Meet Cork's 36 Blas na hÉireann winners...

Every October, for food producers all around the country, all roads lead to Dingle and the annual Blas na 

hÉireann Irish Food Awards.

This year, plenty of bronze, silver and gold awards took the homeward journey back to Cork again, as 36 producers from across the city and county of Cork were recognition for quality and taste as among the very best of Irish food and drink.

Running from October 3-5, Blas na hÉireann celebrates the very best of Irish food and drink. As well as the producers showcase and the all-important role call of award winners, the weekend programme includes a fascinating array of talks in the Bank of Ireland supported Blas Backyard with industry experts, chefs, retailers and journalists. New for this year was a Meet The Maker stage where food producers shared their insights, stories and hopes for the future of Irish food and drink.

Eat Ireland in a Day showcases the best tastes from each of the four provinces of Ireland, with food producers meeting customers old and new and highlighting the diversity and innovation in food and drink happening in every corner of the country.

Cork’s long-standing reputation as the food capital of Ireland faces lots of healthy competition, but with 36 winners across multiple categories in products as diverse as dairy, bread, ready made meals, beer, spirits, beef, cheese, biscuits and jam – to name just a few – Cork’s status as a leading centre of craft food and drink production remains in rude health.

On congratulating all finalists and winners from across Cork city and county, Joe Burke of Cork LEO said: “We are delighted to be part of these awards once again this year. We are very fortunate to have so many good successful food producers as clients of the Local Enterprise office and we are very proud of their achievements. 

Participating in these awards represent another key milestone on their journey and to benchmark their success against other food producers nationwide.

The winners from Co. Cork are McCarthy’s of Kanturk, Kepak, Gloun Cross Dairy, Clona Dairy Products Ltd, Irish Yogurts Clonakilty, Coolea Farmhouse Cheese, Bandon vale cheese ltd, Carbery Group, The Lost Valley Dairy, Macroom Buffalo Cheese Products Ltd, Keohane Seafoods, On The Pigs Back (La charcuterie Irlandaise Ltd), Cully & Sully, The Good Fish Company, Sage2go Ltd, M & T O Donovan, Ryes & Shine, Hassetts Bakers & Confectioners ltd., Clonakilty Gluten Free Kitchen, Second Street Bakeshop, The Sibly Food Company, Regale Biscuits, Fudge Delights, Velo Coffee Roasters, Follain, St Patrick’s Distillery Ltd, Beara Distillery Ltd, Rebel City Distillery, Original 7 Beverage Co, Stonewell Cider, Barry and Fitzgerald Butchers Ltd with Folláin awarded Best in County.

Blas na hÉireann has been championing speciality Irish food and drink for 17 years, with over 3,000 entries in total received into the competition where experienced judges rigorously critique each entry on its taste in a blind taste test across 170 different categories.

Blas na hÉireann Chairperson, Artie Clifford said: “It’s inspiring to witness the continued innovation and quality in our food and drink industry here on the island of Ireland. 

Every year, the standard is raised even higher, and it’s an honour for us to showcase these exceptional products and the dedicated producers behind them to a wider audience.

Folláin, always a strong performer, saw multiple returns for their jams, preserves and condiments for products produced for premium supermarket brands for SuperValu, Tesco, Aldi and Lidl, including the overall winner for Best in County.

There was great news for two of Cork’s traditional family butchers, McCarthy’s of Kanturk and Fitzgerald’s Butchers of Fermoy.

Renowned traditional butchers, McCarthy’s of Kanturk, with a heritage dating back to 1892, earned a Gold Award for their signature Traditional Spiced Beef and Bronze for their Smoked Back Rashers. Additionally, McCarthy’s were honoured with the prestigious Irish Butchers’ Guild Award at this year’s event.

Jack McCarthy said he was delighted to receive these awards.

“It’s a real testament to the hard work, dedication, and passion that goes into every product we create. These awards are a reflection of our team’s commitment and the loyalty of our customers who appreciate the craftsmanship we bring to our products,” he said.

At a time when the traditional high street butcher shop faces unprecedented challenges, the Blas na  hÉireann process is “vital for the likes of us to be able to keep our heads up,” said Jack, adding that he is delighted with the “good haul” of awards making their way back to Cork from Dingle this year.

Fermoy based Fitzgerald’s Butchers were honoured with a Bord Bia Chef’s Larder Award for their exceptional home cured Guanciale. Master Butcher Barry Fitzgerald said such recognition “reflects the hard work and passion” the team put into their butchery, “inspiring us to keep pushing the boundaries of what we caran achieve.”

From beef to beer, Original 7 Brewing Company, Cork’s newest craft brewery co-founded by Shane Long, Steve Guiney and Páidí Scully received a Bronze Award for their Revolution IPA. Stev said: “Myself, Shane, Paudie and the brew team were delighted to take home Bronze for our Revolution IPA. 

It’s a beer we’re very proud of; it’s our biggest seller out of our core range and well received all over Cork and beyond. To have the national recognition of Blas na hÉireann to top it all off is fantastic, and we’re over the moon with that. 

"Hopefully we’ll be back with more beers next year and more awards – let’s see what happens!”

Rebel City Distillery picked up a Silver Award for the second year running for their Maharani Gin. It’s been a good year for the distillery, having recently launched nationwide with Dunnes Stores. Co-founder Robert Barrett was in Dingle to pick up the award told me how important it is for small producers like RCD to be spotlighted with a prestigious award like this.

“It’s been great to win Silver for the second time on our second entry. Awards like Blas are a great recognition for brands like us and allow us to be front of centre in the opinions of the major multiples like Tesco and Dunnes. We recently launched with Dunnes, so it’s great for them to see continued awards from us. Additionally, for us, the Blas awards event allow us to network within our food industry and meet retailers one-to-one so it’s a great opportunity all around.”

After a year which saw the heart-wrenching decision to close Sage Restaurant in Midleton, Kevin Ahern picked up multiple awards for his Sage To Go food product.

“The main focus was to push on with these products and redirect everything towards to Sage To Go when we decided to close the restaurant business – to be a food producer and not a restaurateur! I’m really enjoying pushing on with the brand and producing own-label products for other companies, too which is very important for us that they see we are making quality products,” he said.

When you win an award from Blas, everyone knows your products are among the best of the best because they are the best awards in the country when it comes to food production. We’re absolutely delighted to get the couple of awards – and have a great weekend as well!

Claire Keane, founder of Second Street Bakeshop, picked up a Bronze Award for her latest addition to her range of chocolate toffee brittle, a Plant-Based Roasted Hazelnut Dark Chocolate Toffee Brittle.

“I’m very happy,” says Claire. “This was a passion project which took well over 18 months to get right, to take out the butter and replace it with something that was price competitive working with Colm Foley of Teagasc at Bia Innovator. The award is a validation that we are on the right track and that people like the product. 

We can now extend that product line to fill a gap in the market with a crunchy confection that is plant-based, dairy and gluten-free.

Darcie Mayland, Lost Valley Dairy was also thrilled with their win.

“We are delighted to have won a Silver award at this years’ Blas na  hÉireann - it’s amazing that milking these four cows in this little valley in West Cork we can win one of the biggest prizes in Irish food, so it’s great for the small guys like us! Always the most important thing for us is people eating our cheese, so I hope what this Silver award will mean for us is that more people will know about our cheese, buy our cheese and eat our cheese, and that’s what we want!”

The full list of winners can be found at www.irishfoodawards.com