Category Archives: Great brands and producers

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

November 22, 2010

Posted under

Great brands and producers

Recent Foodspotting activity roundup

4 products spotted out and about in the last week:

Old Tom Ale

From Robinsons in the UK this one was voted World’s Best Ale. I bought the Chocolate laced sidekick from the same brewery and really enjoyed it. Spotted in the Wine Centre in Kilkenny.

Vivani Chocolates

The Nuts & Grains health food shop in Mullingar (link to their FB page) have the largest selection of this brand I have seen under one roof – 19 varieties! This is a German brand and was launched in 2000 from Ludwig Weinrich as a fully organic chocolate.

Zanna Cookhouse

Based in Broadway Co. Wexford (and with no website – link to their listing on mychefathome) this small business produce a range of quiches, pies and other foods. Anyone tasted their products?

Highbank Apple Juice

From the organic Kilkenny farm business which just launched the Apple Syrup comes this apple juice. Really tasty, I had some at foodcamp. Both this and the Zanna quiche was spotted in Nellies Farm Shop in Kilkenny (no website).

You can see all of my foodspotting.com activity here.

Keith

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

November 10, 2010

Posted under

Great brands and producers

Coffee Angel, Coffee Roasters. Ireland



 

While Badger and Dodo (link to previous post) braved the outdoors for Savour Kilkenny Karl Purdy from Coffee Angel was working indoors for Foodcamp. He combines the art of good bean sourcing with the science of brewing and both genders were fascinated to hear him share his knowledge and passion on the day. In the third photo you can see him demo’ing his set up to Donal Doherty from Harry’s Bar with Sally McKenna in the foreground.

He brought this new bean grind to Foodcamp and planned on using the feedback he received to write the tasting notes – a new form of crowd sourcing :-). I enjoyed it but did not verbalise that as well as some.

You can buy his coffee online at his site btw.

Keith

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

November 7, 2010

Posted under

Great brands and producers

Comments

4 Comments

Highbank Orchard Syrup, Apple Syrup. Ireland


 

From an organic orchard (Highbank) which was first planted in the 17th century comes this Apple Syrup. Ideal for drizzling on cheeses (for example) it was another artisan food product which saw the light of day at Foodcamp and then on into the Savour Kilkenny weekend.

And in the second photo Julie and Rod Calder-potts show the product to the interested crowd.

Keith

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

November 5, 2010

Posted under

Events, Great brands and producers

Comments

1 Comment

Organic Herb Company, Oils and Herbs. Ireland


The Organic Herb Company business is going over 11 years and supply to a range of retailers in England and Ireland. It is not cheap – but extremely tasty as I learned when I worked my way through 5 of the samples in front of me (chickening out when it got to the Chilli’er concoctions).

One of these may well be a Christmas treat. The second photo shows Paul and Michael the co-founders of the business – again at Savour Kilkenny. As a BTW their site does not do the brand justice – be warned!

Keith

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

November 3, 2010

Posted under

Events, Great brands and producers

Knockdrinna Farmhouse Cheese, Cheeses. Ireland



One of many successful businesses which have grown from the need for farmers to diversify into high quality branded food products Knockdrinna Farmhouse Cheese continues to develop and expand its product range after enarly 6 years in business.

With cheeses made from both cows and goats milk and a farmhouse shop in Stoneyford under their belts they are very well regarded by cheese lovers all around Ireland.

The photos show their range of cheeses as well as one of Helen Finnegan (co-founder) at Savour Kilkenny.

Keith

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

November 1, 2010

Posted under

Events, Great brands and producers

Comments

1 Comment

Secret Recipe Company, Pickle. Ireland

Tom Watts launched his new business with a Cucumber Pickle at the Savour Kilkenny Foodcamp. And it went down a treat. I only had a small nibble (not too pickley myself) but know from others with more educated palettes that it was very well received.

Check out his site (and the fascinating back story to the idea and his plans for the future).

Keith

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

October 31, 2010

Posted under

Events, Great brands and producers

Comments

2 Comments

Badger & Dodo, Coffee Roasters. Ireland


There are not too many good coffee roasters in Ireland and I have enjoyed coming across Badger and Dodo and the guy who started it (Brock Lewin) a couple of times in the last 3 months. Most recently at Savour Kilkenny where I queued in line for a Soya Latter – really, really good with beans roasted 2 days beforehand.

And a bag of their filter ground has been giving me my kicks every morning since :-). Check out their online store at their site.

Keith

 

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

October 10, 2010

Posted under

Great brands and producers

Comments

2 Comments

Natasha’s Living Food, Ireland


I have seen Natasha’s stall a couple of times at the Saturday morning Food Market in Meeting House Square, Dublin a couple of times. Her products have started to appear in health food shops around Ireland which is great as it gave me a chance to try her Kale Crunchies.

They are a tasty snack and make the idea of raw food more palatable. Looking forward to some of her chocolate now 🙂

Check out her website. Good to be able to post this after a mention recently of the New York Natural Kale Chips.

keith

 

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

September 29, 2010

Posted under

Great brands and producers

Comments

9 Comments

Celtic Chocolates, Ireland

*quick rant – yet another great Irish food brand without a website. This one is going for 10 years, employs nearly 20 people (as far as I can tell) and has just started a great new line with the UK in their sites. And no website to support that growth. Words fail me, seriously. There is an address on their packaging but it does not exist. And it used to, I saw it. Enough, end of rant*

I met the founder of this business years ago (Joe Callery) and he is passionate about the quality of what they do. Production of their lines for people who have allergies is taken seriously – the line is closed down and steam cleaned to remove all traces of previous raw materials before a Dairy Free batch is made. That was then and it would not surprise me if they have dedicated lines now.

Their chocolates are award winning at the Great Taste Awards and they have some Fairtrade products as well. however the standout for me right now is the Vegan Caramel Choices – truely the best non-dairy soft toffee which I have tasted (check out the core raw material here). These are available around Ireland and should be in the UK as well. Check them out.

keith

UPDATE – have just published an entry for Celtic on the Irish FoodBase: http://irishfoodbase.com/celtic-chocolates-meath/

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

September 28, 2010

Posted under

Great brands and producers

Iris, Pasta Coop in Italy (where else?!)


This business is featured in a blog post from Suma Foods – a wholesale wholefoods brand in the UK run as a workers co-op. From that post:

Situated in the beautiful ‘Oglio Sud’ National Park of northern Italy, Iris run their business on principles of respect for both people and the natural environment; the produce they grow is completely organic, their farm uses only green energy and Iris’ 40 members are employed under cooperative principles

They were founded in 1984 and also make own brand pasta for others such as Graig Farm. I cannot see a website to link you to for them.

Found it: http://www.irisbio.com/

keith