Food NI member Ballylisk of Armagh, producer of the successful Triple Rose, a triple cream premium cheese, has introduced a new product that’s washed in sweet cider from Armagh Cider Company.

The new cheese is based on Ballylisk’s existing triple cream product that was launched last year and is selling well in Northern Ireland, Great Britain and other parts of Europe.

Triple Rose, for example, has won business with Heritage Cheese at Borough Market.

Triple Rose has also attracted the attention of leading chefs in Britain and Ireland as well as major retailers in the London. The cheeses are hand crafted by Dean and brother Mark in the dairy’s purpose-built creamery in Portadown.

Dean Wright, Ballylisk’s, founder and managing director, commenting on the new cheese, says: “I wanted to add an additional product using Triple Rose as a base and looked at harnessing the potential of another great taste from Armagh, premium cider.

“Armagh Cider Company is a close neighbour and produces a range of superb ciders. So, it made sense to use one of their award-winning ciders to create a new cheese. Washing our triple cream cheese with the cider and then maturing for around two months has created a rich and firmer cheese with a distinctive Armagh apple flavour,” he adds.

Further cheeses are in the pipeline at Ballylisk.

Uniquely, Ballylisk only processes milk produced on the family dairy farm. The family has many years’ experience of producing the highest quality milk. This means Ballylisk has total control over its entire operation, from ‘farm to fork’. All produce is branded ‘Ballylisk of Armagh’.

The new cheese maintains this basic branding with subtle changes of Ballylisk of Armagh.

 

 

Multi-award-winning Abernethy Butter from Northern Ireland, a Food NI member, has won business with Adare Manor and Golf Resort in the Republic of Ireland, recently rated as ‘the world’s best hotel’.

Abernethy, based at Dromara in Co Down, is supplying the prestigious hotel, located near Limerick, with its original and dulse creamy butters.

The contract is the latest in a series of successes for the acclaimed butter business run by husband and wife team Will and Allison Abernethy. The butter is hand crafted and hand rolled by the company from fresh milk sourced from a grass-fed herd in Co Down.

Abernethy’s unique dulse butter was used by Clare Smyth, recently named the world’s best female chef, as an ingredient in a dish for the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Allison Abernethy, commenting on the new business, says: “We are delighted to have been approached to supply our butter to this exceptional hotel and resort that draws guests from the US, in particular, as well as from the UK and the Republic.

“It’s immensely encouraging to know that our butter will be on the breakfast, lunch and dinner tables of a hotel that’s now acclaimed as the world’s best.”

A new black garlic butter developed by the enterprising couple has also been endorsed by celebrity chefs and food writers such as Nigella Lawson.

Adare Manor in Limerick scooped the top prize at the 30th annual Virtuoso Best of the Best awards in Las Vegas which is voted for by over 18,000 travel-industry professionals in 50 countries.

Adare Manor has a longstanding commitment to Irish food and drink products.

The hotel, a frequent venue for international golf tournaments, boasts a total of 104 bedrooms and has recently undergone an extensive 21-month restoration and refurbishment. A neo-Gothic structure, the hotel sits in an 840-acre estate that dates back to the 1700s.

Those voting in the Virtuoso Awards praised Adare Manor for being an iconic hotel that ‘epitomises excellence in luxury hospitality’.

 

The handcrafted butter made in Down was served at the recent royal wedding

Harry and Meghan’s guests enjoyed handcrafted butter. The husband and wife team behind Co Down’s Abernethy Butter are experiencing fresh success after their produce was served at the recent royal wedding.

Allison and Will Abernethy’s Dulse and Sea Salt butter was on the menu at Harry and Meghan’s wedding celebrations, having been churned at home on the couple’s Dromara farm.

Abernethy Butter was born when Allison and Will gave an old-fashioned butter-churning demonstration at an agricultural show – as taught by her father. Now they have both given up their jobs as a farmer and a nurse to produce butter and fudge full time.

What sets your business apart from the competition?

There’s not really anybody who does it all by hand the way we do. There are the big guys like Kerrygold and Dromona that do everything with machines, but we are the only ones in the whole of Ireland that make our butter completely by hand. We still pat it out using the old wooden butter pats. That seems to make the butter richer and creamier.

What was the best piece of business advice you ever received?

We haven’t had any business advice that stuck with us. We have friends who are chefs we would talk to, like Paula McIntyre, who we would ask to taste our butter if we’re creating a new recipe.

We made a decision early on not to supply supermarkets. We can’t physically produce enough butter, and we would rather stick with places like Fortnum & Mason, Harrods, and the little delis and farm shops. The big guys just squeeze and squeeze you. We recently said no to Sainsbury’s, which wanted us to supply their Taste the Difference range.

What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in business?

Being too soft with waiting for payments. Now I’ve gotten a bit harder. Before I was a bit too easy-going with waiting for payment for the next month.

And your major success to date?

We’ve been in business now for eight years, and our first major success was supplying The Fat Duck [restaurant]. Last year the Duchess of Gloucestershire came to visit us here on our farm, and we’ve met Charles and Camilla a few times. We’ve also been to 10 Downing Street.

Our Dulse and Sea Salt butter getting served at Harry and Meghan’s royal wedding was pretty awesome. A catering company contacted us a while ago, and said they needed butter for a special occasion, which was around the time of the royal wedding, and we thought it might be for that.

Who do you most admire in business and why?

Peter Hannan is the Meat Merchant in Moira, Co Down. He won the supreme champion of the Great Taste Awards twice. When he won it the first time he introduced all the buyers who came to see him to other local businesses. He wouldn’t just keep it all for himself. He’s a great support.

Based on your experience in the downturn, are the banks in Northern Ireland open for business to SMEs?

We joined First Trust for our business banking, and they’ve been very good. We didn’t need any big loans, but they’ve helped us with meetings and anything else we need.

What one piece of advice would you give government to help stimulate the economy?

Eighty per cent of our business goes to the mainland [Britain], so we haven’t seen any decline over the years. It’s hard with Brexit to see what’s going to happen. Stormont isn’t in place. It would be nice to have a government back in general for things like roads and other issues like licensing laws and being able to change the VAT for restaurants.

What has been the biggest challenge you have had to face?

I worked as a nurse for 32 years, and I had to give up my job to work on the business. I found that difficult to do, and to deal with the insecurity of not having a regular wage coming in. Once I did it, I never looked back.

How do you see the short-term future for your business?

We brought out a new flavour of butter this summer. Hopefully that will increase business. The thing about our business is you can’t just flick a switch and the butter is made, you have to employ more people, so it’s all gradual. We have three employees at the moment.

What’s your business worth and would you sell it?

I have no idea what it’s worth, and I just don’t know if we would sell it.

 

Article: The Irish Times