Great Taste, the world’s most trusted food and drink awards, has reached its grand finale for 2020, with the Great Taste Golden Fork from the North of England presented to The Lost Barn Coffee Roasters from Tilston, Cheshire for its Bloomsbury Blend. Built on the site of a lost barn that was blown away during the catastrophic storm of January 1839, the micro-roastery produces small batch speciality coffee, tucked away in the grounds of a historic Cheshire estate. Blending naturally processed Mundo Novo beans from Brazil with washed Typica beans from Mexico, the winning espresso was described as “rich and well-rounded” by the Great Taste judges, who enjoyed its “chocolate and caramel notes with a hint of Biscoff biscuit flavour and a lovely nuttiness which develops into a bright and fresh acidity.”
Having impressed at every stage of the blind-tasted judging process, as a record-breaking 12,777 entries were assessed over 14 weeks of remote judging and socially distanced judging sessions, the medium roast Bloomsbury Blend was celebrated as the best tasting product in the North during the virtual Great Taste Golden Fork award ceremony on Thursday 22 October. Taking place across the Guild of Fine Food’s social media channels and website, the online event brought together food lovers, producers, retailers, buyers and chefs to discover this year’s stars of food and drink, providing a vital boost for the industry as the nation moves towards the most important Christmas period in a generation. Held later in the year than usual, after the lockdown interrupted judging just one week into the schedule, the Golden Fork trophy announcements are the final instalment in a Great Taste calendar that has been reinvented at every stage, in order to stimulate much-needed consumer support for independent retail and hospitality over the challenging months ahead.