Ireland’s top 10 in 2018 Great Taste
Food from the Cork-Limerick borderlands is in line for one of the most world’s most prestigious awards.
Among the 2018 Great Taste three-star winners who will compete in September for the Great Taste Supreme Championship are Ballyhoura Apple Farm’s Apple Chai Shrubs vinegar, and a Mushroom Salt made by Ballyhoura Mountain Mushrooms in Ballylanders.
Great Taste judges said the sweet drinking vinegar made from the company’s Apple Chai juice blended with cider vinegar and honey impressed them with its “bold, robust and sharp” flavours.
The Mushroom Salt is made by extracting and concentrating the naturally present salts from mushrooms.
The two products are among 192 awarded three stars, out of a record-breaking entry of 12,634 products from around the world.
A Supreme Champion will be selected from these and named in September.
Ten products will vie to bring the supreme award to the island of Ireland for the sixth time since 2011.
Two of the six winners were from the Republic of Ireland, including last year’s winner, Hugh Maguire, of Ashbourne, Co Meath, with his Smoked Black Pudding. He is a three-star winner again this year, with a sweet dry cured smoked collar bacon.
Bidding to bring the top prize to Northern Ireland for the fourth time in seven years is the Carlingford Oyster Co Ltd.
The other three-star winners from Ireland are:
- Lidl Ireland’s Crafty Brewing Company Irish Lager
- Dawn Meats West of Ireland 50-Day Dry aged French trimmed bone in Rib
- BeeActiv’s Raw Ivy Honey from Co Limerick
- Boyne Valley Farmhouse Cheese’s Boyne Valley Bán
- Musgrave Retail Partners Ireland Signature Tastes Smoked Rack Of Bacon.
- Dunnes Stores Simply Better Handmade Irish Smoked Trout Pâté
There was a one, two, or three award for 392 products from Ireland, allowing producers to display the gold and black Great Taste logo.
