Podcast Ep 232: We spoke to Bank of Ireland’s head of Food Sector Lucy Ryan as well as artisan businesses at the recent Blas na hEireann Irish Food Awards.
Now in its 17th year, Blas na hÉireann saw another strong year from across all categories along with many new producers entering the awards for the first time this year.
During the judging, which took place over June and July, over 3,000 entries were judged. Products from every county in Ireland were entered to win bronze, silver or gold awards in over 170 food and drink categories, as well as key awards like Supreme Champion and Best Artisan Producer.
“It’s just incredible the range, the breadth and it really gives a great energy to the entire industry”
Tipperary-based Rívesci was crowned as Supreme Champion for their Smoked Chilli Oil and Valentia Island Vermouth was announced as Best Artisan Producer. Killadoon Milk from Kildare which won ‘Best Start Up’, among a variety of accolades including Gold for Whole Milk, Best in Kildare and Best in Leinster. The full list of winners can be accessed here
Blind testing creates a level playing field
At Blas we spoke with Bank of Ireland’s head of Food & Drink Sector Lucy Ryan about the challenges and opportunities facing Irish food producers.
She said what fascinates her every year is the evolving range of products. “You always think, oh I’ve seen chocolate before, I’ve seen certain coffee beans or different product categories that there are, but it never fails to amaze me just how many new types of products there are. It’s just incredible the range, the breadth and it really gives a great energy to the entire industry.
“And I say this is from the sole traders right up to the medium or larger enterprises. It’s a real kind of levelling ground, a level playing pitch insofar as all the products are tasted blind. So you can be a start-up or a fully established business and it’s just if your product taste better and appeals to the judges, that it’s going to win.”
Across the industry Ryan said it’s a challenging environment for not only surviving but succeeding and for this reason Blas really plays a key role.
“This gives a real energy, a real buzz and there’s a real community atmosphere here. It gives people a real boost to push them on to the next level of innovation or to the next stage within each of their businesses.”
All About Kombucha
Among the food producers we spoke with was Keith Loftus from All About Kombucha who co-founded the business with his friend Emmet Kerrigan. A kombucha brewery nestled in the Gaeltacht, All About Kombucha has been serving cans of unpasteurised, live, and organic kombucha since 2017. Their products are all hand-canned and brewed. Their mission is to create a kombucha which is good on the gut, good to the planet and good on the palate.
Originally operating from a garden shed, the business has grown to a state-of-the-art premises in Claregalway. Their award-winning products can be found in restaurants, cafes and supermarkets all over Ireland.
“The business started in Emmet’s home, in a converted gym. We had moved to Vancouver when we finished college in 2016 and we set up a painting and carpentry business over there; two young, naïve 20-something year-olds who just wanted to give entrepreneurial life a go. Everything we learned in college we said ‘alright, come on, let’s go, let’s do it!’”
While in Vancouver they discovered kombucha for the first time. “We were blown away by just how synonymous it was with the lifestyle we were being introduced to at the time, which was all around healthcare, wellness, hiking, work, yoga, all of these things that were so far beyond anything we were used to and kombucha was just the common denominator.”
Kombucha – a fermented, effervescent, sweetened black tea drink – is thought to have originated in China. Keith and Emmet resolved to create their own kombucha brand in their native Galway and All About Kombucha was born. “Our skills are like chalk and cheese but our vision is very much the same. So when you have a dynamic that works like that, you hit all fronts and it usually goes well. And we have the craic doing it as well, we just love it.”
Keith says that the culture of All About Kombucha is one of discovery. “I think a lot of it depends on the type of person that you are as well. Like if you’ve got a flair for marketing, then you should probably be looking at your accounts. You know, if you’re money driven, you should probably think about, how is my brand coming across? If you are a foodie, you should probably have a look at your systems. So I think it really depends on the side of you that you’re probably most unaware of and probably most hesitant to look at because ignorance is bliss, and that’s why having a partner or someone honest come in and you have to detach yourself anyway from your idea.”
The Scullery
Florrie Purcell started The Scullery, based in Nenagh in Tipperary, with a small saucepan and a big dream. That dream was to create a range of relishes, sauces, compotes and Christmas puddings that were high quality, delicious, natural and affordable. Fast-forward more than a decade and her dream has become a reality. Not only has she her own extensive range, which is entirely free from artificial additives and uses no GM ingredients, but she has also been entrusted by some of the world’s biggest names, including Lidl and Guinness, to develop and make new and exciting products for them. The Scullery has won many awards and accolades over the years, from Blas na hEireann to Great Taste Awards both in Ireland and in the UK.
“I started with a massive dream in the scullery in my mom and dad’s family home,” Purcell said, adding her mother infused a passion for food in her while her dad helped finance it. “I was always doing my Christmas pudding and I felt I was going to feed the nation with my great granny’s recipe. And that’s how I started.
“But I soon realised I couldn’t make a living out of it because it was so seasonal and hence the relishes. And now I do relishes, chutneys, pasta sauces, barbeque sauces all year round.”
She said that an intimate relationship with her customers gave the business its start. “I had a deli and a wine bar and my customers were fabulous. I was a bit like Willy Wonka in the kitchen, forever making stuff. And I’d go out in the afternoon and I’d get the customers to taste it and give their feedback. And it was from that that they kind of gave me wings and legs, to be honest. And that’s how it started.”
G’s Gourmet Jams
And finally, we also spoke to Clive Gee from G’s Gourmet Jams in Laois. 20 years ago Helen Gee’s passion for food saw an opening to bring her family recipes back to life, and from her kitchen she started to build a brand that came from the heart. G’s Gourmet Jams are made with only the highest quality and all-natural ingredients to ensure her time-honoured recipes taste just like “Granny used to make”.
From Helen’s start-up success, G’s Gourmet Jams kitchen has now moved into a modern production unit located beside the family home on the farm situated near the heritage town of Abbeyleix. G’s Gourmet Jams nostalgic taste and high quality has resonated with consumers over the past 20 years and with their continuous support the business has grown steadily over the years in both the retail and food service sectors. With the success of these award-winning Jams, Marmalades and Jellies, a savoury range of Chutneys, Relishes, Sauces and a Reduced Sugar range were added to bring diversity to their product portfolio which now includes over 40 products.
Helen’s son Clive Gee runs the business. “It started 25 years ago with my mother, a farmer’s wife, and she was going out bringing in the greens and picking the blackberries and making good quality jam that her mother, my granny, had made. And we kept with that, with our main emphasis always being on using the best quality fruit to make the best quality jam.
“And to this day we are still emphasising this – all we add is fruit and sugar. It’s the same process, picking the blackberries, bringing them in and making jam. We grew up eating jam all out lives, we don’t know anything else.”
The Gee family also ran a bakery so the jams Helen produced were a product that would adorn the shelves. Soon awards followed and the jams began appearing in local shops and soon they were in supermarkets like Superquinn.
This had a multiplier effect and opportunities such as doing private label products also came into view and today, as well as their own brand, the business supplies private label product to stores like Dunnes, Aldi and Tesco.
“It’s a bigger business now. We began as a small farm business and our factory is still on the farm.”
Clive says the role that Blas plays for the Irish food industry is significant.
“It’s great because all the products are blind-tested. We don’t know who the judges are – they are usually people like chefs who would have a good taste. It assures us that we’re doing a good job.”
The networking aspect of the Blas event also brings local businesses like G’s Jam into close proximity with influential buyers from large supermarkets. “If I have a new product it gives us a chance to say ‘look, is there any chance I can go up to you next week and drop a product?’ So it’s great to be able to come to Dingle and have these kind of opportunities where all your buyers from Tesco, to SuperValu to Dunnes and Aldi are all in a tent within a 100 yards from each other.”
Looking to the future, Clive says the business is exporting to the UK and Northern Ireland as well as the US. “We’re always looking to export. We love the Irish market but we’re always looking to make ourselves bigger. The main thing is we keep producing the top quality jam that we produce and that’s key to our every day.”
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