New Flavour Launch - South Devon Basil Pesto
Our latest flavour which we have been working on for quite a while now has finally been released – hooray!
We actually started looking at doing a Basil pesto flavour back in late 2021, we were working closely with Tideford Organics and we were going to be using their pesto it took along time to get it all confirmed and have them on board but we did and we were really excited to be working with them on this new flavour.
We had done taste tests, got the flavour right, labels printed, we were ready to launch.
We got our first order in for the pesto in February 2022, BUT unfortunately Tideford’s had problems in their production warehouse and their machine that made the pesto was no longer in operation and to this day they haven’t been producing the pesto.
So due to this we had to knock that flavour on the head…for the time being anyway!
Earlier this year, we decided it was time to have a look at the flavour again, we did think about producing the pesto ourselves (but with having our Wholesale business to run also there wouldn’t really be enough time)
Summer 2022 I came across Janey at The Feast Kitchen, Deli
Janey started order from ‘Orchardlea‘ our Wholesale business, I then had a look at what she did and saw she had been a chef for many years and now does catering for all kinds of events.
We got into conversations about Basil Pesto, she said she made pesto that was vegan and nut free which sounded perfect as we want to try and keep the flavours vegan and to have them nut free is also a plus (there are a lot more things to think about when nuts are involved!)
Janey made us a small batch which we tried and then tested with the olives too and oh my word they tasted insane!
So we got very excited about the prospect of the basil pesto flavour again and couldn’t wait to launch.
Discontinued flavours
In the meantime we decided to discontinue Hand Stuffed Jalapeno.
Hand stuffed jalapeno was a slow seller, selling more via our website but not enough to justify producing and keeping this flavour.
We will be discontinuing flavours and re leasing new flavours, our core flavours and best sellers will stay the same.
So our new flavour South Devon Basil Pesto came at the right time as this could replace Hand stuffed jalapeno.
Launching South Devon Basil Pesto
So in May 2023 we launched our brand new flavour!
Even better we were launching our new flavour with a recognised food award too, we put in to the Taste of the West awards in March and got awarded GOLD! So a new award winning flavour.
It was a long time coming but we couldn’t be happier, we were really pleased to be working with Janey at Feast and to promote a much smaller local producer which is what we are and what we are all about.
This flavour is always flying out, we didn’t have much stock made for our first year at Devon County Show but what stock we did have was snapped up very quickly with most customers buying 2 or 3 packs!
We had basil pesto out to sample in stages at the Show and the feedback was absolutely amazing.
This flavour is now available to buy via our website or at many retailers across the South West, look out for our next blog which is actually going to be highlighting many stockists across the West Country where our olives can be purchased.
