Established in 1994, Great Taste is organised by the Guild of Fine Food and is the world’s largest, longest standing and most respected food accreditation scheme for artisan and speciality food producers. This year, over 14,000 products were submitted and judged at sites across London and Dorset with 4,078 achieving 1 star, 1,237 being awarded 2 star and 241 receiving 3 stars.

The deadline to submit products for the awards is in February, and as Danelaw didn’t launch until April, I had to make a leap of faith to submit coffees that I hadn’t even bought yet, let alone blended, roasted or tasted.

I knew that I wanted to offer a light roast blend as well as a dark roast blend, so I entered both Mjölnir and Fjødr into the awards (Mjólka hadn’t been thought up yet)

I also knew that I would need coffees from Colombia and Sumatra to make up parts of these blends, so I submitted these too as single origin filter coffees.

When submission time came round, I roasted the coffees and sent them off the the Guild of Fine Food for judging.

After that, there’s an agonising wait. Finally, on the morning of 1st August, the results are announced for the entrants, with public results following that afternoon.

I was overjoyed to get 4 coffees awarded - Fjødr, Mjölnir, Colombia and Sumatra. Fjødr even won a 2 star award - in the top 10% of all the food products submitted to the awards this year.

The judges were amazing in their feedback too.

About Fjødr:

The beans are all uniformly roasted and the character is smooth and well rounded. It is sharp, tart, bright with some acidity and with some milk added there are ginger biscuit notes. This is a well blended combination of origins that delivers flavour through the cup and is excellently executed.

Good winey notes that offers great balance of fruit and spice that, unexpectedly, got even better with milk. We loved the long finish - just wanted it to last and last. Such a clever coffee.

Mjölnir:

A high roast; this coffee is balanced between the dark chocolate and stone fruit notes.  It has good body and the hazelnut notes develop at the finish as the coffee cools slightly.

Colombia:

Fruit cake aromas with some nuttiness on the milk chocolate coloured beans. The coffee gave up notes of juicy orchard fruits, with a tinge of bitterness at the back, bringing it back down to the more earthy elements. We liked the succulent nature of this coffee, and when milk was added it improved further, being richer whilst still delivering the full profile well and harmoniously.

Sumatra:

Rich dark roast with the aroma of tobacco. A light, clean smooth flavour profile which has the tobacco notes to the fore - there is delicate complexity to this coffee which could be enjoyed at all times of day

Launching Danelaw has been difficult, sometimes a bit scary. At times I’ve seriously doubted whether I’m doing it right or not. Validation like this from the Great Taste Awards, like being featured as a coffee of the month in Caffeine magazine and being highlighted at the SCA Design awards means a huge amount and drives the confidence that yes: I am doing it right after all!

To celebrate, throughout August we’re offering 22% discount on all our coffees when you enter GREATTASTE22 at checkout. No better time than now to see if the judges have it right!