Foodie Stories

BeeHype Honey BeeHype Honey is run by two young entrepreneurs with a shared love for natural foods and healthy living. They set out to create a one-of-a-kind selection of the finest craft honey and honey preserves. The carefully hand-picked honey varieties will tickle the palette of even the most passionate connoisseur. The mission is to prove that healthy natural food can also taste incredibly delicious!We caught up with BeeHype founders Stela and Mo to discover more about the brand. Read the interview below to find out more… How did it all start?One of our favourite things to do is watching Shark Tank which instilled the thought in our heads that “if they can do it, why can’t we do it?”. We knew we wanted to do something big, but we just hadn’t figured out what that was yet.We were living with Mo’s high-school friend back in 2018, and one day he received a big parcel from his parents in Bulgaria – our home country, with some “essentials”. We were wondering what was so special that he couldn’t just buy at the supermarket here. He opened the package and inside were some traditional spices, herbal teas, and… a big jar of honey. And that’s when it hit us – growing up, both of us had access to high-quality honey, straight from the hive, but in the UK we were never able to find the same taste.We reached out to some friends back home and we managed to get a dozen of jars of different honey varieties sent over to us. We organised a blind tasting with our friends and colleagues and the results were beyond belief – they said they’d never had anything like this in their lives, they had never known the true taste of natural raw honey. What seemed like plain old honey to us back when we were kids, was so special and exotic to our friends here.And that’s when we knew we were onto something, so we set off on our journey to create BeeHype. The story behind the name… BeeHype honey was created with a mission – to excite people about honey and prove that healthy, natural food can also taste incredibly delicious. That’s where the ‘hype’ part of the name comes from. Where are you based? We’re based in sunny Glasgow, find us at stand E51 at the local Country Living Christmas Fair and try our exquisite honey varieties. What inspires you?We’re big foodies, inspired by natural, healthy and delicious foods. We’re also very inspired by business owners who started from scratch and created successful businesses. What is your best-selling product? Our bestsellers are Lavish Lavender and Salted Honey. Lavish Lavender is bursting with flavour and has won 2-stars at the Great Taste Awards thanks to its delicate floral taste. Salted Honey is a healthy alternative to the salted caramel spreads we all love but with no refined sugar, dairy, preservatives or saturated fats and 40% fewer calories. What makes your brand or products unique? We partner with small, ethical beekeepers in Bulgaria – a land of four beautiful seasons, endless fields of lavender, pristine forests and untouched meadows. Thanks to this our honey is full of vibrant flavours and healthy nutrients.Our passion for healthy foods has driven us to create healthier versions of our favourite jams, spreads and sauces. So, came the inception of the UK’s first Salted Honey – a healthy alternative to salted caramel spreads, as well as our Cacao Honey – a healthy alternative to Nutella and chocolate spreads that’s free from gluten, nuts, palm oil and refined sugar. What are your plans for the next 12 months?We’re now stocked in over 90 independent shops, delis and farm shops across the UK and the number of BeeHype honey lovers is growing constantly.Our goal is to continue growing and place the BeeHype products in as many independent shops across the UK and Europe as possible so we can spread the hype further. What is your next project? Our latest innovation is Chilli Honey – sweet honey with a mild spicy kick that works equally well at a BBQ, as it does on a slice of toast or in porridge. We are working on some other amazing creations and we can’t wait to share them with you so make sure to follow us on social media or join our newsletter. What is your biggest achievement? Our biggest achievement is starting our own business at the age of 24 with no business experience, no knowledge about the food and drinks industry, and no investments or loans.We used our skills to save as much save money as possible – Mo used the skills he learned as a teenager to make our unique labels, he learned how to use my old DSLR camera to take professional product photos and he built our e-commerce website. I was leveraging my marketing and PR background and did extensive market research, created buyer personas and wrote SEO creative copy for our products.We were both working full-time, so we had to sacrifice our beauty sleep to keep things going. At the start, it was just afternoons, but quickly it turned to long nights, weekends and holidays. There were many points where we stopped and we thought that we are in over our heads. Against all odds, we kept pushing through the hard times and things eventually started to pick up. What are you looking forward to most about exhibiting at the Christmas Fair?We have very dear memories from our first Country Living Christmas Fair. It was one of the very few events in 2021, right after the big lockdowns. It provided us with the opportunity to meet our customers face to face again after almost 2 years, which was really valuable to us. We were happy to provide them with unique foodie gifts for their friends and family.It was also very fun taking on the challenge of designing and building our stall from scratch and seeing what the fellow stall holders have done with theirs.The Christmas Fair turned out to be very successful for us thanks to the great organisation and marketing efforts from the organisers.We love connecting with other brilliant independent business owners and meeting fellow foodies and honey lovers. Your three top tips for crafters and makers…Don’t be afraid to talk about the benefits of your products. Your passion will inspire others to try them and fall in love with them too.Don’t be afraid to take risks.Don’t stop chasing your dreams and never be afraid to set big goals – even if they seem impossible for your small business at first. Any advice for fledgling businesses… Dedication and hard work can help you achieve anything so keep going!

Irish Black Butter The Irish Black Butter Company was launched in October 2017. Alastair Bell,  who has a family background in farming, took time out from his events management and farm model customisation business to explore the potential for an exciting new business, and from there founded Irish Black Butter LTD.We caught up with Alastair from Irish Black Butter to find out more about the business. Take a look below for the interview… How did it all start?It all started through noticing black butters whilst on holidays over a number of years. In 2017 when starting out on a project to write a children’s story book, I took the plunge and began exploring the possibility of creating Irish Black Butter. Over the Summer the recipe was perfected and in early November 2017 the business was launched on a beach at Portrush. People came over and asked what it was and where they could get it and this lead to the first jar of Irish Black Butter being sold on the beach that day. The story behind the name… Black Butter is said to be of Medieval origin. Made with apples, it was a way of preserving fruit. Irish Black Butter is a modern interpretation using EU PGI status Armagh Bramley Apples, local cider, brandy, treacle, sugar and spices. Armagh is known as the ‘orchard county of Ireland.’ The heart of the product is Armagh Bramley Apples therefore it was fitting to call our product Irish Black Butter. With further research I established that people in times past had been making black butter locally so it was nice to bring something back albeit in a contemporary format. Where are you based? We are based at Portrush in County Antrim. What inspires you?Spreading a little happiness and doing something positive. Central to the business is a desire to create something that people near and far can enjoy, that has an authenticity and provenance, which brings happiness and a smile to peoples faces. I took inspiration from a cassette tape in 1979 and it has stayed with me. What is your creation process? Using local, tapping into heritage and spreading a little happiness. What makes you, your brand or products unique? Irish Black Butter is a unique product in Ireland. Using the EU PGI status Armagh Bramley Apple taps into the rich heritage of apple growing in the Armagh area. The ‘butter’ isn’t actually a dairy butter – it is an apple butter which is a concept widely recognised in the USA, Canada and parts of Western Europe. This is a very inclusive product in that it is dairy and wheat free making it suitable for vegetarian and vegan uses. What is your next project? The next big project is really a continuation of what we are already doing and that is to tell people what Irish Black Butter is and how it can be used. What are your plans for the next 12 months?To make our Irish Black Butter available to consumers, chefs, gift/hamper companies and food ingredients business across the UK, Ireland and overseas. What is your biggest achievement? There are a few. Three stars in the Great Taste Awards was awesome. Taking part in Dragon’s Den was a superb experience. James Martin using Irish Black Butter on national television was amazing. I could add the fact that different businesses are using Irish Black Butter as an ingredient and that is absolutely tremendous. In particular ALDI Ireland used Irish Black Butter as a glaze for their Christmas Hams and more recently Henderson Group in Northern Ireland have started using Irish Black Butter in their Chicken and Ham bakes as part of their highly successful ‘The Chef’ range. What is your best-selling product/line? Our biggest selling line is our 225g retail jar of Irish Black Butter. Will this be your first Country Living Fair?Yes, this will be my first Country Living Fair. I’m looking forward to being at a great event, meeting lots of people and hopefully introducing them  to the great taste of Irish Black Butter. What do you love about Country Living Fairs?It’s the mix of people, traders and consumers that together create a nice atmosphere. Added to that I would say that after the  challenges of the pandemic it is especially nice to be out and about again at events. Your three top tips for crafters and makers…Tap into who you are and what you enjoy. Do your best. Persist. Any advice for fledgling businesses… It all starts at the beginning – you choose the when, the where the what and the why. Go forward knowing that you are doing something rather than look back regretting doing nothing.

Isle of Barra The adventurous spirit of Barra people inspires Isle of Barra’s unique gin. The award-winning Barra Atlantic Gin is distilled from 17 handpicked botanicals foraged from the island shores, capturing the essence of their beautiful home. Born from the island, every drop is distilled, bottled and labelled right on the Isle of Barra.  From their first batch of gin back in August 2017 to today, Isle of Barra Distillers continues to operate as a very small family-run company. The story began with husband-and-wife Michael and Katie, now the team has grown to six, with Debbie handling all the customer related departments & Andrew & Iain making sure all the orders head off to make their journey to your door. Their team may be small, but they all work passionately to build and strengthen the Isle of Barra Distillers together. A company so close to the heart and their Island home is the major drive behind the Isle of Barra Distillers continuous success.  We caught up with Debbie to find out more about their family-run business and the story behind the brand… How did it all start?  It all started with husband-and-wife team, Michael & Katie Morrison. After years of studying and working in the city of Glasgow, they wished to return home to live, start a family of their own and create something special for the Island. A Distillery has never been opened on the Island before and they wanted to take up that challenge and create opportunities for themselves, their family and the Island itself.  The story behind the name…  Barra Atlantic Gin. Our Island Spirit showcases our beautiful Island and the Atlantic Ocean that sits by us. Our key botanical, Carrageen Seaweed is hand-harvested on the shores of Barra. The Atlantic Ocean and the Isle of Barra pay a huge contribution to our brand and our Gin flavour profile. Where are you based?  You’ll find our Distillery in the small village of Castlebay, Isle of Barra. Standing out in the Atlantic on the far western edge of Scotland, you’ll find our home, our distillery. Distilled and bottled on the remote Scottish Island of Barra, our gin has a piece of our home in each bottle. We are Scotland’s most westerly distillery. This is distilling on the edge. What inspires you?  Our Island, our home inspires us as a company. The Isle of Barra is undoubtedly an island of paradise, from its deep blue surrounding sea to its vibrant green land and tropical white sandy beaches, it really does have it all. It’s often hard to believe that our hidden gem of a home is part of Scotland for many people.  Taking advantage of the surrounding beauty of Barra and cunningly using it as inspiration to create the award-winning Barra Atlantic Gin, we are able to produce the freshest island-born fearless spirit which is the delicious gin we all love and enjoy today.  What is your creation process?  We distil our gin for 6 hours through a vapour method/botanical basket. The finished distillate sits at 87.2ABV and we leave this to settle for 3/4 days before we then dilute this down to 46%ABV ready for bottling. We chose to be particular about what distilling method we do and we do not re-use the heads/tails from the distillation. We believe by only ever using the heart, then we have the purest part of the distillation run, and although it is a more expensive method, we believe the end product is one that can hold the name of Barra and one that we are proud to share with the world.  What makes you, your brand or products unique?  Our Key Botanical, Carrageen Seaweed. Each piece of our key botanical is hand-picked from the shores that surround our island home, creating a bold flavour, rich in maritime notes. Our signature botanical, the carrageen seaweed, is what makes our gin special. Also known by its scientific name Chondrus crispus, carrageen seaweed is a red algae native to the cool Atlantic waters skirting Europe’s rocky coastlines, including our beautiful Isle of Barra.  Like many of the other seaweed varieties found on the Scottish coast, carrageen is harvested after the spring tides, when the water is furthest from the shore. Once harvested, each piece of carrageen seaweed is washed through with fresh water and left outdoors for 5-6 weeks for the wind and sun to dry or ‘bleach’ as it is known on Barra. Once the carrageen has dried and has changed colour to a light white/purple it is then ready to be used to create our award-winning spirit, the Barra Atlantic Gin.  What is your next project?  Isle of Barra Single Malt Scotch Whisky  What are your plans for the next 12 months?  We’re working behind the scenes on a host of new projects, which we’ll be delighted to share with the public at a later date.  What is your biggest achievement?  Opening the Isle of Barra’s first legal Distillery. We’ve achieved so much from so little and are extremely proud of how far we’ve come. Our family run business has grown from strength to strength in just 4 short years since our launch and we’re looking to the future, to produce the first Single Malt Whisky from Barra.  What is your best-selling product/line?  Barra Atlantic Gin  Your experience of your first Country Living Fair (year, exhibiting or visiting)  We’ve exhibited at the Country Living Fair Glasgow a number of times now and have always had a positive experience and response. It’s become a regular show for us now!    What do you love about Country Living Fairs?  We find the Country Living Fair suits our product and brand very well. The customers that visit the Fair are always looking for that unique gift and our Gin is very well received. We enjoy the variety of exhibitors at the show and even manage a little shopping ourselves.  Your three top tips for crafters and makers…   Stay relevant with trends  Pour your heart & soul into your business and products Be confident in yourself and your work. Any advice for fledgling businesses…  Work hard, stay determined and it will all work out in the long run!  

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