Williams & Taylor Artisanal Hampers

Hi foodies,

I flipped through my post and realised that I have not posted on product reviews for a long while. However, I recently found something really South Australian and really savoury (and sweet :D), Williams & Taylor Artisanal Hampers!

How did I find them? This may sound like a drama but it is true – Instagram! I recently (finally) got my way on to Instagram and found it is really addicting – do you find the same? If you are interested in what we have for instagram, check us out.

Coming back onto the hampers, Williams and Taylor is active on Instagram too. You can find them here. So what’s so special about the hampers? I would say love – The love that the owner, Neil Williams, has put into selecting the products of the hampers.

Williams and Taylors is a small business based in Adelaide Hills and is proud of their philosophy ‘slow food movement’. What this means is that they select only high quality locally sourced ingredients. According to Neil, everything the business sources are from a 50km radius of Adelaide – and no further. I did try to draw a circle around Adelaide – mostly in the hills and around Fleurieu Peninsula.

To be honest, I like their philosophy a lot. You all know I am a big supporter to use local ingredients wherever possible and love to introduce South Australian local business to my readers.

Williams and Taylor is doing the same thing by sourcing locally produced boutique small production goodies and by delivering to your doorway. Customers get the real taste of what South Australia has to offer.

If you want to check Williams and Taylor’s hampers out, visit this page.

With every hampers, you also get this farm gate chart to let you know where your goods are coming from! So cute!

This time, I got their Taste of the Region Wide hamper to review.

Looking at the package, I was surprised with the attention to details that the business has got – It is very beautiful, isn’t it? I had a look at this quality package, elegance color and presentation are what made me wanting to check what’s inside. So, here you go!

The hamper contains a sparking, Lois Blancs de Blanc sparkling white from The Lane of Balhannah. The Lane Vineyard is a young vineyard but their techniques in wine making, to me, is quite mature. This wine exhibits clear lemon flavour on the palate with obvious acidity. It is great for serving with a seafood entree – an oyster dish would be fantastic to go with the wine as an appetizer 🙂 Good selection!

With the hamper, I also got Hardings olive oil from Willunga. Hardings Fine Foods has been around since 1996 and produce olive oils and nuts based fine food in Willunga. This olive oil was produced from the owner, Tony Hardings’ own olive grove. I had a try of the olive oil with bread – absolutely delicious! Since the opening, I tried salad and dressing for a steak dish. They all worked perfectly, especially with the steak dish as the olive flavour has all been penetrated into the dish. Good choice!

Almond dukkah? This is the first time I saw almond being blended into dukkah but I tell you the flavour was great! The nuttiness from the almond is a perfect addition to the dukkah. I even tried it with the olive oil on break – totally mind blowing! I am now thinking whether I should do a dukkah coated pan seared lamb or sardine antipasto with this dukkah. Emmm…. 😀 You can also find Two Hill and A Creek in Willunga or on Facebook. Really great choice!

Below is a hive honey 100% raw. I cannot believe how creamy this honey is! This one was perfectly creamed and unfiltered but tasted just like a delicacy. It is quite delicious every time I put on the palate and I would think it could go quite well with a grilled cheese dish or simply being on the bread. This one came from a very small boutique provider in the Adelaide Hills. Having said all these, I should also mention the little wooden spoon – how cute!

Wait a minute? Did I miss something? Uhh, nuts – to me, a food hamper always goes well together with nuts to blend all flavours and increase the crunchiness. This Port Willunga Fine Foods smoked almonds is a fantastic addition to the hamper. Port Willunga Fine Foods story started back to the 1980s and since then has become one of South Australia’s iconic fine food producers. The almonds are moderately spiced and smoked to perfection – I can detect the smokiness easily on the nose. They are crunchy and went quite well with the sparkling. Perhaps almond oyster with the sparkling would be fantastic on the menu? Think about it!

The last but not the least – Red Cacao 5 chocolate selection from chocolatier Marcus Booth-Remmers, based in Stirling. Oh my lovely Stirling – it is one of my most loved suburb in the hills. The Stirling market is also a great place to go to spend a weekend on. These little chocolate creatures are amazing with various techniques applied to them. The inner centres are my joy when tasting these things as I can always taste the love the producer has to his profession/product! To be honest, Tina and I went around, bite and checked what’s what inside these chocolates. What a treat! They paired perfectly with the sparkling as the acidity and lemon flavour neutralised the bitterness from the chocolate well, leaving a moderately long lasting cream cocoa bean flavour on my palate. My favourite!

This ‘Taste of the Region Wide’ hamper, to me, is a perfect gift for someone who genuinely love South Australian produce and according to Neil, this is the best seller of Williams and Taylor outside Christmas! Oh, I saw on Adelaide Convention Bureau’s instagram that they got one of this hamper as well!

If you are interested in their hampers, you can contact Williams and Taylor via here.