Best Bangers in the West Midlands Revealed!
A Staffordshire butcher and a Wolverhampton butcher have scooped the top prizes at the West Midlands Tastiest Sausage Competition and been crowned as having the region’s best bangers!
This was the 11th annual West Midlands Tastiest Sausage Competition which this year took the format of One Big Sizzle Off. The event was organised by HEART of ENGLAND fine foods (HEFF) and was held at the flagship AGA shop at The Mailbox, Birmingham, yesterday (Thurs) to coincide with Farmhouse Breakfast Week.
A panel of 14 judges taste tested more than 80 sausages from butchers across Staffordshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Birmingham and Black Country.
Judges included BBC Midlands Today’s Kay Alexander and actor Tom Graham, who plays the character Tom Archer in long-running BBC Radio 4 soap The Archers. HEFF is involved in ongoing story lines in The Archers with the character Tom Archer having joined HEFF as a producer member to access help with developing and marketing his business ‘Tom Archer’s Sausages’.
There were two categories that butchers were competing in; Tastiest Breakfast Sausage and Tastiest Speciality Sausage.
Packington Moor Farm Shop, Lichfield, won the Tastiest Breakfast Sausage category with its Packington Moor Porker, and Robinsons Butchers, Tettenhall, won the Tastiest Speciality Sausage category with its Pork and Caramelised Onion Sausage.
Highly Commended in the Tastiest Breakfast Sausage category went to DT Waller, Ledbury, Herefordshire, and Commended went to DW Wall, Ludlow, Shropshire.
Highly Commended in the Tastiest Speciality Sausage category was awarded to Bradshaw Bros, Burntwood, Staffordshire, for its Smoked Gloucester Old Spot Sausage with country herbs and leek, and Commended went to Chase Farm Shop, Sutton Coldfield, for its Pork, Beef and Cracked Black Pepper Sausage.
West Midlands Tastiest Juice Competition
There was also a competition for the Tastiest Juice. Jus, Ledbury, Herefordshire won the West Midlands Tastiest Juice Competition (cox variety) for the second year in a row. Clives Fruit Farm, Upton upon Severn, Worcestershire, won the Tastiest Breakfast Juice (blend or smoothie) for its Apple ‘n’ Raspberry Juice.
Highly Commended in the Tastiest Juice Competition (cox variety) was awarded to Teme Valley Fruit, Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire with Clives Fruit Farm gaining a Commended.
Highly Commended in the Tastiest Breakfast Juice category also went to Clives Fruit Farm for its Conference Pear Juice. There was a joint Commended prize for Carey Organics, Herefordshire, for its Discovery Apple Juice and to Kit’s Kitchen, Egdon, Worcestershire, for its Naked Apple Juice.