This January Northern Ireland’s tastiest cheddar brand*, Dromona is encouraging consumers to turn the ‘worst month’ of the year into the most comforting, by ‘Getting Toastie with Dromona’. 

Dromona took the streets of Belfast alongside Cool FM Presenter, Pete Snodden to treat passers-by to a melting-ly good, cheesy toastie, made with the No.1 choice of cheddar* – Dromona, of course! Crowds gathered in Belfast City Centre, not only to tuck into a freshly made toastie but to feast their eyes on the bespoke ‘Smelter’ bus shelter. An eye-catching bus stop with a built-in sensory device that wafted the delicious aroma of toasted bread through the air. 

For over 60 years, award-winning Dromona Cheddar has been made locally in Cookstown, using only the freshest Northern Irish milk from grass-fed cows. So, it’s no surprise Dromona tops the taste-test polls, having been officially voted the No.1 Choice of Cheddar during an independent survey, conducted by the Ulster University. Taste-testers blind-tasted Dromona cheese against two leading competitors, with two out of three people preferring the taste of Dromona Cheddar – a ‘grate’ success!

Cheese lovers across Northern Ireland have been commenting on why they voted Dromona their No.1 choice:

“I am converted, Dromona’s Cheddar Cheese tastes delicious and is even better when melted in a cheese toastie”.

“My favourite Dromona cheese is the Mild Cheddar Cheese, I love the creamy texture as it melts in your mouth’’.

Claire Hale, Dromona comments:

“We are delighted to launch the ‘Get Toastie with Dromona’ campaign to give our consumers the opportunity to try our award-winning cheese and find out what makes it the No.1 choice! 

During January and February, our Dromona Toastie van will be setting off on its ‘Toastie Travels’, as it visits shopping centres across Northern Ireland, encouraging shoppers to ‘Give into the Mmmelt’ and enjoy the taste of a Dromona toastie on us!  

To find out when the Dromona Toastie van will be at your local shopping centre, follow @dromonamakesit on Instagram.

*To verify visit www.dromonamakesit.com/verified-no-1-choice/

High protein steak biltong from Newtownards will shortly be on sale in over 160 Aldi stores across Ireland as a result of a recent deal signed by Moorcroft Foods.

Moorcroft Foods, the first South African manufacturer to set up in Northern Ireland, is producing biltong, air dried steak snacks and droewors dried meat sausages, for Northern Ireland and further afield.

The small company, a new food business started by South African businessman, Gavin Moorcroft, is producing a range of branded food-to-go beef snacks from its premises in Newtownards.

Renato Lopes, 49, Moorcroft’s general manager, commenting on the Aldi deal, the company’s biggest to date, says: “This is immensely significant business for us such a short time after we set up in Newtownards. We expect to see Fenners and Coopers, our biltong brands on the shelves in around 160 Aldi stores in the next few weeks.

“We secured this important business as a result of the outstanding quality and flavour of our product. We’ve worked closely with Aldi to develop the business which establishes us firmly in the Republic of Ireland,” he adds.

The Moorcroft family is well-known in South Africa, spanning five generations of South African meat farmers in the Eastern townships.

 “Our biltong uses 100 percent Irish silverside steak from a local supplier and traditional South African recipes,” continues Renato, an experienced manager and a native of Johannesburg.  “We have identified real growth opportunities for our products across the UK, Republic of Ireland and further afield,” he adds.

The company produces a range of delicious biltong flavours including chilli, garlic and pineapple, honey ad chilli

Moorcroft’s biltong brands are a protein-rich, MSG-free, and low-sugar snack. They are also gluten-free, making the biltong a top choice for a healthy snack. Beef biltong is a long popular snack in South Africa.

Emphasizing its appeal to diet-conscious consumers, the biltong is keto-friendly, allergen-free, and gluten-free. “Our biltong is not just a snack, it’s a lifestyle choice that respects your dietary preference,” adds Renato.

A unique wild strawberry and elderflower gin from Wild Atlantic Distillery in Castlederg, Co Tyrone has won gold and been named the ‘Best Flavoured Gin’ in Ireland in the prestigious World Gin Awards in London.

Wild Atlantic emerged victorious from more than 900 entries from 47 countries in 12 categories. Alongside the big-hitting countries such as England, Australia, and the US, this year’s competition saw entries from several emerging countries from Europe (including Denmark, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, and Slovakia) and South America (Argentina, Brazil, and Chile), and Asia (Lebanon, Vietnam, and Indonesia).

Tyrone business partners Brian Ash and Jim Nash, the owners of Wild Atlantic Distillery, were delighted when the judges selected their flavoured gin as Ireland’s best for its outstanding quality and taste.

“This is a tremendous start to the year for the business,” says Brian Ash. “The year ahead is going to be immensely important for us as we prepare for the launch of our whiskey, the first in the Derry region in more than a century.  It’s going to be an exciting time for us and for all our whiskey club members,” he adds.

The global awards select and reward the very best in all internationally recognised styles of gin.

Brian (50) and Jim (54) have also produced a unique lemon-infused Irish vodka at the distillery, which began production in 2020, outside the small townland of Aghyaran, near Castlederg.

The vodka features lemons sourced from Italy’s Amalfi coast and is also sugar-free. In addition to its gin and vodka, Wild Atlantic is gearing up for the development of single malt whiskeys in Tyrone.

The purpose-built distillery, constructed on land owned by Brian, also features an impressive visitor centre, a traditional New York-style bar, a gin school, a programme of tours and cocktail master classes.  Both are widely experienced businessmen with vast experienced in markets outside Northern Ireland.

Jose Andre has been creating the ‘flavours of the world’ and picking up major awards for the original foods from his bakery in Craigavon, Co Armagh from many years. He’s introduced consumers here in particular to the rich tastes from his native Brazil and Portugal.

Delicacies he’s launched here through Food NI member L’Artisan Foods, the multi-award-winning small enterprise that he runs with wife Lucia include Pastel de Nata Portuguese egg custard tarts and Coxinha, Brazilian chicken fritters, favoured by street vendors in centres such as Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia, the South American nation’s capital.

“We’ve been delighted to win a string of UK Great Taste awards, including last year for our unique Chicken and Broccoli Empanada, a product with Spanish and Portuguese influences,” Jose Andre says. “Our patisserie, quiches and other delicacies  – all handcrafted -are now popular with delis and restaurants here and further afield,” he adds. He’s also won a gold medal in Blas na hEireann, the Irish National Food Awards.

He’s certainly well on way to achieving his mission to “bring the flavours of the world” to consumers here.

Jose and Lucia set up the business in 2013 to bake a range of tasty pastry and snacks at the small bakery at Bluestone Business Park on the outskirts of Portadown. It was a decision, he confesses, was “a bit of a step in the dark for the family including daughter Camilla. “I had to do the rounds to delis, cafes and restaurants to sell them products they’d never seen or tasted before.

”I took samples to cafes and coffee bars throughout the Craigavon area but it was two months before I made my first sale,” he remembers.

“While I was confident about the quality, taste and originality of my products I was beginning to lose faith,” he adds. Perseverance produced rewards in the shape of a contract from a local café. He hasn’t look back. The small food business is going from strength to strength with customers including gourmet coffee chain Synge and Bryne,  CoffeeArt, which commissioned Jose to come up with a new and meaty sausage roll, and high-end delis such as Arcadia, Sawer’s and Yellow Door. 

He’s also opened a small deli beside the bakery and stocked it with own products and many from other local artisans.

Food production was an obvious career move for him. He originally came to Northern Ireland to help leading food companies here recruit employees from Portugal to take on tasks, especially in meat and chicken production, that they couldn’t find locals willing to undertake. An experienced manager, he worked for an all-Ireland recruitment consultancy in both Dublin and Belfast.

An engaging and immensely positive personality, Jose has made a host of friends especially in Armagh, where he’s now an integral part of the local food community and a supporter of Food Heartland promotion initiative run by the local council. He’s also a member of Food NI, the main promotion body and is widely respected in the wider food industry.

Born in Portugal’s historic Évora region, an important farming and food production centre, Jose, however, spent most of his life in Brazil, where he met wife Lucia and ran a number of small businesses including a restaurant and deli. He was just two years old when his father, an electrical engineer, moved the family to Brazil. His father, also Jose, was to become managing director of the big Philips operation there.

Jose subsequently worked in export-import management before deciding to set up a restaurant in his Brazilian home town of Porto Alegre, the largest city in the south of the huge South American nation. “I’d always loved food and been keen on the industry. Porto Alegre has a very diverse and cosmopolitan cuisine with German and some Portuguese influences. The restaurant scene, however, was also intensely competitive.” Margins were “very, very tight”. A severe downturn in the Brazilian economy didn’t help the small business.

What it did was to encourage Jose to look beyond his adopted home and to explore opportunities in Britain for his management skills. Another influence on his decision was a desire to improve his knowledge of English. A friend suggested he should look at Ireland because of the growing demand within the food industry for workers.

He found employment with a recruitment agency in Dublin and was then given the task to helping food processors in Craigavon in particular to hire production staff from Portugal. He moved north and began making contacts within the region’s biggest manufacturing industry and subsequently set up L’Artisan Foods.

Food NI member Irish Black Butter, from Portrush, was the only local company on a UK trade mission to Dallas last week.

The mission gave Alastair Bell, the founding managing director of the Northern Ireland company, an opportunity to sample the unique sweet/savoury spread to shoppers at the big Central Merchants store in one of the most important food stores in Texas.

Alastair was part of a trade mission organised by the UK’s Department of Business and Trade over a period of several days. As a result of ‘meet the buyer’ event in London organised by the department last year, Central Merchants already stocks Irish Black Butter.

Alastair commenting on the sampling trip, says: “I was delighted to represent Northern Ireland with other UK smaller businesses on the mission. It gave me an opportunity to meet hundreds of shoppers in Dallas and to talk to them about Irish Black Butter.

“As a result of the interest shown by shoppers, I am confident that sales of my spread will continue to grow in Dallas.”

Irish Black Business, a Food NI member, has also won worthwhile business, especially with hamper producers, in New York and Boston.

Multi-award winner Irish Black Butter, which is based in Portrush, has been invited to join one of the leading small business networks in the UK.

Led by entrepreneur Alastair Bell, Irish Black Butter, a Food NI member and a unique sweet/savoury sauce,  has just joined Small Business Sunday #SBS on social media, created by business leader Theo Paphitis in October 2010. 

#SBS is now the UK’s biggest network of small businesses. Alastair applied to join and was delighted to qualify for an invitation to the influential network over 1,000 small enterprises..

Commenting on the invitation from Theo Paphitis, best known for appearing on BBC’s popular Dragons’ Den, Alastair, who has also appeared on the programme, says; “Being invited to join such an important network for small companies is a marvellous way to start 2024 because it provides access to business contacts across Britain, one of my most important and successful markets. It’s also a market I am especially keen to grow in the year ahead.”

#SBS is also partnered with industry leader Google “to inspire businesses and entrepreneurs” like Alastair.

Alastair continues: “The growth of my small business is dependent on building networks in markets like Britain and the US. It’s easily the best way possible to increase awareness of the company and its products especially Irish Black Butter. It’s a great way to exchange information, contacts and tips with other smaller companies especially sole traders like myself. Being a sole trader can be lonely and very challenging.

#SBS Small Business Sunday is a free small business community with almost 4,000 winners, all working together to thrive in this important UK sector, through the support of headline partner Google, and other #SBS partners such as NatWest, DHL, and HP.

#SBS is all about providing small business owners with a platform to develop and upskill themselves. The networking opportunities include a major event in Birmingham next month which will feature almost 1,000 member companies, including Irish Black Butter.