AN ARTISAN ice-cream maker based at a farm on borders of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire has scooped a top rating from a national fine food organisation.

Just Rachel at Bromsberrow, near Ledbury, has received a coveted two star Great Taste award for its dairy free passion fruit ice cream.

This is not the first time this rural producer has hit the spot with the Great Taste judges. It already had seven Great Taste gongs in the pot before receiving this one – the first coming in 2011 for it honeycomb ice cream.

Just Rachel has been making dairy ice cream for 29 years and earlier this year launched a dairy-free/vegan range.

The goal was to make a dairy free ice cream which in addition to being completely free from additives was as rich and creamy as its dairy ice cream. In addition to passion fruit the dairy free range has two other flavours, Lime & Coconut Liqueur and Chocolate.

All entries for Great Taste awards are blind tasted by a panel of experts and the judges commented that the Just Rachel entry was “Delicious. Fruity and refreshing, yet still creamy. Excellent combination of tropical flavours” and “There is a lovely creaminess from the coconut and the passion fruit gives a top note which is tropical and lively. Very creamy despite being dairy free.”

The Great Taste awards are organised by the Guild of Fine Food and is described as the Oscars of the food world. In 2016 more than 400 judges, from all corners of the food world, came together at 49 judging days to do blind tasting in teams of three or four to ensure a balance of expertise, age and gender.

There were 10,000 entries in 171 food categories and just 35 per cent met the exacting standards to earn an award. Only 141 foods achieved the highest standard of three stars, while 878 foods grabbed two stars and 2,520 took away one star.