Local Produce Shop of the Year 2018!

The Taste Cheshire Awards celebrate the true taste of Cheshire, awarding those establishments that are at the top of their game. This year a record number of over 40,000 public votes were cast during the nominations stage in various categories such as ‘Excellence in Customer Service’, ‘Best Newcomer’, ‘Best Cafe’, ‘Local Produce Shop of the Year’ and so on. The top 4 or 5 in each category are notified and then receive a visit from a mystery judge.

Prior to the awards we were delighted to hear that we had been shortlisted in the ‘Local Produce Shop of the Year’ category. On the evening of Wednesday 4^th April 2018, a handful of our Hollies team put on their glad rags and headed off to Chester Racecourse for the glittering awards ceremony.

Taste Cheshire General Manager and Food and Drink Festival Organiser, Briony Wilson said, “It was one of the best events we have ever put on. The industry gets so little time to get together and celebrate what an amazing job they all do representing Cheshire to the millions of visitors we have to the county every year. All of our nominees have had a wonderful 2017 and our various winners at each level have excelled at the very top of their game. It is a privilege for us to be able to celebrate their achievements with them.”

When our category was announced, we waited in anticipation to hear whether The Hollies would be called out! We were absolutely thrilled to get the Gold Award to become Cheshire’s Local Produce Shop of the Year 2018! Congratulations to Claremont Farm who won Silver and Cheerbrook Farm Shop who won Bronze.

Taste Cheshire owner, Stephen Wundke was delighted with the event as he explained,
“Our annual awards have been running now for 18 years and by staging these just after the Food and Drink Festival we bring a huge focus across the UK on to Cheshire and its Food and Drink Industry. This was a superb night and we are already planning for how we can introduce more categories for 2019 to encourage even more people in to the industry”

In a surprise twist at the end, The Hollies were called back onto the stage… we were so shocked, proud and overwhelmed to receive a Taste Cheshire Outstanding Achievement Award! The Outstanding Achievement Award is not given every year, but was given to The Hollies this year as the judges feel that The Hollies as a whole represents everything that Taste Cheshire is about. Taste Cheshire’s job is to connect people with a real ‘Taste of Cheshire’, and they do so by offering a definitive guide to quality Chester and Cheshire food and drink.

The Cowap family are so proud of their Cheshire heritage and would like to take this opportunity to say a three big THANK YOU’s!

• To all our wonderful customers for nominating us in the Taste Cheshire awards. THANK YOU!
• To all our fabulous staff for all your hard work and dedication. We appreciate every single one of you. THANK YOU!
• To all our AMAZING local producers who create the best produce in Cheshire that we are lucky to be able to showcase. THANK YOU!

Congratulations to all other winners in each category – a full list of winners can be found by clicking here.