Caliente Bitters secures Great Taste success after entering through bursary scheme

 Judged by the experts, Caliente Bitters is awarded a Great Taste 1-star in the world’s most coveted food and drink awards.

London-based chilli bitters start-up, Caliente Bitters, has been named among the top food and drink producers globally this year, picking up a highly prized 1-star Great Taste award.

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 Caliente Bitters was dubbed as having “a complex and well-managed chilli character” at the world’s most coveted food and drink awards. 4,286 products were awarded a Great Taste 1-star – ‘simply delicious’, 1,596 were awarded a Great Taste 2-star – ‘outstanding’, and 306 were awarded a Great Taste 3-star – ‘exquisite’.

Described as “so enticing”, Caliente Bitters was a big hit with the Great Taste judges. Handcrafted with 5 different chillies and made from a recipe originating in the Yucatan peninsula, it was one of just 41.15% of products entered to have received a Great Taste award in 2026.

What is Great Taste?

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).

Caliente Bitters is available from Venus, Amathus, The Whisky Exchange, and the Caliente Bitters website.

For more information about Caliente Bitters, visit calientebitters.com.

The full list of this year’s winners and where to buy them can be found at www.gff.co.uk/directory and a wide range of the award-winning products are available to buy in delis, farm shops and independent retailers across the country.