Black Garlic and Blood Orange win Taste of the West Gold!
Black Garlic Chilli Jam and Blood Orange Chilli Marmalade were today both awarded a GOLD in the Taste of the West Awards 2023!
This is a really great achievement for Easton Chilli, I'm delighted that the panel of expert judges at Taste of the West think of our chilli jams so highly!
There are some thanks to give out -
Firstly to Taste of the West for running the awards and for judging,
For Blood Orange Chilli Marmalade ; thanks to Airlie Fife for giving me her family recipe for her delicious Seville Orange Marmalade that I've adapted, and to Crowdfarming for the delicious organic Sicilian blood oranges that I use each year (and to Queen Jamidala, my adopted blood orange tree at Arancebio farm, for providing the goods)
For Black Garlic Chilli Jam ; thanks to The Original Black Garlic who provide the delicious black garlic that gives this jam its colour and flavour.
Also thanks to One Stop Chilli Shop which is where I buy my fresh chillies, and to Easton legends Sweet Mart who provide most of my other ingredients.
To all my stockists in Bristol (in no particular order), Artichoke, East Bristol Bakery, Poco Deli, Fiveacre Farm Shop, Harvest, Matter, L'affinage, Sandy Park Greengrocers, Mila Stores.
And finally thanks to everyone who has tasted and purchased both of these chilli jams over the years and given me great feedback and motivation to continue.
Cheers!
Rikki
Easton Chilli
The taste of GOLD
Black Garlic Chilli Jam
Award-winning chilli jam made with aged black garlic for a delicious balsamic umami bomb. Heat: 2/5
£5.50
Blood Orange Chilli Marmalade
An award-winning thick-cut marmalade with a twist, combining juicy organic blood oranges with spicy birds eye chillies. Heat: 2/5
£5.50
Frequently asked
How spicy are your products?
Tolerance to chilli heat is very individual! Easton Chilli products are rated out of 5 on heat, trying to make a scale that works for regular people (i.e. people who don't have hot sauce on everything! :) )
- 0/5 - No heat here. Possibly suitable for your newborn baby.
- 1/5 - Just a hint. If you like your spice, you probably think this is nothing.
- 2/5 - A bit of zing. Everyone should be able to enjoy this level of heat, whether you're a regular folk or a chilli fiend. Most of our products are aimed at this level.
- 3/5 - It's heating up. Probably getting a little spicy for the regular folk now, definitely too spicy for a newborn baby.
- 4/5 - Now we're talking! You might talk your pal into trying this once, but they might need a glass of milk, and they might not speak to you for a while.
- 5/5 - Everything that's way too spicy for a regular person.
Here are some rough equivalences in heat.
- Heinz Tomato Ketchup = Easton Chilli 0/5
- Nando's Medium Peri Peri = Easton Chilli 2/5
- That chilli sauce at your local kebab shop = probably Easton Chilli 3/5
- Chilli Daddy's 4 = Easton Chilli 5/5
How does delivery work?
We offer a selection of delivery services depending on your location and order. Choose from them at the checkout.
- Local delivery (Easton and nearby): FREE
- Royal Mail 2nd Class (UK, NI, GG, JE, IM): £4
- Orders weighing more than 2kg (5+ jars): £7.50
- Orders valued £30 or more: FREE!
All orders should be with you within 3-5 working days from when you order (it might be a little longer than this sometimes, we'll be in touch if so).
Large orders (10+ jars) please get in touch so we can make special arrangements.
International orders are available depending on what the customs regulations are of your country. Please get in touch before you place your order to confirm whether we can ship to your country.
Where are your products made?
I started making everything in my home kitchen in Easton! This was great until Christmas 2023 when everyone wanted a jar of chilli jam, In January 2024 I started renting a professional kitchen over in Brislington to make all the products. At some point I hope to return production to Easton!
My t-shirts are printed by the lovely Live Ink Co, based in Bedminster in Bristol.
Sustainability etc?
Of course. Sustainability is important to Easton Chilli and it's considered in all parts of the business.
Packaging
We try to reuse waste materials in our packaging, so if someone has delivered bubble wrap to us, or we have a perfectly sized Amazon box lying around, we might use them for your order. Better to reuse it than throw it away to landfill!
All new packaging that we source is plastic-free and recyclable, and we prefer to buy cardboard or recycled materials where possible. Sometimes we use corn-starch mailer bags.
Any waste cardboard that we can't use gets shredded and put into our compost heap, along with our waste vegetable scraps from jam cooking. The worms love this arrangement.
Product
We try to source all our ingredients "loose" and prefer local and low-plastic companies.
We use preserving techniques like lacto-fermentation to extend the shelf life of some of our ingredients, for example we can buy in a few kg of bird's eye chillies and keep using them for months under the right conditions.
The old packaging of our jars is designed to be removed - it's just a bit of string and card. The idea is that you're more likely to reuse a jar if you don't have to spend ages washing off the sticker that's on it. Our new packaging is paper based and biodegradable - no plastic.
We currently use plastic tamper seals on our 150ml hot sauce bottles, and plastic lids; we are working towards using a compostable tamper seals but the lids will probably be plastic as long as we use this type of bottle.
Unfortunately due to UK Food Safety regulations, we are not allowed to re-use any glass destined to be a "packaged product" i.e. a jar of jam or a bottle of sauce that is sold to a consumer. We have to use new jars and lids for each product. If this weren't the case we'd love to have a closed-loop return and reuse system in place, and we'd be up for working with other producers to standardise on our packaging to make it more viable.
Delivery
We've partnered with Zedify to deliver some of our packages in Bristol. Their fleet of electric cargo bikes means their deliveries within BS1-16 are low-carbon-emitting.
Delivery to the rest of the UK is done using Royal Mail and other couriers like APC and DPD, many of which are working to reduce their carbon emissions.