Waterford producers celebrate success at Blás na hÉireann Awards 2023

Two Waterford-based producers, who are part of Food Academy in SuperValu, have been recognised at Ireland’s biggest food awards. 

Coffee House Lane and Legacy Irish Cider, both scooped a Silver in their categories at the recent Blás awards.

Coffee House Lane is a family-owned and run coffee roastery, named after a small street that runs adjacent to the riverfront. In 1690, John Aikenhead sold Ireland's first commercial cup of coffee there. They select only the finest green Arabica coffee beans from all over the world and slowly roast them to a medium-dark roast in small batches, delivering a smooth and rich-flavoured coffee.

Mark Bergin of Coffee House Lane

Legacy Irish Cider produces a range of fermented natural crisp ciders, using natural wild l yeasts from local handpicked apples. The Legacy Medium Cider, which took home the Silver award, is a little dry with a lovely balance between sweet and dry. It starts off a little sweet, has a green apple sharp note and finishes with a lingering dryness.

Now in its 16th year, the Blás na hÉireann awards is the biggest annual competition for quality Irish produce across the island of Ireland with thousands of products entered hoping to win Gold, Silver or Bronze Awards across 100 food and drink categories.

Liam McDonnell of Legacy Irish Cider

Producers of SuperValu, Ireland’s largest grocery retailer, took home a remarkable 94 Blás na hÉireann awards at the awards ceremony, in another winning year for the retailer and its local producers. SuperValu Own Brand and its Food Academy producers picked up 94 awards – winning 26 Gold, 24 Silver, 30 Bronze, 5 Chef Larder and 9 speciality awards. SuperValu Signature Tastes won 5 Gold awards: highlighting the exemplary quality across the top-tier range. This brings the total number of awards won by SuperValu and its suppliers over the last three years up to an incredible 303 awards across SuperValu Own Brand, SuperValu Signature Tastes, Food Academy, and The Happy Pear.

Achieving such levels of quality remains a priority for SuperValu and the retailer is proud to be recognised for delivering the best taste and quality products for its customers. As Ireland’s largest grocery retailer, SuperValu understands the importance of supporting local and is committed to supporting Irish food producers throughout the country. With SuperValu’s continued success at the awards, winning over 303 accolades in the last three years alone, shows the commitment SuperValu has to the very best quality Irish food.

Congratulating Coffee House Lane and Legacy Irish Cider, Ian Allen, Managing Director, SuperValu said: “Huge congratulations to Coffee House Lane & Legacy Irish Cider. Without the hard work and commitment to quality from these Irish food producers, we would not have the excellent range of award-winning products available in SuperValu stores.

“2023 has been another stellar year for SuperValu at the prestigious Blas na hÉireann awards. This year SuperValu took home a total of 94 awards, including 48 awards for our talented Food Academy producers. We are incredibly proud of our local producers as they receive the recognition they deserve.

“SuperValu has been supporting sustainable Irish Food & Drink producers for many years now, helping to deliver a more sustainable range for our customers as well as creating jobs within our communities. Along with supporting sustainable food producers we are committed to helping our customers make sustainable choices. We recently launched our ‘Local Action, Global Impact’ initiative which showcases the small actions we can all take to make a global impact. Local Irish producers are certainly making an impact. This was another fantastic, award-winning year for our producers, and we are incredibly proud of our local producers as they receive the recognition they deserve”.