We have always been told to celebrate the small victories along the way and as a company we were very fortunate to win Great Taste Awards in both our 1st and 2nd year as a business. This was amazing for us and validated our products and provided some feedback on where we might be able to improve our product.
Unfortunately we could not make it a hat trick of years as we didn't win any this year. We have to admit it did hit us hard as we really pride ourselves on the flavour of our products and we try and ensure that every batch we make tastes as good as it can.
Now we have gotten over the fact we didn't win any this year it has provided us with some more steel and determination to ensure that our products have the most incredible taste that you can find.
Since we received our feedback we have made minor changes to a couple of products hopefully this will address any of the concerns that were raised and increase the flavour profile even more.
If you hadn't noticed from this post so far flavour is super important for us so we are always looking for feedback from people we meet and we have done many events,farmers markets and shows to gather as much information from people to trying and give people a product that not only we like but one that other people like too.
Just a word of warning on this front. When making a product there is no point in making a product that tries to please everyone.
We have been trying to carve our own niche and we are the only company that we have found that makes a Preserved Chutney of any sorts. In doing this it means you will come across people that don't quite get what you are trying to do as they don't know what it should taste like they only know if they like it or not (sometimes they can't even decide that). The other problem you will get is that people are unsure on how to use it. So alongside marketing the product you have to provide a bit of education on how the product can be used this is something that we were not prepared for when starting this journey and a big part of this blog is to try and educate people on our products and how they can be used.
Awards are a big part of any industry and winning them always gives you that little boost and bit of validation that you sometimes need when embarking on the long and arduous (but ultimately fulfilling) journey of being a start-up (we don't think it makes any difference if the start-up is in food or any other sector).
Going forward we will continue making the best products we can and we want to make things that are exciting and different really pushing people and challenging their tastebuds. We will continue putting ourselves out there and hopefully over time people will come to see what we are doing and this will in turn give us not only critical acclaim (in the way of awards and press), but our products will hopefully find their way into your home on a regular basis so that you can experience what we experience everytime we eat our products. That would be the real win for us.
A big part of our business has always been that when you eat our food you become a member of our family.
Every day has its own reward and every time a customer buys and enjoys our product is an award in itself.
So we would like to extend a big welcome to you for when you decided to join the Dips' family.
