Speciality Food - October 2025

THE LONDON HONEY CO PURE LONDON HONEYCOMB Straight from beehives on London’s rooftops and urban corners. This has bright, warm, citrussy notes. A wonderful way to finish a cake, muffins or traybake. londonhoneycombcompany.com FOODIE FLAVOURS CHAI Natural chai flavouring, ready to enhance cakes, icings, ice creams and even hot and cold drinks. foodieflavours.com POTION DE V MADAGASCAN PURE VANILLA EXTRACT Grade A vanilla pods mingle with Bourbon and are aged for a minimum of 18 months for the most intense vanilla flavour. As a bonus, the beans are in the jar to use too. potiondev.co.uk our customers create,” says Lauren Feather, head of creative at The Estate Dairy. Amission to create better quality dairy products was at the heart of the brand when it very first launched, explains Lauren, with its founders keen to demonstrate the difference that sourcing from passionate, specialityfoodmagazine.com 19 STOCK CHECK S P E C I A L I T Y F O O D M A G A Z I N E * 2 0 2 5 * THE BOTTLE BAKING CO COOKIES & CREME MUFFINS Hand crafted in Yorkshire. This handy bottle helps users create up to 16 yummy muffins packed with creamy Belgian white chocolate and Oreo pieces. bottledbaking.co.uk NIELSENMASSEY TAHITIAN VANILLA BEANS Picked and cured in Tahiti, these beans are hand-selected for their floral, fruity, cherry-like flavour, to enhance all kinds of dishes and bakes. nielsenmassey.com CANE & BEAN LEMON CRYSTALLISED SUGAR Freshly zested lemons combine with rich demerara sugar, delivering a tart, refreshing sweetness and deep caramel notes suited to all kinds of baking. caneandbean.uk MATTHEWS COTSWOLD FLOUR REGENERATIVE ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR The first four of its kind in the UK, made using regenerative wheat. Suits all kinds of baking, from biscuits, cakes and breads to pancakes. cotswoldflour.com CRAFT & CRUMB BAKE & STAMP BAKING & CRAFT KIT Ideal for keeping youngers busy in the kitchen, this kit contains everything you need to bake, decorate and personalise delicious biscuits. craftandcrumb.com THE ESTATE DAIRY UNHOMOGENISED WHOLE MILK Pure, natural and full of character, and left untouched to allow its rich and golden cream to gently rise to the top of the bottle. theestatedairy.com ALL THINGS BUTTER CINNAMON BUN Sweet, creamy and packed with all the delicious notes of cinnamon bun, this is wonderful used in frostings and fillings. Made using 100% British butter. allthingsbutter.co.uk Natural ingredients and a lack of artificial flavours and colours aremore attractive than ever to British shoppers small-scale farmers canmake. This dedication to quality shines through in the final products, with their investment of time and time- honoured skills in terms of culturing their butter and not homogenizing their milk clear for all to see and enjoy. “Our products bring a richer flavour to home bakes,” says Lauren, “and the fact that they’re more natural thanmass-produced dairy ingredients means that they’re more enjoyable to work with, too.” Every detail counts When it comes to flavouring bakes, quality is just as important as it is with the foundational ingredients says Nerene Willis, brand manager of Taylor & Colledge at RH Amar. “Shoppers are increasingly health conscious and looking for clean ingredients decks, which is where Taylor & Colledge extracts really shine,” she begins. “Natural ingredients and a lack of artificial flavours and colours are more attractive than ever to British shoppers, and while vanilla is our hero flavour” – and, arguably, the most popular flavour in British home baking – “our customers are also looking to experiment with other tastes.” The brand already has a hugely popular trio of flavours beyond vanilla – including almond, lemon and orange – but there is evenmore for home bakers to get excited about, with the launch of coconut and rose extracts on the horizon. With consumers getting more adventurous than ever, such extracts could become invaluable for time- poor shoppers who want to make great tasting and high quality bakes from store cupboard ingredients. Plus, shoppers – particularly those purchasing ingredients in fine food shops – aren’t any more likely to compromise when it comes to provenance of their extracts than they are their flours, so Taylor & Colledge’s 120-year history and sound sustainability credentials will stand them in good stead when it comes to consumer trust. SEASONALITY SELLS To some extent, we can all pinpoint on a calendar when certain home baking ingredients are going to fly off the shelves. Stir Up Sunday, which this year falls on 23rd November (mark your diaries), will no doubt see sales of dried fruit rise, but beyond that home baking tends to be a reasonably steady stream of opportunity. Jam making, however, is an underutilised opportunity for retailers. “September and October is peak jam-making season,” says Tudor, “and whether or not people are preserving their homegrown produce or not we always see a spike in preserving sugar sales.”