Green Pastures Strikes Gold at the Great Taste Awards 2011
Wednesday, 7th September 2011; One of Ireland’s leading food producers - Green Pastures (Donegal) - scooped a number of major food awards at the prestigious UK Great Taste Awards 2011 which took place recently. In total, the company received an enviable 10 Gold Awards, including a much coveted Golden Fork Award in the Best Speciality Product from Ireland category for their Yeats Country Organic Full Fat Soft Cheese.
Speaking at the event in London’s Royal Garden Hotel was John Molloy M.D. of Green Pastures who was justifiably overjoyed. ‘This is another milestone for us as an Irish exporter of food and we are very proud to receive these awards. It’s hugely gratifying for us that the taste and provenance of our Yeats Country cheeses and dairy products are recognised so publically, particularly given the UK remains such an important export market for us.’
In the first small, modern Irish Creamery in generations, the talented cheesemakers at Green Pastures craft premium artisans style cheeses from milk, which comes directly from dedicated local family farms. Each of these farms expresses their unique terroir of this extraordinary beautiful North West Region of Ireland.
Each day, fresh, pure, cow and goat milk is transformed into cheeses of uncommon taste and texture, revealing a subtle range of flavours influenced by the seasons, pastures and feed. This is the whole food, farm to table idea where a minimum of food processing intervention is used to produce the purest cheeses possible.
The complete list of awards won by Green Pastures for its Yeats Country branded dairy products includes;
- Yeats Country Organic Soft Cheese – 3 Star Gold (plus Best Speciality Product IRELAND)
- Yeats Country Goat’s Cheese – 3 Star Gold
- Yeats Country Soft Cheese – 2 Star Gold
- Yeats Country Light in Fat Soft Cheese – 2 Star Gold
- Yeats Country Organic Crème Fraiche – 2 Star Gold
- Yeats Country Organic Sour Cream – 1 Star Gold
- Yeats Country Sour Cream – 1 Star Gold
- Paneer – 1 Star Gold
- Yeats Country Greek Style Yogurt – 1 Star Gold
- Yeats Country Soft Cheese with Sweet Chilli – 1 Star Gold
The Great Taste Awards
Now in its 18th year, the Great Taste Awards scheme recognises the best-tasting food and drink available in UK delis, farm shops, upmarket food halls and, increasingly, supermarkets. Over 350 chefs, restaurant critics and specialist retail buyers and other independent food experts were involved in this year’s judging, including TV chef Antonio Carluccio, Masterchef winner Dhruv Baker and top food buyers at Fortnum & Mason and Selfridges.
They whittled an initial 7,482 entries down to around 2,400 Great Taste Awards winners who can now add the familiar black-and-gold one-star, two-star or three-star labels to their jars and packs. Just 114 of these were awarded the top three-star gold awards of which 31 were nominated for Gold Fork Awards on the night.
While the awards attract many of the Ireland and Britain’s most sophisticated – and expensive – foods, the major trophy winners are often simple, traditional products based on high quality ingredients as is the case with the Green Pastures "Yeats Country Food" products.
‘Ireland has a history of producing world class artisan foods and for us at Green Pastures, these Great Taste Awards enable us to showcase our range of specialty foods across Ireland and the U.K.’, concluded John Molloy.
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Note to Editors
The Great Taste Awards has, over 16 years, become the independent benchmark for speciality food and drink. From the start, all foods have been blind tasted by a panel of independent judges from all parts of the fine food business, with gold awards going to those products considered superior. The awards have changed the lives of many producers, helping them grow from small-scale locally-known brands to nationally accredited fine food brands.
The Supreme Panel members were:
- Antonio Carluccio, chef and TV personality
- Alex James, cheese producer and TV personality
- Dhruv Baker, chef and TV personality
- Sophie Michell, chef and TV personality
- Karen Barnes, delicious Magazine
- Tony Turnbull, The Times
- Charles Campion, Evening Standard
- Glynn Christian, TV personality
- Simon Burdess, Fortnums & Mason
- Georgie Mason, Gonalston Farm Shop
- Brett Sutton, chef at the Eastbury Hotel
- Lucas Hollweg, Sunday Times
- Charlie Turnbull, Turnbulls Deli
- Xanthe Clay, Daily Telegraph
- Ewan Venters, Selfridges
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