Seabanks of Warkworth wins Great Taste awards for oil and vinegar products

The Great Taste awards are the world’s largest, longest standing and most respected food accreditation scheme for artisan and speciality food producers, with entries from across the globe.

Seabanks oil is made from rapeseed oil grown by the Park family at Buston Farms. It is pressed and bottled on the farm and they use many of the homegrown raspberries and blackcurrants for infusing, adding to sustainability.

In 2020, the business began with cold-pressed rapeseed oil but expanded to producing fruit vinegars in January, after taking over the vinegar part of Alnwick-based producer The Fruit Kitchen, owned by Anne Walsh.

Business owner, Karen Park, said that winning an award for each product entered was “a genuine surprise and a real incentive to continue to grow the business”.

Before the awards were even announced, Karen has been keen to take the next steps for expanding the business, by releasing four new products.

They are a chipotle oil, a raspberry vinaigrette, a blackcurrant vinegar and a blackcurrant vinaigrette.

She decided to enter them before they were launched, and can now sell each one with a star to its name. They are due to be launched on the market soon.

Seabanks also won stars for its original oil in 2016 and 2021.

A total of 14,195 products were put through the competition’s rigorous blind judging process, where every product is removed from its packaging so it cannot be identified, before entering a robust, layered judging process, and Seabanks products were some of 5,904 to receive a Great Taste award.

Of all the entries, 4,088 products were awarded a Great Taste one star (‘food and drink that delivers fantastic flavour’), 1,568 were awarded a two star (‘above and beyond delicious’), and 248 were awarded a three star (‘extraordinarily tasty food and drink’).

The line-up saw food and drink products submitted from an extraordinary 109 different countries.

The full list of this year’s winners and where to buy them can be found at the Great Taste website.

Seabanks products are sold in over 60 shops and delicatessens across Northumberland.