The Aurora International Taste Challenge was held in South Africa for the second year running to celebrate and honour universal food quality. There is a serious need for unbiased assessment of food products to highlight the quality of artisan and specialty food producers, as well as that of mainstream food producers who really excel. This challenge was established to recognise and award food product excellence, while helping consumers to purchase award-winning, professionally rated products with confidence.
Celia Gilloway was the convener of the judges, and invited some of the best food industry professionals to sit on the panel of adjudicators. It is no small task to find the best of the best, as each product was assessed using many factors, including appearance (as well as raw appearance where relevant), aroma, flavour complexity, texture, authenticity and workmanship.
Sausage, dried and cured meat awards
This was the first year that sausages and dried and cured meat from all over the world was tasted, and the quality and diversity were evident. The uncooked meats were prepared by representatives of the Institute of Culinary Arts (www.icachef.co.za), going to great lengths to bring out the best in each category. Although the cooking methods were standardised, each product’s response was taken into consideration, and therefore cooking methods and times were adjusted to bring out the best in each product.
In the category of Cured Meat, the products of Richard Bosman’s Quality Cured Meats showed its class. Richard Bosman’s Pepper Fuet and Richard Bosman’s Smoked Streaky Bacon were awarded Double Gold, while Richard Bosman’s Prosciutto was awarded Gold.
We asked Richard how he sees South African charcuterie on the global stage: “Charcuterie in South Africa is growing as the population learns about traditional cured meats from other countries. We have a history of biltong and dry wors, and gradually people are exploring the world of prosciutto, coppa, bresaola, culatello and lardo. It is still a small niche part of our food landscape, but its growing along with the interest in home curing, which is also becoming popular. In countries such as Italy and Spain, even the smallest supermarket will slice a variety of cured meats to order, and we are a long way from that. My dream is that one day we will have far more restaurants and specialised charcuterie outlets that promote our local fare”.
Celebrity chef, Pete Goffe-Wood was one of the panellists. Pete: “I think the importance of competitions like this is of great value to the industry. Not only to the industry itself, but also to the consumer. I think it helps to showcase small producers, and give people notoriety for doing good stuff”.
“I didn’t realise there was going to be as many entries as there were. I was quite impressed with the range and variety we tasted”.
We asked Richard where he ranks South Africa in the charcuterie universe. “We have some of the finest pork in the world. I deal directly with my farmers, and they produce exceptional quality free range pork. With a raw material like this it makes my job easy and I honestly believe some of our products in South Africa (not just mine) are world class. If you look at our wine industry and our olive oil industry, which are all now recognised as being some of the best in the world, I believe our cured meats will become far more recognised in the next decade”.
What makes your products unique? “We source the best pork we can and do as little as possible thereafter. All our pigs are certified free range, and we follow traditional curing methods that take a lot of time. Some of our hams are cured for 24 months before we release them”.
Richard on innovations in the pipeline: “We have just launched a new type of packaging which is more eco-friendly, uses less plastic, and does not vacuum the products, which results in a much better customer experience”.
What is the distinct advantage you have, or the reason for your success? “Attention to detail, no compromising on quality or customer service. We are small and flexible, which means we can offer each customer a tailored range of products. On top of that, a lot of hard work, perseverance and determination. Nothing has come easily, and in today’s world it never will”.
Richard Bosman’s Quality Cured Meats run training courses to teach people how to cure meats at home. These have become extremely popular, while at the same time educating people about cured meats.
Final conclusions
The results of this year’s challenge showed that there are variety and quality variance hiding in plain sight, and that a professional evaluation of products that some would classify as generic, can open a whole new world to the consumer.
The Aurora International Taste Challenge was held in South Africa for the second year running to celebrate and honour universal food quality. There is a serious need for unbiased assessment of food products to highlight the quality of artisan and specialty food producers, as well as that of some mainstream food producers who really excel. This challenge was established to recognise and award food product excellence, while helping consumers purchase award-winning, professionally rated products with confidence.
This was the first-year olive oil and olives were adjudicated at the Challenge, with high-end products from South Africa, Europe, United States, South America and Angola entered.
The judges were meticulous during their evaluation, but when the results were released, it was no surprise that RIO LARGO Premium Extra Virgin Olive Oil won the Trophy for best olive oil. This oil is made from Frantoio, Leccino and Coratina varietals.
Double Gold awards also went to the RIO LARGO Black Label and RIO LARGO Chili Olive Oil, and Gold to RIO LARGO Lemon Olive Oil. The awards are a stamp of excellence among consumers and merchants alike. The Aurora International Taste Challenge is judged from a consumer’s point of view, and the product’s taste is valued above all else, with no regard for branding or packaging.
Nick and Brenda Wilkinson bought the RIO LARGO Olive Estate in the Scherpenheuwel Valley in 2010. Nick is a chartered accountant with a reputation for transforming ailing agricultural businesses, and Brenda is a marketing specialist. Their combined experience of more than 20 years working in Central and Southern Africa was put to excellent use to establish this award-winning estate.
Nick explains: “South African olive oils can compete with the best of the best, as evidenced by us winning top awards in international olive oil competitions across the globe. We are a relatively small producer, but we have modern processing equipment and relatively new groves planted to the best modern cultivars. Most olives are handpicked (cleaner than machine harvested) and processed within hours to achieve high quality. Our dry climate, with hot days and cool nights, coupled with modern irrigation systems, makes for an ideal platform for producing high-quality fruit.”
When asked what they intend to do in future to stay up to date quality-wise, Nick replied: “We will keep abreast of trends across the globe, but having won awards consistently since 2010, we do not intend to let our consumers down. The plan is to increase our footprint both locally and internationally, and consistently produce world class premium quality olive oil.”.
We asked Nick where he saw South African olive oil on the global stage, and he replied: “For me personally it is difficult to say, but South Africa has 11 oil producers that are part of the Top 500 Olive Oils of the World in the FLOS OLEI Guide from Italy, which pretty much sums it up”. South Africa’s position globally was self-evident in the stellar results achieved by producers like RIO LARGO, that were competing with olive oils from around the globe.
RIO LARGO can be found in South Africa and in a few countries abroad, including USA, Dubai, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium and Japan.
The aim of the panellists is to assess the quality of products from the consumer’s point of view, in similar circumstances to those in which a consumer would enjoy the product. According to Spencer Fondaumiere, International Certified Sommelier and panellist: “There is really an importance to have a competition like this to benchmark products against each other.”
Challenge 2020 - Superior products receive high
accolades from expert judges
The Aurora International Taste Challenge was held in South Africa this year to celebrate and honour universal food quality. This challenge was established to recognise and award food product excellence, while helping consumers purchase award-winning, professionally rated products with confidence. We are proud to be partnering with the following brands to make the 2020 event a big success.
Awarded producers can utilise award artwork on their products, as well as in printed and electronic media. Many consumers are brand loyal, but will pick another product if it is given a higher rating, and an award is still one of the best ways to assure that a product will be noticed, and make it stand out among its competitors.
Celia Gilloway was the convener of the judges and invited some of the best food industry professionals to sit on the panel of adjudicators. With over 2500 glasses on hand the work could begin. It is no small task to find the best of the best, as each product was assessed on many qualities, including appearance, smell, taste, mouthfeel, and aftertaste.
One of the most exciting categories judged was water. The bottled water industry is a very fast growing high value industry, and it was interesting to see how top sommeliers differentiate between different types and qualities of waters. Even Municipal water was adjudicated to see whether excellent service delivery by a municipality can result in superb water to residents.
Entries included Energy drinks and Sports drinks, Soft drinks, Non-Alcoholic drinks, CBD drinks, Coffee and Tea in ready-to-drink format, Fruit juice, Kombucha, Beer, Cider, Mead and various other alcoholic drinks.
Here are some of the awards received:
Because of the COVID-19 regulations only non-alcoholic products were evaluated during this first part of this year’s evaluation.
In the water category it was a level playing field, with the still water generally faring better.
In the soft drink category, there seems to be a move towards natural flavouring, less sweet drinks seemingly in a move away from the usual brands. There seems to be a move to luring the more health conscious consumer.
The mixers showed some nice natural flavours, while energy drinks showed a move towards more innovative flavouring. The juice category surprised with apple and orange juice favourites. The kombucha class was very diverse as far as flavours and style go, with generally nice fizz.
This was the first-year olive oil and olives were adjudicated at The Aurora International Tastes Challenge and 69 samples were received from South Africa, Spain, Bolivia, United States and Angola. A total of 29 products were awarded.
Generally olive oil showed great quality across the board, with diversity of flavours and styles. Most examples showed freshness and purity. The South African examples compared well with those from the rest of the world and proved again that the world is truly one big village now.
Flavoured oils showed good diversity, although some oils had artificial flavours, which when used judiciously worked very well. The best examples shone and the judges were very happy with the entries.
The Olives were diverse in style, but most showed good quality and pure flavours.
This was the inaugural year for the judging of coffee at The Aurora International Taste Challenge. The essence of this event is to provide guidance to consumers from a consumer’s point of view, and to evaluate products in an environment, and circumstances similar to what would have been experienced by someone at home, or in a coffee shop. The professional baristas from Guild of Coffee - Barista Academy (https://guildofcoffee.com/) took great care preparing every coffee in a reproducible way, churning out cups with precision for the nearly 50 samples. Both pre-ground coffee and coffee prepared from whole beans were tasted in different categories as black coffee, as well as with dairy milk and milk alternatives.
The coffees ranged wildly in style and origin and there seemed to be a shift away from very dark roasting. There were some excellent fruit driven coffees that emerged, and this could just be a new trend. Some of the dark roasted coffee showed excessive bitterness, which did not serve them well.
Single origin coffees seemed to dominate quality wise, but there were some clever blends making use of coffee beans from newly emerging Rock star regions.
In the category of coffee with milk, some entries struggled to hold their own with the milk. The quality of some coffees with the right acidity and texture, shone through.
This was the first-year sausages, dried and cured meat from all over the world was tasted, and the quality and diversity were evident. The uncooked meats were prepared by representatives of the Institute of Culinary Arts (www.icachef.co.za).
ICA treated the meat products with respect and adjusted cooking times and methods to do justice to every product.
The salami class was diverse in range and included some excellent examples. Besides the exceptionally good examples there were some very average products as well that did not make the grade.
The bacons entered also ranged in quality and style, with some excellent quality well balanced and smoked examples, contrasting with some very salty entries. It was noted that some producers really need to pay attention to flavour balance and the quality of their smoking.
Although South Africa is the home of droë wors and biltong this category disappointed. Although there were a few highlights, there seems to be a drive generally to provide cheap products without paying attention to quality.
In the uncooked sausage category, the local “boerewors” shined. There were some excellent examples with very traditional taste, but there was a lot of shrinkage observed in some products, as well as a big tendency towards the overuse of MSG.
Generally, the judges observed a general improvement in the quality and availability of international meat products and agreed that there is still a huge gap in the market for quality products, from both big and artisanal producers.
Meat products video:
The results of this year’s challenge showed that there is variety and quality variance hiding in plain sight, and that a professional evaluation of products, some would classify as generic, can open a whole new world to the consumer.
We want to thank the companies who entered, our partners and the staff who made this event possible and in particular:
The Aurora International Taste Challenge was held in South Africa this year to celebrate and honour universal food quality. This challenge was established to recognise and award food product excellence, while helping consumers purchase award-winning, professionally rated products with confidence. We are proud to be partnering with Polyoak Packaging to make the 2019 event a big success.
Awarded producers can utilise award artwork on their products, as well as in print and electronic media. Many consumers are brand loyal, but will pick another product if it is given a higher rating, and an award is still one of the best ways to assure that a product will be noticed, and make it stand out among its competitors.
Celia Gilloway was the convener of the judges, and invited some of the best sommeliers and food industry professionals to sit on the panel of adjudicators. With over 2 000 glasses on hand the work could begin. It is no small task to find the best of the best, as each product was assessed on many qualities, including appearance, smell, taste, mouthfeel and aftertaste.
One of the most exciting categories judged was water. The bottled water industry is a very fast growing high value industry, and it was interesting to see how top sommeliers differentiate between different types and qualities of waters. Even Municipal water was adjudicated to see whether excellent service delivery by a municipality can result in superb water to residents.
Entries included Energy drinks and Sports drinks, Soft drinks, Non-Alcoholic drinks, CBD drinks, Coffee and Tea in ready-to-drink format, Fruit juice, Kombucha, Beer, Cider, Mead and various other alcoholic drinks.
The categories that received the most entries were Water, Beer, Cider and Kombucha.
Some of the municipal waters tasted had some obvious high chlorine values and were scored down, but some rose to the occasion. According to the tasters, the municipal waters had a high mineral content and low pH overall. There was an astounding variance in spectrum and quality.
In the bottled water category, the mineral waters clearly were of a higher standard compared to other waters. Something as “generic” as water was an eye-opener, showing a spectrum of quality from mostly superior to very disappointing.
The soft drinks showed great variety, and “adult” soft drinks seem to be making some headway. Soft drinks with natural flavours and low sugars did well. In the soft drink class, modern Ginger beers also did well. This was a great class to judge, because it showed such variety.
There was a huge spectrum of taste among the energy drinks, even though one would not think that taste was a big consideration for energy drinks lovers. Although by default the sugar content was quite high, there were interesting flavours, and the drinks were very refreshing. The sports drinks were very similar in style and variety, although there were some very well-balanced and thirst-quenching examples among them.
The kombucha class showed an extensive variety, with flavours for every preference. This trending category seems to be so diverse, it almost lacks an obvious definition as far as style and flavour go. It was a true wonderworld of flavours.
In the tea category the unsweetened teas seemed to shine, showing great restraint and balance. The flavour characteristics were very complex and some flavour profiles, such as peach combinations, seemed to do well. It showed that this is a category with great promise which will appeal to adults as well.
The non-alcoholic drink alternatives were an eye-opener, showing that producers are respecting their ingredients and are making great strides to lure new consumers. The gin and tonic alternatives, especially, showed great promise.
The beer category had some excellent beers. In this age of craft brewing nobody can afford to rest on their laurels, and beer brewers seem to be pushing the boundaries, ever evolving and improving their beers. Ciders varied a lot, showing diversity in style and quality.
The spirit-based drinks were exciting and of high quality throughout. Most showed great promise, but there is still room for improvement.
The results of this year’s challenge showed that there is variety and quality variance hiding in plain sight, and that a professional evaluation of products, some would classify as generic, can open up a whole new world to people.
There are definitely high quality products nobody would expect, in categories such as water and orange juice. It is no longer necessary to just grab the cheapest or nearest container in a grocery store. The world is changing and producers who excel should be lauded, no matter how big or small they are.
We want to thank the companies who entered, Polyoak packaging and the staff who made this event possible.
The dates for The Aurora International Taste Challenge 2020 will be announced in January 2020.