In its first year of entry, Guernsey Dairy has received outstanding 2-star, and 1-star accolades for its milk and salted butter in The Guild of Fine Food’s, Great Taste Awards 2021.
Great Taste is the world’s largest and most trusted food and drink accreditation scheme run by The Guild of Fine Foods. It supports and promotes food and drink producers, large and small, giving buyers and food lovers in the UK and overseas reliable recommendations for great tasting food.
Out of 5,383 products worldwide to receive a Great Taste 1-, 2- or 3-star accolade, Guernsey Dairy is now able to display the black and gold Great Taste logo, a stamp of excellence recognised by retailers and consumers, on its award-winning products.
Alex Tielles, Quality and Compliance Manager at Guernsey Dairy entered some of the Dairy’s products to see how they would be judged against market leading brands and artisanal products and was overwhelmed by the results and Judges feedback.
“We received 2-Star accolades (out of a maximum of 3) for our low-fat milk, organic milk and salted butter and 1-Star for our full cream milk and skimmed milk. These results are fantastic and puts Guernsey on the map for producing some of the highest quality dairy products made using local milk from our world-famous Guernsey Cows. Judge’s comments like “perfection” and “delicious” are a credit to everyone involved in the local dairy industry,” she said.
According to Great Taste Awards, products that receive 2-Stars are rated as ‘Outstanding’ when means ‘they are above and beyond delicious’ – less than 10% of entries receive these. 1-Star is rated as ‘Simply delicious’ which means the ‘food delivers fantastic flavour’ with approximately 25% of entrants reaching this standard.
Andrew Tabel (pictured), Managing Director at Guernsey Dairy said: “This is a remarkable achievement in particular to the complexities of the production process within a facility that has reached the end of its useful service life.”
Below are some of the judges’ comments:
Guernsey Low Fat Milk ‘2-Star’
A pale milk with a slightly translucent quality one expects from a low-fat milk, despite which it has surprisingly rich, creamy and delicate flavour. A deliciously full-flavoured milk.
Light lactic notes within a beautiful creamy coloured milk that shines in the glass. On tasting, it is beautifully clean and light. We really enjoyed the flavour and we can we see it being very versatile in all cooking and drinks. Although this is low fat, it still has lots of body and dairy flavour. The finish has a fabulous longevity on the palate.
Perfectly silky smooth in terms of mouthfeel, naturally sweet and having a very clean follow through on the palate, this milk is lacking pasture notes, we feel. That said, we are suitably impressed with its delicate flavour notes considering that it is low fat.
Guernsey Organic Low-Fat Milk ‘2-Star’
A full flavoured, low fat milk which was a delight to sample. The milk coated the mouth and the creamy flavours lingered. We thought we were sampling a full fat milk, showing that it’s possible to retain the flavour while reducing the fat content.
A low-fat milk with plenty of sweet, warm, animal-tinged flavour. It had a pleasingly rich, complex flavour that we felt showed that the milk had been respected and not over processed. Delicious.
Guernsey Dairy Salted Butter ‘2-Star’
Beautiful yellow butter with a richly creamy flavour and mouth feel. Sweet cream and a touch of grassiness lead on the palate and the salt – which isn’t at all harsh – is both robust and nicely in balance. This is butter that needs nothing with it apart from a bit of good bread – if that.
An appealing buttercup colour on this well-made butter. A lovely fresh and creamy flavour and a well-balanced salt, which has been nicely worked in. A deliciously fresh tasting butter with a delicate but short flavour.
A deliciously light and vibrant yellow butter which has been well churned. Creamy goodness full of sunshine days and grass. A perfect level of salt. So very rich with a soft velvet consistency and a perfect mouthfeel – coating every part delightfully. It looks so clean with its almost matt appearance. Perfection.
Guernsey Full Cream Milk ‘1-Star’
Creamy and clean tasting with light lactic notes. A pale creamy coloured milk which although rich still has a delightful airy mouth feel to it.
This is delicious milk, clean, but with sweet creamy notes and a really satisfying mouthfeel. The unhomogenised flecks of cream give it added appeal on the palate. One judge described it as having the sweetness and creamy flavour of good ice cream.
Guernsey Skimmed Milk ‘1-Star’
A lovely thick looking milk with a similarly chunky taste, belying its skimmed nature. It is fresh and palate cleansing and we felt that it would stand up well in beverages that normally require a fattier milk.
A sweet milk that we felt was not over heated or over processed, having great flavour for a skimmed milk. It inevitably has a thin body and mouthfeel. This is clearly a very good quality milk.
Images show Andrew Tabel, Managing Director of Guernsey Dairy.
