Great Taste Awards 2023
Ballyrashane Products
Milk from grass-fed cows on family farms – and its skilful transformation into outstanding dairy products – is the secret of success for Lakeland Dairies’ Ballyrashane brand. Superb flavour, texture, aroma and appearance had the Great Taste judges coming back for more, and scooped four 1-star awards and a prestigious 2-star award.
Praised for its attractive colour and smooth, creamy mouthfeel, Ballyrashane Salted Butter won the 2-star award. “We ate it thickly spread,” said the judges. “It is creamy, beautifully salted and full of deep grass-filled buttery notes. A fabulous example of butter and one which we really enjoyed judging.” The four 1-star awards went to Ballyrashane Buttermilk, Double Cream, Semi-Skimmed Milk, and Whole Milk. With the Buttermilk, the judges admired the “cultured dairy nose” and “fresh flavour”. The Double Cream impressed with its “luscious richness” and “a lingering deliciousness just begging for strawberries warm from the sun!” Tasting the Semi-Skimmed Milk, the judges noted “a gentle but definite, slightly sweet, milky flavour”, and the Whole Milk showed “a level of sweetness that sings of well-fed, high-quality cows producing clean, simple, pure, fresh, great-tasting milk.”
Blas na hÉireann Awards 2023
VIVA Flavoured Milk and Champion Irish Creamery Butter
Lakeland Dairies took home four gongs at the recent Blas na hÉireann Irish food awards underlining the Co-op’s pedigree in producing world-class, safe and sustainable dairy products enjoyed by thousands of households every day. Lakeland Dairies won silver for its iconic Champion Irish Creamery Butter brand.
In the flavoured milk category, Lakeland Dairies took home silver for its market-leading Viva one litre Chocolate milk. The two remaining awards were for two private label butter and ice cream products produced in our Killeshandra and Bailieboro sites.
Great Taste Awards 2022
VIVA Milk
In 2022, more than 500 experts put 14,000 entries to the test and made 5,556 awards to 2,344 companies. VIVA Skimmed Milk For VIVA Skimmed Milk, the Great Taste judges mentioned the ‘’very good flavour, actually quite creamy for skimmed milk’’ and loved ‘the natural fats which create the full bodied and enjoyable mouth feel’’. Our milk also impressed with its ‘’clean and fresh’ taste, a compliment which we attribute to our production methods.
VIVA Whole Milk The judges also applauded the ‘’delicate milky aroma’’ of our VIVA Whole Milk and commended its ‘’clean palate with good depth of flavour which lingers very pleasantly on the finish’’. VIVA Whole Milk has been described as having a ‘’wonderful full-bodied mouthfeel’’ that ‘’coats the palate to deliver the freshness of a whole milk, with subtle pasture notes too, which is a great experience for a long-life milk’’.
Blas na hÉireann Awards 2022
VIVA Flavoured Milk No Added Sugar
Full of the goodness of milk, the three Irish Food Awards’ finalists included our delicious VIVA chocolate, great tasting strawberry and brand new for this year, our tasty vanilla ice-cream flavour! The VIVA Vanilla Ice Cream flavour scooped the coveted Bronze Blas na hÉireann award on the day.
With under 100 calories per 200ml pack, each VIVA Flavoured Milk Drink – No Added Sugar, contains 30% reference intake for calcium, which is essential for growing healthy bones. We also enrich our drinks with vitamin D to help the body absorb calcium. Equipped with a paper straw, our wholesome drinks are made with traceable high-quality milk from our Lakeland Dairies’ family farms and contain no artificial flavours, colours, or preservatives.
