THE owner of an Ellesmere business which has picked up an internationally-renowned Great Taste award believes her product should now be treated as a premium.

Julie Dean, with husband David, runs The Ellesmere Honey Company and last week received the news that they had been given a star for Pure Local Wildflower Honey in the Great Taste Awards, run by the Guild of Fine Food.

Mrs Dean admitted that while she was delighted with the honour, she had so much confidence in her product that it did not come as a surprise, although not without some stress.

"This is very much a prestigious award to win – it's a coveted one and it's also an international win too," said Julie, who is a part-time nurse on the Covid ward at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

"We found out about the award on Tuesday September 17 – that's when they announced it as they gave us login details for the Guild of Fine Food's website.

"We had a sleepless night on Sunday as we were taking our daughter back to university and we thought the results were coming out on Monday.

"So we had another one on Monday too.

"My immediate reaction was one of total delight and pride because we have worked so hard and we know that it's a good product.

"It won't change our product but it will say to a lot of businesses and markets that we have a premium product which will be great for our business."

Julie explained the process behind the build-up to winning the star award.

She added: "We had to submit our honey back in February and they decided whether we could take part.

"Then our honey product was tested in June this year, which is all done by blind tasting through a panel of experts in London.

"We just didn't know whether it was good enough or not for them but it's a real privilege.

"Fortnum and Mason in London have a whole section dedicated to products that are Great Taste award winners, that's how much it means."