A former SRFDA winner has been nominated for one of the food and drink industry’s highest accolades after winning three stars at the Great Taste 2024 awards.
Blackthorn Salt’s Scottish Sea Salt Flakes won a coveted Platinum SRFDA in 2022 and is joined in the running for a ‘Golden Fork’ with fellow Scottish-made products Lussa Gin from Lussa Drinks Company and The Wee Comrie from Strathearn Cheese Company.
Commenting on the nomination, Blackthorn’s co-owner Whirly Marshall said: “We feel incredibly proud as a team to have achieved this accolade. It is so rewarding when you know you love what you make, but to have others, experts with sophisticated palates, objectively give this level of testimony is just overwhelming – a total ‘pinch me’ moment!
“We are completely delighted as well for fellow Scottish producers who have been so well recognised in the Great Taste Awards – it is such a talented, dedicated and positive scene at the moment and one that we are hugely privileged to be a part of.”
Scottish producers won a total of 296 gongs at the Great Taste awards, including 207 one-star, 78 two-star and 11 top-rated three-star awards.
More than 13,000 products from 115 countries were entered for the awards, which are hosted by the Guild of Fine Food. Each entry was blind-tasted by the Guild’s expert judging panel of over 500 food critics, chefs, recipe creators, buyers, retailers, and other specialists in the field of food and drink.
The best of the three-star winners from each country or region are nominated for a Golden Fork, which the Guild describes as an “Oscar of the food and drink world”.
The Golden Fork winners will be announced in an awards ceremony and tasting at Battersea Arts Centre in London on Tuesday 10 September.
A second SRFDA winner was also celebrating Good Taste success, after plant-based milk challenger brand Three Robins secured a one-star award for its Chocolate Oat Drink.
The Edinburgh-based business won a Gold SRFDA in 2023 for its Original Oat Drink.
Fully fortified and made with fair-trade cocoa, the chocolate variant is a healthier version of a classic favourite, with only 3.1g of sugar per 100ml – which Three Robins says is at least 30% less than any other dairy or plant-based flavoured milk on the market.
The company’s portfolio is completed with a newly launched range of oat milk-based smoothies for kids.
Three Robins founder Karen Robinson commented: “We were determined to create something different and prove that you can have both great taste and less sugar, so it feels extra exciting to have been awarded a star for a product in a category where indulgent and unhealthy products dominate. We are delighted to have received recognition from the Great Taste Award judges and are looking forward to expanding distribution of our chocolate oat drink in the months ahead.”
A full list of this year’s Great Taste award winners and a guide on where to buy them can be found on the Good Food Guild’s website.
