You can enjoy the very best of food and drink produced in Angus without leaving the house by trying the Angus Flavour Journey Tasting Box.
Seven artisan food and drink producers from Angus have teamed up to provide a box filled with their goodies which will be winging its way all across the United Kingdom in a couple of weeks.
The Angus Flavour Journey Tasting Box includes the very best produce made in the county and is already proving popular with pre-orders flooding in.
While we continue to live in lockdown conditions, all the farmers’ markets that provide small companies with an opportunity to sell their wares are currently closed.
Check out this amazing collaboration between Angus food & drink producers 🥰 The Angus Flavour Journey Tasting Box is available to pre-order now at https://t.co/2eayRXqm2T pic.twitter.com/OxkOMoJgZy
— Redcastle (@RedcastleGin) February 3, 2021
And this gave Fiona Walsh of Redcastle Gin an idea about an alternative way producers could work together – and thus the Angus Flavour Journey Tasting Box was born.
“Since the markets closed, a few of us, while always being friends, have got a Whatsapp group going to keep morale up and I just thought we are fit for a collaboration and it would be lovely for us to do something together,” Fiona revealed.
“Over Christmas time we had our retail shop open and we had brought in a lot of these products anyway. We had Tara’s fudge, Sacred Grounds coffee and Artisana hot chocolate and it went really well.
“I think people are genuinely looking for local. People used to say they were wanting to support local, but since lockdown we have had an amazing warmth from people in the Angus and Dundee area of people genuinely wanting to support us.”
Tasting experience
Considering ways of combining products, Fiona drew on some comments she had heard from the people taking part in her gin tasting sessions.
“We have been doing gin tastings really successfully and our gin boxes have been really popular with people wanting to have a gin tasting experience at home and some of our customers have been linking in with WeeCOOK, for instance, ordering tapas to have with their gin.
“From that I just wondered if we could do a little bit of a tasting experience in a box that brought some Angus producers together,” Fiona added.
“It almost became, maybe a little selfishly, a box of things that I really love, but leaving other producers available so that we can continue and dip in and out with other producers if we want to do it again. It could include Baked by Belle chocolate one month, for instance, just to do different things and open it up to other Angus producers as well.”
For the first project, the seven businesses got their heads together and tried to include products that complement each other.
Little tipple
“We have tried to make it a bit of everything – there are nibbly bits, Hayley’s pies (WeeCOOK), sweet treats to have with your coffee, Artisana brownies that everyone loves, and a little tipple as well,” said Fiona.
“We kind of thought it ticked a lot of boxes and the producers on the Whatsapp group we created tried to almost tailor the flavours a little bit so that they went together well, so you have the chilli jam and the cheese and chilli bites there is a clear link there.
“The Artisana brownies link with our two selected miniatures and it kind of all starts to fall together.
“Even the coffee from Sacred Grounds, Katherine has ensured that the roast will kind of complement everything well, so it has been thought through.”
Treat box
With us all spending a lot of time at home right now, the tasting box could be the perfect treat for a weekend.
“It is ideal to just sit grazing, you don’t need to sit down and have it all at once, especially with the rugby starting, you can sit and watch the rugby on a Saturday and open this little treat box,” added Fiona.
“I would love it to be every producer in Angus because we have the most amazing people out there and I think that’s why if it’s successful then it can carry on and I have already had a couple of other producers get in touch saying they would love to get involved which is great.
“Norma at Flourishing Destinations has a bit of leader funding which she was able to let us take advantage of and this has enabled us to go and get bespoke printing done.
“We have a folder coming which we will be able to put all the leaflets in, so if we do introduce a new producer we can slot another leaflet in. Hopefully it can keep going, but if it doesn’t it will have been a really nice project to have been involved in.”
What’s in the box
The box includes: one miniature Redcastle Spiced Rum, one miniature Redcastle Raspberry & Pomegranate Gin Liqueur, 30g of freshly ground coffee from Sacred Grounds Coffee Company (for cafetière), an assorted bag of fudge from Fudge & Fancies, two buffet size award-winning pies from WeeCOOK, 125g jar of Sarah Gray’s Chilli Jam, one pack of Milton Haugh Farm Shop’s Chilli Cheese Bites, two half brownies from Artisana – Exquisitely Decadent Brownies.
If you are in a DD postcode area the box, which can be pre-ordered with deliveries from February 22, will be hand-delivered in beautiful gift boxes or posted out overnight to any UK address via DHL.
Taste of home
And with orders coming from all over the UK already, people as far as London will be enjoying a taste of what Angus can produce.
“People can send them from Angus to a relative in London and say ‘Here’s a little taste of home’. Hayley’s pies have the shortest shelf life, but she has found a way of packing them and as long as we can get them away overnight they will be fine the next day,” said Fiona.
“We have already had some orders for London, Doncaster, Nairn and Glasgow and Edinburgh so there is already a lot going far and wide with people buying them as gifts which is fabulous, for people stuck at university who haven’t seen their parents for a while, it’s just a nice thing to give them a taste of home.”
The box can be ordered by clicking here.
