Primrose Creamery’s only two cheeses, Lindley and Eggleston, have both received the highest possible rating and separate Golden Fork nominations.
Welbeck-based artisan raw milk cheesemaker Primrose Creamery has been named among the top food and drink producers globally this year, picking up highly prized 3-star Great Taste awards for both Lindley and Eggleston. More than 15,000 products were entered into Great Taste 2026, with only 306 receiving the highest 3-star rating. From those entries, just 33 products were selected as Golden Fork nominees. Primrose Creamery secured two of those places, with Eggleston nominated for the Golden Fork from England and Lindley shortlisted for the Golden Fork for Outstanding Bursary Winner. Based on the Guild’s published results, this appears to make Primrose Creamery the most successful bursary recipient in the scheme’s history.
The Great Taste bursary scheme was established in 2023 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Great Taste. Following its ongoing success, this year the Guild of Fine Food again offered 50 micro producers the chance to put one new product in front of its expert panel of Great Taste judges for free.
The bursary programme was created for micro producers who have never entered Great Taste or have a new product which has never been judged before. The bursary panel, which consisted of Tom Newey, chief executive of Cobbs Farm Shops, Damian Blackburn, Director of Dark Woods Coffee and PR & marketing expert AJ Sharp, selected the 50 most eligible entries. The recipients of the bursary then participated in the same rigorous blind-tasting process as all the other entries, with judges unaware of their bursary status.
John Farrand, Managing Director at the Guild of Fine Food, comments:
“Now in its fourth year, the bursary scheme has become a well-established part of the wider Great Taste judging process. Everything we do at the Guild is geared towards celebrating excellent food and drink, and in particular supporting producers and retailers at the smaller or more artisanal end of the spectrum. The Great Taste bursary continues to be a leveller, offering the same opportunity to all. Every year, I am surprised by the ingenuity and creativity of our entries, and it gives me an enormous sense of pride to bear witness to those succeeding at the start of their journey to market.”
Over 15,000 products were put through the competition’s rigorous blind judging process, and both Lindley and Eggleston earned the highest possible rating at the world’s most coveted food and drink awards. Judges praised Lindley as “exceptionally creamy without losing its citrus, grassy notes”, while Eggleston was described as “complex and delicious”.
Lindley was celebrated as a “rich, buttery and exceptionally creamy soft cheese with a fine balance of citrus, grassiness and savoury depth.” Eggleston impressed with its “bright acidity, immense creaminess and bold, fermented savoury
notes, finishing with a clean, buttery richness.” Together, the two cheeses gave the judges both “intensity and freshness, with distinctive textures and flavours that continued to develop on the palate.”
Made in small batches with raw cow’s milk from the Welbeck Dairy, Lindley is enriched with Jersey cream for a dense, whipped texture, while Eggleston is a lactic-set soft cheese with a delicate orange rind and bright, evolving flavour. The pair were among just 41.15% of products entered to receive a Great Taste award in 2026, and both achieved the competition’s highest 3-star rating.
Recognised as a stamp of excellence and actively sought out by food lovers and retailers alike, the Great Taste accreditation scheme, organised by the Guild of Fine Food, values taste above all else. Each product is blind-tasted, with all its packaging removed, and undergoes a robust, layered judging process.
This year, judging took place over 105 days, with a panel of more than 800 judges putting entries to the test. The line-up saw food and drink products submitted from an extraordinary 116 different countries across the world.
The Great Taste logo is recognised by 58% of the UK adult population. Of those adults, 74% say a Great Taste award makes a product more tempting, 73% say the logo is a trustworthy recommendation and 54% use Great Taste as a signpost for discovering new products (YouGov, December 2025).
Lindley and Eggleston are available from Welbeck Farm Shop