Waterford Coffee blend remains a big hit with Blas na hEireann judges
With over 2,500 food and drink products entered in this year’s Blas na hEireann Irish Food Awards competition, Waterford’s Coffee Warehouse brought bronze back to the Deise from Dingle for a second time.
Celebrating a milestone ten years of competition, the Blas na hEireann Irish Food Awards is the biggest competition on the island of Ireland for quality Irish produce and Coffee Warehouse’s “Coffee House Lane Blend 1690” picked up bronze in the best coffee category, an accolade the company also received in 2015.
Mark Bergin, founder of Coffee Warehouse was delighted to receive the award. “It’s the second year that Coffee House Lane’s Blend 1690 has been awarded bronze at the Blas awards, so it’s a great endorsement of what we do. Each year thousands of food producers vie for these coveted food awards, so to be successful twice is a great honour for us.”
According to Mark the award is validation for the company and a great boost for the company’s plans. “The Blas panel of judges is basically confirming that we produce some of the best coffee in the country and that gives us massive confidence to look at markets not just in Ireland, but further afield.”
“Exploring new export markets was always part of our business strategy, but the fact that Coffee House Lane now has its second Blas na hEireann award for one of the best coffees in Ireland, will be hugely advantageous to our company.”
“Our coffee blends are now stocked in 200 SuperValu stores throughout the country, Ardkeen Quality Food Store and numerous independent retailers, and our blends have just become available in the Musgrave’s Food Emporium in Belfast, which is the springboard for us to consolidate our position in the UK and look to Europe in the coming years.”
“We recently invested in a new 6,000 square foot roasting and production facility, a new 30kg roaster and installed an automated packing line which copper-fastens our commitment to roasting the best coffee in Waterford.”
Many of the blends produced by Coffee House Lane retain a strong association with Waterford city and county and include ‘Viking City Roast’ and ‘Copper Coast Roast’. These complement the further five Coffee House Lane blends, seven Ponticelli blends, six single origin coffees, six single estate coffees and three pod blends, that are currently produced.
Not only is the award a boost for Coffee House Lane, this year saw an impressive awards haul for Waterford food producers. Coffee House Lane was in particularly good company as eight other Waterford city and county producers, The Granville Hotel, Pip & Pear; Walsh’s Bakehouse, Pure Food Company, Dawn Meats, Glorious Sushi, Hartery Kitchen and Irish Gourmet Butter picked up Blas awards.
Amongst the more renowned foodstuffs that originated in Waterford such as the blaa, rasher and cream cracker, coffee was roasted in Waterford back as far as 1690. John Aikenhead was the visionary who first brewed and distributed coffee in Ireland, from his coffee house in the aptly named Coffee House Lane, and the Coffee House Lane Blend 1690 plays homage to the significant role Waterford played in bringing coffee to the Irish public.
For more information about Coffee House Lane and the range of Coffee Warehouse blends visit www.coffeehouselane.ie or on Facebook and Twitter.