piglets are left with their mother for much longer, reducing the need for antibiotics. They have access to fields and woodland. They produce pork that is rather more fatty than your usual indoor reared pigs but the flavour is fantastic.

The Great Taste Awards, which is organised by the Guild of Fine Food and often referred to as the Oscars of the food industry, is this year celebrating its 15th anniversary. A Great Taste Award is the authoritative, independent standard for Britain’s fine food sector: more and more consumers recognise the gold & black logo as the benchmark for independently proven fine food.

The Great Taste Awards judging standards, devised by the Guild of Fine Food, are the most rigorous in the UK. Every entry is blind tasted by teams of experts. By the time it earns gold, it will have been assessed by at least three different teams. All the judges’ comments are made available to producers. If no gold is awarded, they need to know how and why. This year’s judges include Alex James, farmer, journalist and bass player with Blur, Mark Hix, the chef’s chef, Charles Campion from Evening Standard & The Independent, Tom Parker-Bowles of UKTV Food’s Market Kitchen and national food journalist Fiona Sims.

Bob Farrand of the Guild of Fine Food, said: “These awards have been running for 15 years now and are a recognised mark of excellence that consumers can trust and rely on.

“The winning products have been through a thorough judging process and we are able to assure consumers that the Great Taste Award logo, which all award winners can use, signifies genuine, proven fine food. It’s not just a supermarket premium marketing slogan that bears almost no relation to the quality of the food in the packet.

“The Great Taste Awards reflect what is happening in the fine food halls, delicatessens and farm shops throughout the UK and during judging we tasted some fantastic gourmet delicacies from all over the world.”

Food critic Charles Campion comments “This competition has really come of age, and year by year the standard of entries gets higher and higher. To win a gold at the Great Taste Awards is a terrific achievement.”