Double delight as Croots Farm Shop in Derbyshire wins two Great Taste Awards

Double delight as Croots Farm Shop in Derbyshire wins two Great Taste Awards

Popular Derbyshire farm shop Croots has been awarded two new Great Taste Awards to add to the impressive selection of accolades collected over the past 11 years.

Great Taste Awards are regarded as the ‘Oscars’ of the fine food world – and Croots Farm Shop has now won at least 25.

The latest Great Taste Awards were awarded to Croots Bakewell Tart and Croots Shire Ale, which each received a One Star Great Taste Award - meaning the judges dubbed them as products that deliver fantastic flavour.

Steve Croot, who runs the farm shop at Farnah House Farm, Wirksworth Road, near Duffield, with wife Kay, said: “Great Taste Awards are regarded as the Booker Prize in the epicurean world and we are thrilled to have added two more to the Great Taste Awards we’ve won previously for products we make at our shop or which are especially made for us.

“The win for our Bakewell Tart this year is not only great news for us, it also flies the flag for one of Derbyshire’s well-known food products.

“Alongside our award-winning products, we sell a number of other items that have won Great Taste Awards made by our high quality suppliers, as we’re committed to offering our customers some of the best food and drink available.”

One table of judges said of Croots Bakewell Tart, which has previously won an award from Great British Food Magazine: “Attractive looking and well finished. Well filled with a rich buttery appearance and taste. The generous jam filling is refreshingly sharp which balances well with the frangipane.”

Another said: “A homely looking tart, with a good balance of pastry, jam and frangipane.” While a third said: “A well presented tart that has a generous layer of jam. The marzipan flavours come through very well.”

The judges’ comments on Croots Shire Ale, which is brewed for Croots Farm Shop by Tollgate Brewery, which is based on the National Trust’s Calke Abbey Estate near Ashby De-La-Zouch, included: “A great unpretentious stout” and “balance of dryness and sweetness is pleasing”.

There were 12,772 entries into Great Taste this year, from more than 100 countries, and of those products, 208 were awarded a 3-star, 1,326 received a 2-star and 3,409 were awarded a 1-star accolade. The panel of judges this year included; cook, writer and champion of sustainable food, Melissa Hemsley, Kenny Tutt, MasterChef 2018 champion, author, Olia Hercules, chef and food writer, Gill Meller, Kavi Thakar from Dishoom, food writer and stylist, Georgina Hayden and author and chef, Zoe Adjonyoh, as well as food buyers from Selfridges, Fortnum & Mason, Sourced Market and Partridges.

Great Taste, run by The Guild of Fine Food, is the largest and most trusted accreditation scheme for fine food and drink. Established in 1994, it encourages and mentors artisan food producers, offering a unique benchmarking and product evaluation service leading to an independent accreditation that enables small food and drink businesses to compete against supermarket premium own label brands.

Croots Farm Shop has previously won Great Taste Awards for a range of products including sausages, rump steak, bacon, pork pie, Croots sausage roll, Old Goat Ale, lemon oil and sloe gin.

Croots Farm Shop is open Monday to Saturday from 9am to 5pm (Shires Eatery until 4.30pm) and from 10am to 4pm on Sundays. Croots runs Fresh Fish Thursdays between 9am and 1pm on Thursdays.

For more information, visit http://www.croots.co.uk Find Croots on Twitter @crootsfarm_shop or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Croots-Farm-Shop-127012538821/

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