Supplier Spotlight

KETTLER – SUPPLIERS OF HIGH QUALITY, LOW MAINTENANCE GARDEN FURNITURE

This season we are pleased to feature Kettler.  Kettler is a German group of steel manufacturing companies, originally formed in 1949.  Their product range includes fitness equipment, pedal cars and garden furniture, all of which have earned a reputation for quality, style and durability.

We have been stocking their premium range of Royal Garden furniture for 2 years on the recommendation of several customers, who told us that it has lasted them well over 15 years.  We have been extremely pleased both with its style and its zero maintenance qualities.  Every one of the products is hand forged and treated with one of their unique coatings to provide protection against rust.  This 3 ply coating provides a barrier up to 10 times thicker than normal powder coating.   All items are lightweight, guaranteed against rust for 5 years and can be left outdoors all year round.

The ranges we currently stock include the flagship Savoy fine metal mesh collection and the new resin weave Salernos and Ralosso sets.  None of these sets requires any maintenance, other than the application of the supplied touch up paint to scratches or chips, and can be cleaned using soap and water.  Some of the tables are even coated with a “Nanoclean” surface sealing system that is self cleaning and to which bird droppings, fruit juice and tree resin cannot stick.  How much more low maintenance can you get than that?

Cheshire Farm Ice Cream, Tattenhall, Chester

We are delighted to offer our customers the award winning 'Real Dairy' Cheshire Farm Ice Cream, a locally produced product. The ice cream is made using fresh whole milk and fresh cream, with only the finest ingredients carefully selected to ensure that they are free from artificial colours and flavours.

Described as being 'rich and creamy with a velvety texture' by celebrity chef Gilly Brookes, Cheshire Farm is available in over 30 refreshingly different flavours of luxury dairy ice cream and real fruit sorbets to suit all tastes. At Dunscar we offer an ever-changing selection of ice cream from Cheshire Farm to include:

• Strawberries & Cream
  
• Vanilla with pod
  
• Cointreau and Orange
  
• Malt Tease
  
• Stem Ginger
  
• Chocolate
  
• Mocha Coffee Bean
  
• Honeycomb
  
• Coconut
  
• Mint Choc Chip

At Christmas we can even offer the seasonal 'Christmas Pudding' flavour ice cream!

The Best of Taste Co, Oswestry

The ethos of The Best of Taste Co is to break away from the idea of dessert sauces as being sweet and syrupy and full of artificial ingredients, and to create a range of wholesome, really fruity and entirely natural products. The Best of Taste Co only use the best ingredients and just enough sugar to enhance rather than mask the wonderful natural tangy, zesty flavours and deep luscious colour of sun ripened fruit. All sauces are made by hand in small batches, without chemical, additives or preservatives. Choose from the wonderful selection of sauces below:

• Blackcurrant Coulis – Great Taste Award Gold Winner
  
• Mango & Passion Fruit Coulis – Great Taste Awards Silver Winner
  
• Raspberry Coulis – Great Taste Award Silver Winner
  
• Apricot Coulis
  
• Strawberry Coulis
  
• Cranberry & Orange Coulis with Cointreau
  
• Damson Coulis with Sloe Gin
  
• Black Cherry Coulis with Kirch
  
• Festive Jewelled Fruits in Madeira

The Old Smokehouse

Smoking evolved as a preserving process, the main preservative affect being the drying of the food. The art of smoking today is to avoid producing smoked food with a hard texture and no moisture; the art of the gourmet smoker is to create smoked food that takes on the deep rich smoke aroma and subtle flavours whilst maintaining its moisture and succulence.

The smoking of food is a delicate process requiring the very best cuts of meat and the highest quality game and fish to ensure a perfect end result.

Smoked food can be either cold smoked or hot smoked, or ‘smoke-roasted’ as it is sometimes known. The preparation for these two processes is the same. After brining, cold smoked food is put into the smoker and remains there for many hours or even days being enveloped by the smoke from the fires. Hot smoked food goes through the same process but after a few hours in the smoker the heat is turned up and the food is then gently roasted whilst it is smoking.

Although it can be re-heated, the best way to eat smoked food is at room temperature. If the food is taken straight from the fridge you will not get that wonderful smoky aroma and some of the flavours brought out by the smoking will be lost. For suggestions on how to serve smoked foods just ask any of the staff in the Garden Café.

Anyone for coffee? Spotlight on J Atkinson’s of Lancaster

As part of our strategy to buy locally wherever possible, for several years we have been buying our tea and coffee from J Atkinson’s of China Street in Lancaster. There they roast the coffee beans by hand and make up our own unique (and secret) blend of coffee for cappuccinos and lattés. We recommend it as a fantastic place to visit. Established in 1837, even today the delicious whiff of the sacks of coffee beans lying around quickly evokes images of coffee being unloaded in the Lancaster docks in Victorian times.

Atkinson's Tea & Coffee is that rare thing in an age of passing fads and fancies; it has withstood the many tests of time by offering only the highest quality products, knowing that satisfied customers will keep on coming back time and time again. It is a survivor of a bygone age - and is all the stronger for it.

It is also a specialist and what strikes you on entering the old shop on China St., in The Castle & Priory precinct of Lancaster, is a bewildering array of over 80 coffees and 150 teas. You'll find things here you won't find anywhere else, certainly not in the mainstream on supermarket shelves. For you have entered a backwater, where the pace is a little slower and a purchase becomes a conversation as knowledgeable staff quiz you to match the right tea or coffee to your tastes and then weigh out the desired amount in front of you on the old scales in the time honoured fashion.

You'd be mistaken however, in thinking this is just a quaint museum of relics, for behind the scenes lies a hectic, hard working roastery meeting the needs of customers up and down the region. Every bean is roasted here on the premises on direct flame roasters, some dating back to the 1930's and this particular roasting style along with careful attention to detail give Atkinson's coffee their unique flavour profiles. We are proud to serve their coffees and teas to our customers.

Click here to read an article from the times on J Atkinson's of Lancaster

Spotlight on Floris, Perfumers to the Royal Family

In 1730, Juan Famenais Floris arrived in London from the island of Minorca, setting up shop as a gentleman’s barber at 89 Jermyn Street. Floris’ name quickly became a byword for style amongst London’s fashionable high society, selling combs, shaving brushes, razor-strops and tooth brushes to the well heeled.

But the original Mr Floris soon sought to recreate the scents and memories of his Mediterranean past, blending oils, essences and fixatives imported from Europe, into the finest range of perfumes. As this small business flourished, Floris expanded into property, buying either side of 89 Jermyn St, and letting the premises to wealthy lodgers. Soon, news of Floris’ skills reached the ears of London’s well to do and the shop was doing a roaring trade in fine perfumery and accessories.

The Floris ledgers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries testify to the fact that Floris consistently provided for a host of public figures, including most of the European Royalty of the time. The writer Mary Shelley is said to have requested Floris’ combs on her travels and Florence Nightingale thanked Mr Floris for his ‘repeated nosegays of beautiful sweet-smelling roses with which you have cheered my sickbed.’ Other more recent eminent figures include Errol Flynn, Laurence Olivier and Bob Hope. In fiction Ian Fleming portrayed James Bond as always wearing Floris No. 89. Floris has continued to supply a distinguished clientèle throughout its career; customers include icons such as Oscar Wilde, Sir Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Eva Peron and Jackie Kennedy and more recently Joanna Lumley, Anna Ford, Mick Jagger and Terry Wogan. It is this tradition of providing the finest goods for the finest people that has made the Floris name famous. Since its conception in the 17th Century, Floris has supplied Royalty with its premium range of toiletries. J.Floris was granted its first Royal Warrant in 1820 and has since continued to hold at least one Royal Warrant. Indeed Floris currently has two Royal Warrants. They are: Perfumers to HM The Queen Elizabeth II and Manufacturers of Toilet Preparations to HRH The Prince of Wales.

Today the company continues to bloom, still owned by the same family and trading from the original premises at Jermyn Street. A second Floris store, in the style of the first, was opened in New York in 1986 situated in the fashionable district of Madison Avenue.