A UCD graduate from Shankill in Dublin has won PROPERCORN‘s Institute of Flavour competition, fighting off fierce competition from more than 12,000 entrants across the UK and Ireland.
Ashling O’Carroll, a 21 year old corporate sales executive, will now see her signature seasoning hit supermarket shelves as a limited edition PROPERCORN flavour from October 2016.
A panel of top food judges selected Ashling’s ‘Twisted Honeycomb’ to represent Ireland against regional winners from Wales, Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and a single winner from the brand’s pop-up popcorn factory. After 16,000 public votes, her flavour came out on top.
‘Twisted Honeycomb’ combines the irresistible taste of honeycomb with sea salt and vanilla sugar. When describing how she came up with the flavour, Ashling noted: “I’ve always had a sweet tooth and love to bake, which is where the inspiration came from.”
The Institute of Flavour invited entrants to take on the role of tastemaker, creating their very own signature seasoning in PROPERCORN’s online virtual flavour factory. Journeying through the spice shelves, the bitters and sweets of the flavour library, all who entered were guided through a step-by-step flavour making process, choosing from 300,000 flavour combinations, before submitting their seasoning for judging.
Cassandra Stavrou, co-founder of PROPERCORN, explained: “We were totally overwhelmed by the huge range of delicious and inventive flavours submitted as part of our nationwide search. Ashling’s flavour stood out from the very beginning and she is a truly deserving winner. We’ll be spending the next few weeks in our kitchen making Twisted Honeycomb a reality and ensuring it’s as good as it can be before it lands on shelves this autumn.”
Ashling’s winning flavour will be available to purchase in selected Spar, Eurospar, Mace and Londis stores, as well as through the PROPERCORN website, www.propercorn.com.