Peter Hannan is known as the Meat Merchant, and with good reason. He’s a fanatical foodie who spends months perfecting his award-winning products like the Guanciale which earned him the Great Taste Supreme Champion award last year. He supplies some of the best restaurants and hotels in N.I. and further afield.
Hannan’s had to build another Himalayan salt chamber to cope with the demand for his Salt aged beef, including locally produced Glenarm Shorthorn and NI European Angus. Hannan’s pay the members of the Glenarm Shorthorn Beef Producer Scheme a premium to finish their cattle fat to improve the flavour of the finished meat. That’s why food writers all over the world think its the best steak they have ever tasted. Top London chef Mark Hix is one of their biggest fans and uses it throughout his restaurant group. Fortnum and Mason just had to get their hands on their goods too!
Their Meat Merchant shop in Moira beside the factory is open to the public offering their full range of products at wholesale prices and is also a treasure trove of other local artisan delights.
Established 2005, Suki Tea is proper tea – “Tea as it Should Be”!
Oscar Woolley, co-founder Anne Rooney and their small team have been blending tea leaves from all over the world at their warehouse on Belfast’s peace line since 2007.
Their award-winning range is exported as far as Japan, and Norway, with blends including Belfast Brew, Apple Loves Mint, Earl Grey Blue Flower and a plethora of rare white and green teas.
Striving for ethical perfection, in 2013 they were the first company in the UK to launch triple certified teas – Fairtrade, Organic, Rainforest Alliance. They sell award winning natural loose leaf teas and pyramid teabags to cafes, restaurants, shops, delis, spas, health food stores and hotels throughout Europe. They even have an iconic teapot which doesn’t drip.
Passion, Knowledge, Craftsmanship. They’re what Kettyle Irish Foods believe make their meat stand out from the rest; from the treatment of the animal to the ageing process, and finally the butchery skills. They call it Meatcraft.
Maurice Kettyle launched the business in 2004 to sell high quality beef to top restaurants across Britain and Ireland. It’s all from Angus and Hereford cattle and dry-aged for up to 35 days. These days they deal in much more than beef. They are now part of Linden Foods; one of the UK’s leading meat processors.
Suffolk/Cheviot dams and Texel rams, which roam the islands and grasslands of Fermanagh are sold as Lough Erne lamb. They do dry-aged Fermanagh bacon and local free-range chicken. The newest kid on the block is Banquet Royal Rose veal.
They take very good care of these calves. And all of their other animals, too. It shows in the superb taste. You’ll see when you try.
They’ve been doing their thing for over 125 years! What started off as a general store and hardware business down in Belfast City Centre in 1887 remains Ireland’s oldest independent Tea Importer and Coffee Roaster.
The hub is just down the road from Stormont at the aptly named Leaf and Berry Coffee House, Tea Rooms and Emporium. You can smell the roast in the air if you’re up early enough. That’s also where they blend and pack their teas, and serve their internet business and their long list of quality delicatessens, hotels and restaurant customers.
Robert represents the fourth generation of the Bell family to carry on the trade.
BESTSELLERS
Signature coffees include their Barista 1887 Roast and most popular teas are of course their house blend “Natural Leaf Tea”.
Linden Foods are an award winning meat processor from Co. Tyrone, who specialise in supreme quality beef, lamb, chicken and rose veal to major retailers such as Marks and Spencers, Lidl, ALDI and to gourmet restaurants and catering trade both locally and Europe-wide.
They have helped pioneer the NI Farm Quality Assurance Scheme and have established their own farmer orientated Linden Livestock Programme, with a select herd scheme, providing full traceability within the supply chain from farm to fork.
Innovation is the key ingredient to Linden’s success with their new product development department leading the way, creating products that exceed all expectations and shape our future eating trends.
At the heart of the business is their dedicated sustainability strategy GreenTrack. Linden foods are aware of the important difference they can make, and endeavour to operate responsibly in everything they do while delivering for supply chain, customers, colleagues, local community and future generations.
Linden foods are big enough to deliver and small enough to care….
The name Punjana is synonymous with tea. Founded in 1896 by the Thompson family, it’s one of the most popular brands in Ireland, and Scotland. National listings in England have also produced strong sales growth and a loyal customer following. Punjana is blended by Ross and David Thompson who select their teas from the fertile valleys of Assam, North India and the high grown slopes of Mount Kenya.
Ross and David, still personally buy, taste and blend all of the blends for the range of teas available. With 20 gold stars from the 2014 Great Taste Awards their commitment to quality is unswerving, and together they each have over 30 years of tea tasting expertise.
The state of the art machinery at their factory is capable of producing more than 2,000 tea bags per minute. That’s great because more than 100,000 cups of Punjana tea are enjoyed every hour, day and night.
Their range includes the beloved Punjana Original blend and extends through an ever increasing number of Thompson’s Irish Breakfast blend, their multi-award winning Signature Blend and a host of other speciality loose teas which serve the ever expanding ‘afternoon tea’ market.
