Eight food producers win Blas n hEireann Awards

EIGHT County Wicklow food producers picked up accolades at Blas na hÉireann, the Irish food awards, in Dingle recently.

The winners from Wicklow, with a selection of bronze, silver and gold awards, across a range of different categories were Gino’s Gelato, Wicklow Farmhouse Cheese Ltd, Avoca, Sam’s Cookies, Miena’s Handmade Nougat, Wicklow Rapeseed Oil, Melody Street Foods Limited and Rhoda Cocoa.

Gino’s Gelato also won Best in County while Rhoda Cocoa won Best in Farmers Market for Wicklow.

The Blas na hÉireann awards are the biggest blind tasting of produce in the country, and the criteria on which the product is judged as well as the judging system itself is now recognised as an international industry standard.

During the first round of judging, which took place over the course of four weeks in June and July, over 2,500 entries were judged in UCC and The Baking Academy, bringing the total number of finalists in each category down to just five.

Those five winners in each of 140 categories were submitted to the judging day in Dingle, where all 350 producer finalists had their food products tasted, compared, savoured and judged at the final by over 100 judges.

Anthony Murphy from Gino’s Gelato who won bronze for Fruits of the Forest and Best In County Wicklow, with Artie Clifford from Blas na hEireann and Katherine Lawlor from sponsor Refrigeration Rentals.

Miena Rust, winner of a gold award for her Dunnes Stores Simply Better Irish Handmade Almond and Pistachio Nougat and a silver award for her Dunnes Stores Simply Better Irish Handmade Almond and Coconut Nougat , with Diarmuid Murphy from Dunnes Stores.