Awards

I still can’t quite believe it: three stars at the Great Taste Award, the top rating of the world’s most important taste competition, judged blind. In the past three years only 44 spices worldwide achieved this, three of them from our manufactory. Here you’ll find all eight awarded products.

 

Great Taste Awards: eight award-winning spices from the manufactory

Three stars at the Great Taste Award: the highest honour of the world’s most important taste competition. Over 14,000 products compete every year, tasted by hundreds of experts in London, blind, without label, without story. Only what’s on the spoon counts. Over the last three years, just 44 spices worldwide achieved three stars. Three of them are made by hand in Heiden. And no one had ever brought this award to Switzerland before.

Three times three stars: Smoked Salt, Kampot, Sichuan

The Druid Smoked Salt is my headstrong one: smoked over juniper wood, deep, aromatic, a salt like a campfire. The Fermented Kampot Pepper turns Cambodia’s legendary pepper into something of its own: juicy berries cured in sea salt, soft in texture with a salty crust. And the Green Sichuan Pepper tingles citrus-electric on the tongue: the jury in London was struck by it just like my customers in the shop. All three also reached the final of the Golden Forks, the award for the best products of the entire competition.

Two stars: Garam Masala

I roast and blend my Garam Masala by hand: coriander, white Kampot pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, mace, cloves. Exceptional, the jury ruled. I say: this is how Garam Masala should be.

One star: the blends with a signature

Four more blends carry one star and show the manufactory’s range: the Purple Curry with hibiscus and long pepper, the Chimichurri Spice Blend for everything off the grill, the BBQ Dark Meat blend with flor de sal and smoked salt, and the Roasted Vegetable Spice Blend that turns beetroot and carrots into a main course.

What the stars mean

One star means: outstanding. Two: exceptional. Three stars are reached by barely two percent of all entries; they stand for world class. For me, after two Michelin stars at the stove, they are the confirmation of a different craft: spices without additives, blended and processed by hand, and judged blind by Europe’s most critical palates.

 

Why do only eight spices carry an award, and not more?

At the Great Taste Award every product is registered, submitted and paid for individually. There is an entry fee for each product. For a small manufactory with over 400 varieties it is simply not feasible to submit everything. So I picked twelve and sent them to London. That eight came back with an award speaks for itself. And it says quite a lot about what the remaining varieties can do.

Why did your spices win this award of all things?

Because this is my craft, from beginning to end. Part of my work is finding the best raw materials in the world, from the best farmers. That was already the case in my time as a chef, and nothing about it has changed. The other part is the refining: getting the maximum out of a raw material, whether as a single spice that has to stand on its own, or as a blend in which every ingredient has its place. In the end everything has to be tuned to one thing: the taste of my customers. The jury in London tasted blind, it knew neither me nor my story. Apparently you can taste the craft anyway.

Are the award-winning spices more expensive now?

No, same prices. The award changes nothing about the calculation, it only confirms what was already in the jar.

Is there a gift set of the eight award-winning spices?

Yes. For the three three-star winners I have put together a gift box of its own: Druid Smoked Salt, Fermented Kampot Pepper and Green Sichuan Pepper in one box. And anyone who prefers to combine their own simply puts their box together: place the spices you want in the cart and state with your order which of them should go into a gift box. Packing is done by hand, like everything here.

Can I taste the award-winning spices before I buy them?

Yes. In the shop in Heiden all spices are open for smelling and tasting, the award-winning ones included. And at the markets in Zurich and Zug I am there in person on a regular basis. Come by, smell your way through and compare for yourself.

Can I verify the awards officially?

Yes. The Guild of Fine Food keeps a public directory of all award-winning products. There you will find our eight award-winning spices with their stars: Manufaktur Funke in the official Great Taste directory. Blind-tasted, independently confirmed, open for anyone to see.