Czech marmalade, chocolate, and cake take home Great Taste Awards

Established in 1994, the United Kingdom's Great Taste Awards are organized by the Guild of Fine Food and are widely acknowledged as the world’s largest, longest-standing and most respected food accreditation scheme for artisan and speciality food producers.

The judging panel is comprised of food critics, chefs, restaurateurs, retail buyers, cooks, producers, and a host of food writers, journalists, and social media influencers from the world of food and drink.

In 2021, 14,113 different products from 108 countries were entered into the "Culinary Oscars", including a number of products from the Czech Republic. Blind tasting was conducted across 86 days at four London venues by 355 judges including former MasterChef champion Kenny Tutt and buyers from Selfridges, Fortnum & Mason, and Partridges.

Scottish family smokehouse J. Lawrie & Sons won the 2021 Great Taste Supreme Champion trophy for its Jaffy’s Mallaig Kippers. One Czech company was in the running for the prize as well, ending up with a Golden Fork for Best International Food and Drink.

Prague-based certified Kampotsky pepper artisans Lukas Hejtmanek, Leika Trchalikova, and Eliska Klimova, collectively known as ..pepper..field won a Golden Fork for their Great Taste 3-star award-winning Freeze-dried Green Kampot Pepper. Kampot is a cultivar of black pepper grown and produced in Kampot Province, and Kep Province, Cambodia.

Forty-nine Czech products in total were recognized by the Great Taste Awards in 2021 with three stars also going to Zach's pesto & chilli s.r.o. for its sun-dried tomatoes with basil pesto, MarmelLady for its Orange & Sea Buckthorn marmalade, Pannyruty for its egg-nog liqueur, and bean-to-bar chocolatier Michaela Dohnálková - Míšina čokoláda for its Solomon Islands Milk Chocolate 60% with Goat Milk.

Czech contenders seem to have a way with chocolate. Michaela Dohnálková - Míšina čokoláda currently has four two-star entries and one one-star entry for 2021 while chocolate producers Moon Chocolate boast two entries. Czech-made jams comprised a large segment of Czech award winners as well.

A number of products represent traditional Czech favorites with strong international appeal: gluten-free Marlenka honey cake, Marlenka honey nuggets, and Huhuchilli plum chilli sauce made in Brno.

While its country of origin is listed as the Czech Republic on the Great Taste Awards site, Marlenka cake has Armenian roots.

Its founder, Gevorg Avetisjan, founded the company, which produces Marlenka honey cakes according to an old Armenian family recipe, in Frýdek-Místek in 2003. He was awarded a Medal of Merit of the First Degree by president Zeman this year, for his services to the state in the economic field.

Visit the Great Taste Awards website to see the complete list of Czech winners and view local stockists.