Great Taste, the world’s most coveted food awards, which celebrates the very best in food and drink, has announced the Great Taste stars of 2017.
Out of over 12,300 products to be judged, and in their first year of butchering and selling their home grown pork, beef and lamb, Alan Teare and Rachel Ranson of Ballakelly Farm in Andreas were awarded a total of fifteen Great Taste Awards.
Ballakelly Farm received three 2-star Great Taste awards, which means judges dubbed their meat ‘outstanding’ and twelve 1-star Great Taste awards, which means judges dubbed the meat ‘simply delicious’.
The farm received 2 stars for their 100% Manx Lamb Sausages, Pork Leg and Leg of Lamb.
They received 1 star for their 100% Manx: Back Bacon, Pork Chops, Pork Fillet, Gammon Joint, Pork Shoulder, Rolled Brisket, Beef Burgers, Pork Sausagemeat, Lamb Burgers, Lamb Chops, Lamb Mince and Shoulder of Lamb.
Judged by over 500 of the most demanding palates, belonging to food critics, chefs, cooks, restaurateurs and producers, as well as a whole host of food writers and journalists, Great Taste is widely acknowledged as the most respected food accreditation scheme for artisan and speciality food producers. As well as a badge of honour, the unmistakeable black and gold Great Taste label is a signpost to a wonderful tasting product, which has been discovered through hours and hours of blind-tasting by hundreds of judges.
Comments from the judges included:
Ballakelly Farm – Manx Leg of Lamb
“A very good flavour, this delivers a richness and complexity of old fashioned lamb. Bold and rich, long lingering rich flavours which carry on developing. A very well cared for animal has created this flavour.”
Ballakelly Farm – Manx Pork Fillet
“Good looking little fillet of pork. A great welcoming aroma and a fine, delicate yet long lasting flavour making us appreciate the good work that had gone into rearing this pig.“
Ballakelly Farm – Manx Pork Shoulder
“A really lovely flavour pork shoulder, that was tender and succulent. Very happy to have this on the Sunday lunch table.”
Alan Teare, the Farmer explains:
“In our first year of butchering and selling our meats for ourselves we thought we’d have a stab at entering the Great Taste Awards – mainly to get some professional feedback on the quality of our produce. Never in a million years did we imagine that we’d get fifteen awards!! To taste my award-winning ‘farmer to fork’ meat for yourself come along to our Family Farm Shop at Ballakelly Farm, Kiondroghad Road, Andreas on Saturdays between 10.00am and 5 or order via our website www.ballakelly.farm. You’ll also find us at the Royal Manx Agricultural Show on 11th/12th August and at the Food and Drink Festival on 16th/17th September.“
Rachel Ranson, the Farmer’s Wife added:
“We are so thankful to our team of ‘Meat Heroes’, the Isle of Man Government and our loyal customers who have all supported us this year in preparing, selling, marketing and purchasing our produce both on and off-Island. We’ll be celebrating our success at our First Birthday Party later this week. Congratulations to all the other Isle of Man producers who have received Great Taste Awards too – it just highlights the exceptional quality of food produced right here on the Isle of Man.”
Recognised as a stamp of excellence among consumers and retailers alike, Great Taste values taste above all else, with no regard for branding and packaging. Whether it is gin, biscuits, sausages or coffee being judged, all products are removed from their wrapper, jar, box or bottle before being tasted. The judges then savour, confer and re-taste to decide which products are worthy of a 1-, 2- or 3-star award.
There were 12,366 Great Taste entries this year and of those products, 165 have been awarded a 3-star, 1,011 received a 2-star and 3,171 were awarded a 1-star accolade. The panel of judges included; chef, food writer and author, Gill Meller, MasterChef judge and restaurant critic, Charles Campion, author and chef, Zoe Adjonyoh, baker, Tom Herbert, and food writer and baking columnist Martha Collison as well as food buyers from Fortnum & Mason, Selfridges, and Harvey Nichols. These esteemed palates have together tasted and re-judged the 3-star winners to finally agree on the 2017 Top 50 Foods, the Golden Fork Trophy winners and the 2017 Supreme Champion.
Great Taste 2017 will reach its exciting finale on Monday 4 September, when the world of fine food gathers at the Intercontinental Park Lane Hotel, London to find out the Golden Fork winners for each region at an Awards Dinner, with the final applause reserved for the Great Taste Supreme Champion 2017.
Photo - Alan Teare. Courtesy of Callum Staley.
