Each year, around this time, the heart of international gastronomy beats in London, at the international culinary competition Great Taste Awards which awards the best and the highest quality products in the world, while being a reference point for gourmet food and has been characterized as the “Oscars of Taste”.
The awards with the 1, 2 and 3 Gold Stars of the Great Taste Awards are equivalent to the Michelin stars of awarded restaurants (“Great Taste is to specialty food and drink what Michelin is to fine dining”).
The internationally famed taste competition Great taste Awards is organized by the Guild of Fine Food since 1994, and is the world’s largest, longest standing and most respected food accreditation scheme for artisan and specialty food and drink producers.
The Great Taste Awards are internationally renowned for their objectivity and validity, since they relate exclusively to the product’s taste, without reference to the packaging, branding or logo, since it is not the marketing result that is judged, but exclusively the taste and quality of the products.
Indicative of the recognition of the awards is that the establishment is supported by the word-renowned Harrods of London, as well as the well-known department store Fortnum & Mason, along with other gourmet food department stores and large food companies worldwide.
This year, more than 500 expert panel tasters, which consisted of expert food critics, chefs, restaurant owners, producers, cookbook authors, and many culinary journalists, rated the products through the blind tasting procedure, in which they tasted, consulted and re-tasted, in order to decide which products are worthy to be awarded.
For 120 days, from March until the end of June, more than 15,000 high quality products were professionally tasted with the blind tasting procedure, specifically 15,038 food products from 90 countries worldwide, in order to present the gold star awards, which offer every product awarded international recognition.
The incredibly high rate of difficulty for a product to be awarded in this competition was confirmed in 2026, since only about 10 out of 100 products were awarded with 2 Gold Stars from the total of +15,000 products which participated in the competition, corresponding to a rate of 10% approximately. As always, a rate of less than 25% of the participating products was awarded with 1 Gold Star, which also constitutes a very high distinction.
Sakellaropoulos Organic Farms, who have been awarded in the past with a total of 43 Gold Star awards in the Great Taste Awards, participated one more time with their organic table olives and were honored with 2 very high but also unique Gold Star awards, thus completing the unique number of 45 Great Taste Awards in total.
They are the only Greek multi-award winning olive producer to have been honored with a total of 45 Gold Star awards from the Great Taste Awards competition in London.
In detail, the award-winning Sakellaropoulos table olives for 2026 are:
UNSALTED Kalamata Olives - 2 Gold Stars
It is worth noting that the UNSALTED Kalamata Olives by Sakellaropoulos are the only Greek olives to be awarded 2 Gold Stars for 2026 in the entire olive category, receiving excellent comments from the judges and tasters of the Great Taste Awards, while remaining the only table olives without added salt to have been awarded twice in the famous London competition.
Excerpt from the final review for the UNSALTED Kalamata olives by Sakellaropoulos Organic Farms:
“The judges were really interested to try these unusual olives. The olives were really plump, giving up their stones easily. The blend of herbs was really well chosen, complementing the subtle flavour of the olives. These carefully-tended Kalamata olives are an absolute joy to encounter. The olive oil in itself is evidently of great quality, and the meld of brine and oil would, on its own, make a wonderful salad dressing. We really could not fault these.”
TELIES Gourmet Olives - 1 Gold Star
TELIES gourmet olives by Sakellaropoulos Organic Farms received an important distinction of 1 Gold Star at the Great Taste Awards in London for 2026, with excellent reviews from judges and tasters in the United Kingdom.
It is worth noting that TELIES olives have been awarded over time at the Great Taste Awards, in as many times as they have participated in the famous competition.
Excerpt from the final review for TELIES olives by Sakellaropoulos Organic Farms:
“These olives have an enjoyable texture – soft with a bit of a chew. We enjoyed the brine and olive oil, with notes of wild herbs. However, we enjoyed the flavour and texture, and they make for a moreish eating experience. These plump olives have a great texture and strong flavour, with plenty of deep savoury umami notes that never descend into too much bitterness. The marinade is well judged, with vinegar and quality olive oil present and correct.”
The announcement of the results from this renowned competition in the UK, justifies the efforts of Sakellaropoulos Organic Farms to create unique taste combinations for their olive products, while it is now clear that their organic and gourmet table olives belong to the global elite of gourmet foods.
At the same time, the two (2) specific gold star awards at the Great Taste Awards in London complete the unique number of 1,442 international awards for Sakellaropoulos Organic Farms, in recognized, prestigious competitions around the world, marking a world record of awards for an olive producer.
