GREAT TASTE: The south west Wales foods just named among the world’s best, from a Narberth sorbet to Swansea limoncello

A passion fruit sorbet made in Narberth is officially one of the most delicious things in Britain, and it could soon be crowned among the best in the world.

Fire and Ice’s sorbet has taken a three-star Great Taste award, the top rating handed to just 2% of the more than 15,000 products judged this year, and is one of only three Welsh products nominated for the Golden Fork, the prize known as the Oscars of food and drink, to be decided in London on 15 September.

It leads a bumper year for the region in the world’s biggest food and drink awards, run by the Guild of Fine Food, with more than 50 winning products made across Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, Swansea Bay and the fringes of the patch.

Wales as a whole took 199 awards, up by more than a third on last year’s 146, in a year when a record 15,038 products were entered from 116 countries.

Every product is blind-tasted by a panel of more than 800 judges, stripped of all branding, with one star meaning “simply delicious”, two “outstanding” and three “exquisite and extraordinary”.

For Fire and Ice, the three stars came at the first attempt in years. The gelato makers said on Facebook they had entered a single flavour after a six-year hiatus from the awards, “and only went and scooped the 3 star award”.

The judges were smitten. One called the sorbet “clever and wonderful”, another “very simple but simply perfect”, praising a texture “astonishingly creamy for a sorbet” and a flavour that “tastes absolutely natural”.

“It’s in the freezer today if you want to try some,” the shop added, before noting the bigger prize still to play for: one of just 33 Golden Fork nominees worldwide. “We’re keeping everything crossed.”

There is a happy omen there too: last year the Golden Fork from Wales went to a Carmarthenshire sorbet, when Mario’s of Penygroes took the title for its Blackcurrant and Cassis Sorbet. This year a Pembrokeshire sorbet is chasing it.

Narberth, in fact, had quite a day. Around the corner from Fire and Ice, bakery Rock’n’Dough took two stars for its classic panettone, a first-time entry of what it called one of the trickiest and most technically challenging breads to make, after months of baking the Italian Christmas classic “completely out of season”.

Spiritwood’s two wildflower honeys complete the town’s haul.

At Trenewydd Farm in Llanteg, Dai’s Dairy earned its star for the non-homogenised whole milk sold from its 24-hour vending machines. “Thank you to our fantastic cows and the team here at Trenewydd,” the farm said, “and thank you also to our wonderful customers who enjoy our milk and we enjoy meeting at the vending machines.”

In Mumbles, the family behind Nonna Assunta said they were “absolutely chuffed and over the moon” after all three of their handmade Italian liqueurs, the Arancello, Limoncello and Limecello, took a star each, with every bottle made in small batches using traditional Italian methods.

The region’s other three-star winner is Dunbia’s Welsh Hill PGI Lamb Carvery Shoulder, produced at Cross Hands, which also took a two-star for its Cap-on Eye of Lamb Loin.

And for Caws Teifi of Llandysul, one of Wales’s original artisan cheesemakers, a two-star hat-trick for its Teifi Heritage, Celtic Promise and Teifi Mature crowns a golden fortnight: the same Teifi Mature was named Best Welsh Produced Cheese at last week’s Royal Welsh Show, where the creamery also took the Excellence in Cheesemaking award.

The two-star winners: “outstanding”

Carmarthenshire: Coaltown Coffee’s The Union No.4 (Ammanford) · Blasus Welshcakes’ Penderyn Whisky Welshcake · Moch Coch’s Fennel & Green Peppercorn Salami and Coppa · Fusion Valley Kitchen’s Thai Chicken Satay Curry (Newcastle Emlyn) · Dunbia’s Welsh Hill PGI Cap-on Eye of Lamb Loin (Cross Hands) · Caws Teifi’s Teifi Heritage, Celtic Promise and Teifi Mature (Llandysul)

Pembrokeshire: Coedcanlas’s Blackcurrant Preserve · Golden Road Gin · Still Wild’s Coastal Bitters · Manna Bees & Honey’s Preseli Spring Honey (Crymych) · Rock’n’Dough’s Candied Orange & Sultana Panettone (Narberth)

The one-star winners: “simply delicious”

Carmarthenshire: Ffynnon’s Honey Fudge (Carmarthen) · Magic Cauldron’s Mango BBQ Sauce · Blasus’s Traditional and Lemon & Sultana Welshcakes · Capra Cymru’s Soft Goats Cheese · Do Goodly Dips’ Harissa Spiced Salsa · Fat Bottom Welshcakes’ Lemon Welsh Cake · Fusion Valley Kitchen’s Indonesian Beef Rendang · Gower View Foods’ Shirgar Salted Welsh Butter (Cross Hands) · Mario’s Plum Tomato & Basil Sorbet (Penygroes) · Mydflower’s Wild Wine Sparkling Raspberry (Llandovery) · Smallholding Secrets’ Faggots · Sumptuous Bakery’s Bara Brith (Ammanford) · Dà Mhìle’s Organic Seaweed Gin and Organic Dark Skies Rum (Llandysul)

Pembrokeshire: Coedcanlas’s No.9 Seville Orange Marmalade · Pembrokeshire Chocolate’s Sea Salt Milk, Seaweed Dark and Salted Caramel Dark bars (Haverfordwest) · Still Wild’s Nocino and Hedgerow Bitters · Atlantic Edge’s Pembrokeshire Rock Oysters PGI · MamGu Welshcakes’ Traditional Welshcakes · Manna’s Preseli Spring Soft Set Honey · St Davids Old Farmhouse Brewery’s Cwrw Clos and Cwrw Kelp · Pembrokeshire Gold (Tenby) · Spiritwood’s Spring Wildflower and Welsh Wildflower honeys (Narberth) · Dai’s Dairy’s farm-fresh milk (Llanteg)

Swansea Bay and beyond: Nonna Assunta’s Arancello, Limoncello and Limecello (Mumbles) · Lewis Pies’ Wilfred’s Jerky Turkey Pie (Swansea) · Pontrhydyfen Wildflower Honey (Pontrhydyfen) · Porthcawl Distillery’s Welsh Dry Gin and Sloe Gin (Porthcawl)

John Farrand, managing director of the Guild of Fine Food, said the awards were about “celebrating craftmanship and dedication to well-sourced local ingredients”.

The full directory of winners and stockists is at gff.co.uk/directory, and the Golden Fork winners, including the Great Taste 2026 Supreme Champion, will be announced at Battersea Arts Centre in London on 15 September.

Author

Kit Peters

Kit Peters is a journalist and the editor of Swansea Bay News, covering Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire since 2020.