Hockeys

Great Taste, the world’s most coveted blind-tasted food awards, which celebrates the very best in food and drink, has announced the Great Taste stars of 2016.

Out of 10,000 products to be judged, Hockey’s Farm Shop, in the New Forest was awarded a 2-star Great Taste award for its British Lop Pork Sausages and another 2-star award for its British Lop Hand of Pork. The judges particularly enjoyed the `succulent and tender meat` and the `creamy, full of flavour crackling` on the Hand of Pork. The sausages were equally well received with their `good texture and pork flavours that develop on the palate…meaty sausages with good natural casings`.

Judged by over 500 of the most demanding palates, belonging to food critics, chefs, cooks, restaurateurs and producers as well as a whole host of food writers and journalists, Great Taste is widely acknowledged as the most respected food accreditation scheme for artisan and speciality food producers. As well as a badge of honour, the unmistakeable black and gold Great Taste label is a signpost to a wonderful tasting product, which has been discovered through hours and hours of blind-tasting by hundreds of judges.

“Since we bought Hockey’s Farm in November 2013, we have all worked tirelessly and are now absolutely thrilled with how the farm looks and our host of awards, especially the Great Taste Award recognition for our own British Lop pork. We are firm believers in promoting and supporting local businesses; living in the New Forest we are fortunate to have a wealth of award winning produce on our doorstep which we sell in our shop. Last year my husband, Jonny and I, were invited on the Great Taste judging panel for a day and we soon realised we needed to enter our own meat. All of us at Hockey’s are over the moon with this years’ result for our British Lop Sausages and Hand of Pork and are looking forward to offering customers a glimpse of how we create our award-winning sausages with demonstrations throughout The New Forest Food & Drink Festival which runs for a week from 31 October.  Customers will be able to enjoy tastings of our sausages and indulge in all that is good from our local area in the café whilst relaxing in our beautiful location in the New Forest. This past year has been a great success for us; hard work, a good team, long hours and wonderful support from our customers has brought us to this point and to receive this recognition from Great Taste is an achievement we’re incredibly proud of”, explains Laura Stainton-Burrell co-owner of the family business, Hockey’s Farm Shop alongside her husband Jonny Burrell and parents Anne and Robin Norris.

Recognised as a stamp of excellence among consumers and retailers alike, Great Taste values taste above all else, with no regard for branding and packaging. Whether it is bread, honey, salami or cereal being judged, all products are removed from their wrapper, jar, box or bottle before being tasted. The judges then savour, confer and re-taste to decide which products are worthy of a 1-, 2- or 3-star award.

There were 10,000 Great Taste entries this year and of those products, 141 have been awarded a 3-star, 878 received a 2-star and 2,520 were awarded a 1-star accolade. The panel of judges included; TV chef and author, Valentine Warner, MasterChef judge and restaurant critic, Charles Campion, fifth generation baker, Tom Herbert from Hobbs House Bakery, and Great British Bake Off winner, Frances Quinn; food buyers from Harrods, Selfridges, Fortnum & Mason, Harvey Nichols and Waitrose and chefs including, James Golding, chef director of THE PIG Hotels, and Kevin Gratton, chef director of HIX Restaurants. These esteemed palates have together tasted and re-judged the 3-star winners to finally agree on the 2016 Top 50 Foods, the Golden Fork Trophy winners and the 2016 Supreme Champion.

Great Taste 2016 will reach its exciting finale on Monday 5 September, when the world of fine food gathers at the Royal Garden Hotel in London to find out the Golden Fork winners for each region at an Awards Dinner, with the final applause reserved for the Great Taste Supreme Champion 2016.

Date: 27 August 2016

For more information about Hockey’s Farm Shop, contact Laura Stainton-Burrell at naturalmeats@hockeysfarm.co.uk or call 01425 652542.