Based on Barry Island, husband and wife owned Barry Island Spirits Co has been named among the top food and drink producers globally this year, picking up two highly prized 1-star Great Taste awards for its Botanical Spiced Rum and Pink Dry Gin.
More than 14,000 products were put through the competition’s rigorous blind judging process; and the two spirits from Barry Island Spirits Co were dubbed ‘delicious’ at the world’s most coveted food and drink awards. 4,078 products were awarded a Great Taste 1-star – ‘food and drink that delivers fantastic flavour’, 1,237 were awarded a Great Taste 2-star – ‘above and beyond delicious’, and 241 were awarded a Great Taste 3-star – ‘extraordinarily tasty food and drink’.
Both products were a big hit with the Great Taste judges. Barry Island Pink Dry Gin, which was recently named a winner in the Gin Guide 2022 Awards, was described as a “delicately coloured gin is bursting with fruit and floral aromas” with “good length and complexity”. Barry Island Botanical Spiced Rum was praised as “a youthful, zesty rum with well-managed, ample spice on nose and palate. The finish is nicely rounded. Well managed and nicely sippable over ice”.
The spirits were two of 5,556 products to receive a Great Taste award in 2022 (which is only 39.1% of the total products entered).
What is Great Taste?
Recognised as a stamp of excellence and actively sought out by food lovers and retailers alike, Great Taste, organised by the Guild of Fine Food, values taste above all else. All products in the line-up for judging are blind-tasted: every product is removed from its packaging so it cannot be identified, before entering a robust, layered judging process.
This year, the judging took place over 90 days across two judging locations (Dorset and London) with a panel of more than 500 judges. This year’s line-up saw food and drink products submitted from a staggering 110 different countries from across the world.
Claire and Tim Whalley, the husband-and-wife team behind Barry Island Spirits Co commented: “We are delighted to have won Great Taste awards for our Pink Gin and our Spiced Rum. Our Barry Island Welsh Dry Gin picked up a Great Taste gold star in the 2021 awards, so to have recognition for two more of our products this year is amazing. We’re incredibly proud that three of our products have earnt the iconic black and gold Great Taste logo”.
“Barry Island Spirits Co is the accidental business. Born through our desire for high quality, small batch Welsh spirits for our bar, Craft Republic in Barry. We never anticipated the demand and popularity of our spirits outside of just having them at the bar, so to be where we are today is just wonderful.
“Being recognised with a Great Taste 1-star means so much to independent producers like us, as it makes all the hard work and determination worth it! Great Taste is the most recognised accolade for taste and quality in the food and drink world, so it really is a big win!” Tim and Claire concluded.
