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Champion producers.

Plenty of big-name bands start out playing gigs in bars to small groups of in-the-know fans before getting their big break and being signed to a label. Ingredients often undergo a similar rite of passage – making their debut on the restaurant scene before crossing over into retail and becoming a household name. That’s the trajectory on which Belazu put its sour cherry molasses a couple of years ago.

UK-based Belazu has been supplying Mediterranean and Middle Eastern ingredients such as fresh olives, top quality oils, vinegars, pestos, nuts and pastes for 30 years. The company’s products have long been a favourite of the delicious. food team.

After launching in the catering world in 2022, the sweet-sharp sour cherry molasses quickly became a sought-after ingredient across Belazu’s restaurant customers, including The Botanist and Mallow restaurant groups, and Cinder in north London. Buoyed by this success, Belazu bottled the ingredient for retail in 2023 and secured listings with Waitrose and Ocado – and last year it won the coveted Golden Fork For England in the Great Taste Awards.

“We have a strong catering background and launch ingredients into high-end restaurants, casual dining chains and hotels first to get the seal of approval from chefs before making those same ingredients available for home cooks to enjoy,” says Daniela Gattegno, head innovation chef at Belazu. She adds: “The sour cherry molasses is a chef-grade ingredient that started life in professional kitchens.”

It was during a research trip to Turkey that the Belazu team first discovered sour cherries and had the idea of making a syrup from them, similar to pomegranate molasses, an ingredient that features in Middle Eastern cuisine.

“We wanted to capture this flavour and so, based on the ever-growing popularity in the UK of Belazu’s own pomegranate molass