A LOCAL bakery won gold at a blind tasting event recently.

Seery’s of Tinryland won the top spot in the Christmas cakes and puddings category at the fifth annual Blas na hÉireann national Irish food awards.

The SuperValu Supreme Christmas pudding, which is produced by Seery’s, was announced as the winner recently as part of the Dingle Peninsula Food Festival.

Blas na hÉireann is the biggest blind tasting competition of its kind in the world.

Seery’s puddings were among the more than 2,000 Irish products that entered 50 different categories.

A panel of 40 judges, made up of chefs, foodies and food scientists from UCC, blind tasted the puddings and crowned them the best in Ireland.

The local bakers, who take great pride in their puddings, employ 35 people at a custom built state-of-the-art bakery just outside Carlow town.

Recently, the tasty treats produced by the Tinryland based bakers have come in for sterling praise across the board, appearing in TV ads for Aldi and securing a contract to supply English supermarket chain Waitrose.